PaTea Brown sugar oolong milk tea with boba: I really love living in NYC, but one thing that was missing for me was a mom-and-pop super-asian bubble tea shop, the kind that has an overwhelming number of flavors that isn’t a major chain like Gong Cha or Coco. Those types of shops are omnipresent in the Bay Area, but not so much here. However, that gap has now been filled by PaTea, a very small bubble tea shop a few blocks away from Union Square. There, they have the “chubby” bucket-sized bubble tea cups in a variety of milk and fruit te... (read more) 4.0/5.0
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Bao Tea House Rose milk tea: This is a perfectly balanced rose milk tea from Bao Tea House, a serene tea and bao shop on the west edge of Washington Square Park. Faintly sweet at 25% sweetness, the drink has a clean floral flavor without overpowering, and the frothed milk is delicately creamy. I’ve had a good number of rose teas over the course of Tasty Snacking, and this one is by far the best. 5.0/5.0
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Boba Guys Lychee Green Milk Tes with aloe: I wanted to order one of the seasonal fruit drinks from Boba Guys at Canal St Market, but they aren’t able to adjust the sweetness level on their all-fruit drinks. Instead, I purchased their lychee green tea with aloe. Even at 25% sweetness, I found the tea a tad too sweet for my taste, but the sugar may have come from the aloe, which nonetheless had a satisfyingly firm bite. The milk tea otherwise had a creamy and clean flavor. Sometimes fruit teas don’t mix so well with milk, but lychee an... (read more) 3.5/5.0
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Tea Hut Jasmine milk tea with boba: It’s kind of outrageous how saturated quality bubble tea shops are in the Bay Area. We’ve all become accustomed with fine-tuning our drinks to our exact specifications - with numerous toppings, sugar levels, and even the amount of ice, down to a percent. With the range of available options, tea shops are resorting to other ways of distinguishing themselves beyond ingredients, turning to the beverage’s vehicle itself: the humble cup. Here at Tea Hut, a small bubble tea shop right next to b. P... (read more) 4.0/5.0
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U-Cha Bomber Man milk tea with boba: After having a surprisingly good ginger milk tea last time I visited U-Cha in Berkeley, I decided to try one of their signature drinks, the Bomber Man milk tea. Unfortunately, the drink has nothing to do with our favorite Hudson Soft video game hero. Instead, the drink is essentially milk without tea. But even at 25% sweetness, the drink was overwhelmingly sweet as the honey boba has a caramel-like gooey outer layer. I wouldn't be surprised if even at 0% sugar, the drink would still be t... (read more) 2.0/5.0
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iTea Matcha milk tea with boba and red bean: This matcha drink from iTea in SF contains red bean and boba as default toppings. While the matcha milk tea was decent, the red bean was heavily sweetened so that this 30% sweetness beverage tasted more like a normal 100% sweetened drink. Texturally, the red bean also seemed canned as it was slightly too soft. As a result, I’d recommend getting the drink but skipping the red bean topping. 2.5/5.0
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