Founded in 2007 in central Taiwan, Meet Fresh has also been rapidly expanding and franchising around the world in the last few years. With the chain making its own brown sugar tapioca balls in house, it’s a concept that has proved popular elsewhere. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. The two chains will open within about a block of each other — the Alley on Guy Street at Ste-Catherine, and Meet Fresh just west on the corner of Ste-Catherine and St-Mathieu. The rapid expansion could be due to a general focus on quality: the Alley makes its own brown sugar-infused tapioca balls on-site each day: the tapioca pearls are cooked in brown sugar “lava” for two hours. By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. It offers an array of fruit teas and bubble teas (also known as boba). Downtown Montreal has a new bubble tea destination, with Taiwanese import The Alley now open on Guy Street, by Concordia University. You can also pick ice amounts, sugar amounts and boba amounts. Throw in a logo befitting of any third-wave coffee shop in town, and it’s clear the Alley is going for a sophisticated take on sweet tea. At $6, it might be a little more expensive than the average bubble tea, but not wildly so; portions are reasonable, too. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. The Alley is a relatively young chain, founded in Taiwan in 2015 and focusing strictly on (mostly sweet) teas. Downtown Montreal has a new bubble tea destination, with Taiwanese import The Alley now open on Guy Street, by Concordia University. newsletter, A Growing Number of Montreal Restaurants Boycott Nova Scotia Commercial Fisheries Over Violence Against Indigenous Lobstermen, Lucille’s Oyster Dive, Maestro’s SVP, and Beba were the latest to pledge their support to the Mi’kmaq tribe, Montreal Restaurants Continue to Grapple With Delivery in the Pandemic Age, "You can’t judge what anybody does — as long as it’s lawful — to keep their business alive", Damas Is Opening its Anticipated Comptoir in the Former Les Fillettes Space, The revered Syrian restaurant will also start selling pomegranate molasses, sun-dried Aleppo pepper paste, and other groceries online, Two Taiwanese Sweets Chains Are Setting Their Sights on Montreal, The Newest Restaurants, Bars, and Cafés for Montreal in 2019, A New Bagel Shop Has Very Boldly Decided to Open in Mile End, Verdun Has a Hot New Argentine- and Mediterranean-Tinged Neighbourhood Resto, Vegan Chef and Cheesemaker Says Competitor Stole Her Packaging Design, Beloved Taco Garage and Truck Grumman 78 Is ‘Closing Its Doors and Hanging Up Its Tires’, Quebec French Language Watchdog Issues First Restaurant Fine Since Announcing Budget Boost. A duo of Taiwanese tea and dessert chains will soon vie for supremacy in downtown Montreal, with new imports Meet Fresh and the Alley planning to open right near Concordia University. The chain is just four years old (its first location opened in Taiwan in 2015), yet it’s making substantial international expansions — in Canada, it has numerous locations in the Toronto area, plus one each in Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver; it has also been moving into the U.S. market, too. The Alley already has a number of locations around the Greater Toronto Area, and also has expansions to Alberta and Vancouver in the works. A Fancy Pants Taiwanese Bubble Tea Chain Has Landed Downtown, Sign up for the A range of black, green, and oolong teas are on the menu; the Royal No 9 is one of the chain’s staples, featuring black tea roasted with blueberries. We got an Alley Trio Milk Tea and I am now a jelly convert. The … The Alley is a relatively young chain, founded in Taiwan in 2015 and focusing strictly on (mostly sweet) teas. The two new chains join a Taiwanese cohort in Montreal that counts another teahouse, Presotea, in Chinatown, as well as fried chicken spot Hot Star, also in Shaughnessy Village. It's boba (bubble) tea but with adult tea flavors. The Alley/Supplied. It seems the chain is trying to cultivate a wholesome image for itself, noting prominently that it makes its own brown sugar cane syrup in place of other artificial syrups — the teahouse also hand-makes its own tapioca balls for use in its teas. Two Taiwanese Sweets Chains Are Setting Their Sights on Montreal, Sign up for the While many of the Alley’s menu items are sweet, unsweetened options are offered too. Our distinctive drinks are attributed to this process, in order for you to … Every beverage from The Alley has a story of more than 500 days starting from the harvest of the tea leaves, the processing and aging of the leaves, the infusion of flavours to the selection of ingredients and their ratios. The menu isn’t all milky, either — a range of iced drinks like the Apple of my Eye, made with honey, apple cider vinegar, aloe, and more — sweet options like this are generally not cloyingly sugary, though. Many of the boba tea places have sugary and cute flavors that seem more catered toward kids but The Alley had higher end, adult flavors. There’s also a general focus on quality tea, which goes through a 500-day process from harvesting through roasting. We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. Beyond a variety of milky and fruity drinks, it’ll serve a variety of popular Taiwanese desserts spanning from purple rice pudding to taro balls, shaved ice topped with red beans, and waffles. newsletter, 1805 Rue Ste-Catherine O, Montreal, QC H3H 2H9, A Growing Number of Montreal Restaurants Boycott Nova Scotia Commercial Fisheries Over Violence Against Indigenous Lobstermen, Lucille’s Oyster Dive, Maestro’s SVP, and Beba were the latest to pledge their support to the Mi’kmaq tribe, Montreal Restaurants Continue to Grapple With Delivery in the Pandemic Age, "You can’t judge what anybody does — as long as it’s lawful — to keep their business alive", Taiwanese Bubble Tea Chain Presotea Is Taking on Montreal, Stylish Taiwanese Bubble Tea Chain to Open First NYC Outpost in Noho, Asian Dessert Cafe Debuts This Weekend in Mira Mesa, Damas Is Opening its Anticipated Comptoir in the Former Les Fillettes Space, Vegan Chef and Cheesemaker Says Competitor Stole Her Packaging Design, Beloved Taco Garage and Truck Grumman 78 Is ‘Closing Its Doors and Hanging Up Its Tires’, Quebec French Language Watchdog Issues First Restaurant Fine Since Announcing Budget Boost. In just four years it has quickly spread to Japan, China, the U.S., and Australia, and already numbers over 300 locations. As for Meet Fresh, that chain is more of a hybrid, focusing on both desserts and tea. They then feature in the chain’s “deerioca” tea, a trio of sweet options including a regular sweet, milky tea, a matcha option, and a “creamy” option that’s adjacent to a crème brûlée. (It should be noted that the name of this drink and the chain’s deer head logo is not an attempt to score Canadiana points — it has been the Alley’s logo all along.). It has just three locations within Canada, all in Ontario — Montreal is its first expansion outside that province. STATUS — The Alley is open at 1256 Guy (corner Ste-Catherine) from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.