Taiwanese dessert cafes have been popping up all over the Vancouver area. The most popular addition has been Blackball Taiwanese Dessert. Naturally, I was curious about what the hype was about so I decided to head over to the Kingsway location of Blackball Taiwanese Dessert.
I’m used to bars having Happy Hour but they have Happy hour here too! From 2-5pm Monday to Friday, the Blackball Signature crushed ice, Pearls grass jelly, Agar aiyu jelly, Grass jelly milk tea and Wintermelon lemon tea are up to 50% off!
The menu at Blackball is simple. They offer crushed ice, grass jelly, aiyu jelly and tofu topped with an assortment of toppings. The toppings include sweet potato balls, taro balls, red bean, coconut jelly, pearls, aloe vera, mini pearls, fresh taro and fresh sweet potato. You can choose to have a pre-set dessert or you can create your own by adding toppings for $1.50 each.
Blackball anni tofu
The silken tofu on this dessert was extremely soft and in the cutest dome shape. It came with fresh sweet potato chunks, pearls and red bean. Grayson thought that it was a bit sweet for his liking because of all the syrup. He would have preferred it ore if there wasn’t as much brown sugar syrup.
Blackball aiyu jelly
The Blackball aiyu jelly dessert came with pearls, coconut jelly, aloe vera, yam balls, and taro balls. The aiyu jelly had a soft texture and had a lemon-y flavour to it. The pearls were chewy, and aloe vera added a nice textural element. In my opinion, the coconut jelly made the dessert far too sweet. I was really looking forward to the yam and taro balls. Unfortunately, they were firm in texture and I wasn’t a fan. I prefer the ones from ZenQ.
Almond soup
Almond soup is easily one of my favourite HK style desserts because of it’s velvety texture. The one from Blackball however had a thick clumpy consistency which made it almost seem like a loose pudding. The soup came with a big helping of taro QQ balls, sweet potato QQ balls, mochi balls and blanched peanuts. The contrast of all the flavours and textures together made the dessert perfect for a windy spring day. I would have enjoyed it more if it had a looser consistency but it was still pretty enjoyable!
Overall, our visit to Blackball was pretty good. We liked the classic dessert options and the happy hour offers. Each dessert ranges from $8.50 – 24.50 which is comparable to cafes with similar options. I do wish that there was an option to have the desserts unsweetened as they became too sweet for us half way through.
