By Lea Rushatakankovit and Livia John
Everyone has their go-to dessert of choice, whether it’s cookies, ice cream, or you guessed it… milk tea. So, as certified boba addicts and connoisseurs, we spent our summer (and a questionable amount of money) creating the ultimate guide on choosing your perfect boba destination.
- Cozy Tea Loft
Lea: 10/10
Drink: Tieguanyin Oolong Milk Tea with boba and pudding, 25% sweet
Oh my goodness. This is absolutely the best milk tea I have ever tasted. Cozy Tea Loft uses a super-high-quality oolong tea sourced from Anxi County, China, and it did not disappoint! The flavor was rich, complex, and not at all watered down; the boba was warm and fresh and perfectly chewy; and the egg pudding had a subtle custardy flavor that just brought the drink to another level of perfection. Bonus points for being one of the cheapest ones on the list!!
Livia: Overall 9.75/10
Drink: Torched Creme Brulee Milk Tea with boba, 25% sweet
I LOVE going to this place after me and Lea’s annual backpacking trip! The drink has a strong, rich, authentic tea flavor, with a slightly caramelized taste from the torched brown sugar. Literally just liquid gold. THE BOBA HAS LITERALLY THE PERFECT TEXTURE, CHEWINESS, AND BROWN SUGAR FLAVOR. IT’S PERFECT, EVERYTHING IS PERFECT (I might be biased)
- Heytea
Livia: 8.75/10 (0.25 bonus cuz I got a free hat :p)
Drink: Cloud Crisp Grape with boba, less sugar
I went to the Heytea in Valley Fair that recently opened, and waited in line for this drink for almost an hour. The tea is sweet, with a very refreshing grape flavor along with a strong honey taste. The boba has a perfect consistency, along with a similarly potent honey taste. The crunchiness of the grape pieces complements the chewy boba so well!!
- Sharetea
Lea: Overall 8/10
Drink: QQ Happy Family Milk Tea, 30% sweet
I’m super biased toward Sharetea since I go there all the time! This drink had black milk tea, boba pearls, grass jelly, lychee jelly, and egg pudding, and it was a bit on the sweet side (mostly because of the lychee jelly), so I wish I’d gotten 0% sugar. The boba had a satisfying chewy texture, and the pudding and the grass jelly were both so silky smooth and deep in flavor. Highly, highly recommend!!
- Ume Tea
Lea: Overall 8/10
Drink: Brown Sugar Boba and Mochi Black Milk Tea with pudding, 15% sweet
If you’ve ever heard the saying about how sums can be greater than their parts, look no further than your local Ume Tea to provide the perfect example of that! The ingredients themselves weren’t anything exceptional—the tea was good but not remarkable, the boba was kind of sticky, the porous white coconut pudding broke into tiny pieces that were impossible to locate, and most of the cup was occupied by a blanket of sludgy liquid mochi—but when they all came together… WOW, they created the most comforting and satisfying drink where every component complemented the others, and everything just blended so seamlessly… it makes you want more and more!
Livia: Overall 8.5/10
Drink: Oreo Creme Brulee Boba Oolong Milk Tea, 70% sugar
When I ordered this drink, I was skeptical of how the flavors would taste together, but I’m so glad I did! The tea doesn’t have a terribly strong tea flavor, so it tastes kind of like milk. The Oreo pieces made it taste like a watered-down cookies and cream milkshake, but I’m here for it. The boba had an almost perfect brown sugar flavor, with a good consistency leaning on the softer side. I will definitely be ordering this again!
- Happy Lemon
Lea: Overall 7/10
Drink: Boba Milk Tea with pudding, 25% sweet
Minus points since it was so expensive. I liked the tea for its strong flavor (not at all watered down), but the boba was see-through, strangely bouncy, and relatively flavorless. The egg pudding had a delicate flavor and a delicious creamy texture, but it wasn’t really worth the extra dollar.
Livia: Overall 8.25/10
Drink: Freshly Squeezed Lemon Green Tea with boba and lychee jelly, 50% sweet
After our bike ride in the sweltering heat to get here, Lea and I definitely earned this. The lemon flavor, as one would assume by the name, was amazingly refreshing. It leaned more sour than sweet, but it contrasted nicely with the sweetness from the pearls, which also had perfect consistency. However, the lychee jelly was a little tough and not at all sweet enough, which was a minus point. More minus points for the high price as well.
- Gong Cha
Lea: Overall 8/10
Drink: Pearl Milk Tea with pudding, 25% sweet
I always love going back to Gong Cha for an authentic take on this classic Taiwanese refreshment! The drink had just the right amount of sweetness and a deep flavor that hit just the right spot between too potent and too watered down. The pudding had a strong custard flavor, and it wasn’t too sweet. But if you know the stiff texture and tempered flavor of pearls that have sat in the fridge for a while, you’d be sure to find it here.
Livia: Overall 6.25/10
Drink: Strawberry Milk Tea with boba, 50% sweet
Despite ordering 50% sweet, this drink was still WAYYY too sweet for my taste. The strawberry flavoring also tasted pretty artificial, so I wasn’t super happy with the tea. Adding to the mess, the boba was super chewy with very little flavor, or as Lea puts it, “fridge boba”.
- Taotao Tea
Lea: Overall 5/10
Drink: Happy Family Milk Tea, 25% sweet
Taotao’s drinks really, really are not the same anymore. The tea didn’t really taste like anything but sugar, and the boba had a nice texture but no flavor at all. The grass jelly had a satisfying herbal essence, but the egg pudding… at least it sort of tasted like pudding. There was something off about it—it was so soft it could almost be described as slimy. Very sad and so disappointing :((
Livia: Overall 3.5/10
Drink: Lychee Peach Tea
I used to be a Taotao addict throughout middle school, but after they changed their recipes, every drink there is horrible. HORRIBLE. Tastes like water with leafy essence, with barely any flavor, like herbal tea your grandma gives you when you’re sick. The boba is just as bad—the texture is passable, but the flavor is nonexistent. Very disappointed, Taotao…please return to your glory days.