Food & Drink: Next-level boba tea has come to the Couv

The first stop on my boba tour of Vancouver was River Maiden. I remembered seeing something on their social media about a Boba Fett drink that looked like the one at Boba Guys. I arrived at River Maiden and owner Melissa Layman came up to me and said, “I was just about to message you about that boba tea photo you posted on Instagram. How was it?” It was like I’d somehow sent her a telepathic message while I was in San Francisco thinking about writing this article. Things were getting weird, but in the best way.

River Maiden has a similar, Boba Guys-inspired drink, and it’s called Boba Fett (in true pop culture-inspired River Maiden fashion). This drink has a layer of high-quality matcha (from Mizuba Matcha in Portland), Oatly oat milk and housemade fruit syrup (currently plum). The layers weren’t straight lines, like in San Francisco, but a bit tie-dyed (more Couv-y and groovy).

This boba tea was worthy of a cult-like following, and I didn’t have to wait in line for an hour to get it. The housemade plum syrup was a perfect match for the refreshing matcha, and the oat milk added a nice, light creaminess to the mix (and made the drink vegan). Layman, a native of Yakima Valley, understands how fruit changes as it ripens and instinctively knows the peak time to use a fruit for syrup; she’s currently waiting for some peaches to ripen for the next Boba Fett syrup.

I wasn’t able to find any other next-level boba tea in Vancouver. The other stores I visited were old school in their use of artificial sweeteners (making their drinks taste like melted Jolly Rancher candy) and low-quality, metallic-tasting matcha.

However, if you are looking for a good traditional milk tea, I recommend Braganza Tea at Vancouver Mall. I had the matcha milk tea with boba and the traditional (black) milk tea. According to their sign, they make new boba every four hours to ensure it is fresh. The matcha was creamy and sweet, as high-quality matcha should taste. I also liked the traditional milk tea. The boba in both drinks was a nice size and consistency. Although I only intended to taste these milk teas (because I planned on a couple of other boba stops), I ended up finishing them, sucking all the little boba balls through the thick plastic lavender straw, like Ms. Pac Man surging with caffeine.

Rachel Pinsky can be emailed at couveeats@gmail.com. You can follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @couveeats.