Dining Advice, Tips, Recommendations, and News
PrintBest Boba Teahouses in Southern Cali
Scattered near Southern Cali college campuses like UCI and UCLA, Asian-style bubble teahouses stay open late, serving the student community. They go through boxes of extra-fat straws, wide enough to fit tapioca balls or "boba" as it's often called, about the size of marbles. Stab their fluorescent-colored straws into cellophane-wrapped plastic cups which is filled with traditional flavors (green or black milk tea) or fruitier options (lychee, honeydew, mango).
Gummy and gelatinous, the tapioca boba bubbles sitting at the bottom of each cup symbolize a cultural staple for young Asians in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and all over California. For only about two bucks, the drink (hot or cold) is just as important as the scene—brightly-lit with comfy couches, usually blasting techno music. It’s the coffee shop alternative, with fat straws involved.
Here's a round-up of favorite boba hangouts in Southern Cali.
Lollicup
Address: 14805 Jeffrey Rd # A, Irvine, CA and multiple locations
Website: lollicup.com
As one of the first Westernized boba spots, the national chain now has more than 80 locations. Southern Cali is still their home base, but they're branching out. Flavor-wise, they’re branching out too—they’ve got 170. Since Lollicop staffers realize tapioca balls are an acquired taste for first-timers, they'll gladly let you order any drink boba-less.
Tapioca Express
Address: 2636 Dupont Dr, Irvine, CA and multiple locations
Website: tapiocaexpress.com
Like Lollicup, this ain't a mom-and-pop boba chain. It's as widespread in the 7-1-4 SoCal area code as Taco Bell. Some critics will note that boba her can clump up into a massive, annoying nucleus. Still a classic chain.
Tea Station
Address: 73 Fortune Dr # 101, Irvine, CA and multiple locations
Website: teastation.us
They use real tea (no powders or just-add-water stuff) and brew leaves to order. Located at a pedestrian-frenzied outdoor mall-cum-theater-cum-food court called Irvine Spectrum, it's a fun Friday night hangout. Plus they've got an outdoor patio for warm Orange County nights.
Boba Loca
Address: 9520 Garden Grove Blvd, Garden Grove, CA and multiple locations
Website: bobaloca.com
The bright cartoonish website is a lot like the boba experience in general—colorful with crazy dance party beats. They claim their flavors are low in fat, not usually the agenda for boba franchises.
Jumpin Boba
Address: 11900 South Street Suite 125, Cerritos, CA
Website: jumpinboba.com
Some might call this mini-chain a sell-out, given their menu of coffee and tea, not to mention croissants, cookies, bagels and other blocks of carbs. Where’s the boba hidden in that menu? They still have a good selection of flavor staples.
About the author: Erin Zimmer is our Washington, D.C. correspondent, where she is a new media analyst and frequently writes for Washingtonian, DCist and other local publications. While Georgetown's food columnist, she investigated the cafeteria's omelet station, Hoya coffeeshop's cultish pumpkin muffins and what exactly the basketball players eat.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
11 Comments:
Oh, I miss good boba so much! But mine came from a shop in Arcadia, CA and for the life of my I can't remember what it was called. Anyone know of a good place in Manhattan?
LizNYC at 2:47PM on 02/19/08
My husband swoons for Boba Tea now since he had it last fall in Taiwan. I found a place here in Tucson that sells it, but I'm sure he'd love to try some of these places out if he's in SoCal.
jmoilanen at 3:01PM on 02/19/08
LizNYC, Whenever I'm in NYC, one of my first stops is St. Alps Teahouse (3rd Avenue, between 9th and 10th, east side of the street); it's actually the only bubble tea place place I've ever been to, so I don't know how it compares to other places. My favourite is actually the herbal jelly with the tapioca on top.
mongoose at 3:50PM on 02/19/08
I tried it for the first time at Lollicup in the Central Valley, Calif. I like the coconut milk tea. The boba make the drink last longer, making it more enjoyable!
misseditor at 5:06PM on 02/19/08
Ah, no love for San Diego, yet again! :(
Anyway, I'm a pretty simple boba tea drinker-- I like iced green tea with fat pearls of tapioca, no milk needed. Jasmine tea with milk is a pretty tasty alternate, though. Of course, there are a ton of good boba tea places in the Clairemont Mesa area of San Diego, especially Tea N More (Free wi-fi and comfy couches! And it's right next door to a huge Chinese grocery store, 99 Ranch). I also like Sipz in Clairemont Mesa if you're looking to get some delicious vegetarian Asian food in addition to your tasty beverage.
Lorena at 5:27PM on 02/19/08
Chinatown in NYC has a couple of decent boba tea places.
Pretty much any bakery/coffee shop in the area has it...actually...you can probably find it in just about any restaurant in Chinatown, its that trendy.
However, I have to say Mott Street has the best boba tea.
Tea & Tea at 54 Mott Street (used to be called Saints Alp Tea House, but has changed ownership several times it seems) has a wide variety of trendy teas, drinks and small plates popular with the young crowd in places like Taiwan and Hong Kong. The boba milk tea here is particularly rich and not overly sweet, and their other drinks like fruit teas with nata de coco jelly are fun too.
Ten Ren also has a small boba tea shop close by and also makes decent drinks.
Sweet and Tart Restaurant (the below street cafe at 76 Mott is no longer there, Sweet and Tart in Manhattan is now a fully blown restaurant at 20 Mott) also does decent drinks and more traditional Tong Shui (sweet water...dessert soups) Chinese desserts. They have fresh fruit shakes and yes, boba can be added to nearly everything.
I'd steer clear of just about any of the flavored boba shakes like honeydew, taro, apple, etc. They're all dyed to unnatural shades of green, orange, purple, etc, and artificially flavored with powders.
I've tried several flavors, trying to branch out, but I always come back to plain old milk tea. Not much you can do to futz with black tea and milk...
fuuchan at 5:51PM on 02/19/08
Seattle has some great Boba Tea places. I love it.
slashchef at 6:23PM on 02/19/08
I really love Cha for Tea, which is also in Irvine, near UCI. Yum (:
coinoperatedheart at 9:43PM on 02/19/08
I think it's very telling that
1) all the boba houses listed are chains
2) the correspondent is based in Washington DC
Not that Tea Station is bad or that Lollicup is horrible -- they're alright, but anybody who regularly drinks boba knows that they've had better. Even the Guppy House is better than what's listed above.
::shakes head::
Wouldn't it make more sense anyway for a DC-based correspondent to give us all the skinny on the best boba joints in DC?
babpul at 10:37PM on 02/19/08
hey babpul,
Sorry you weren't fond of the choices. I actually grew up twenty minutes away, and used to hang out at these spots on weekend nights throughout high school. Us 18-year olds loved our bubble tea adventures up the 5-fwy. I'd love to hear your favorites and check them out next time I'm out West. Unfortunately DC is dry on the boba front. We've got one measley source called Snap in Georgetown (also a crepe joint). Otherwise those tapioca balls demand a trek out to the Eden Center in Virginia!
http://www.edencenter.com/
Erin
Erin Zimmer at 11:48PM on 02/19/08
Where the heck are the great Seattle joints, then? I can't stand the milky ones, which seem to be the majority here. Crunchy tapioca balls also suck.
Salanth at 6:40PM on 02/20/08