Over the years, dozens of Falcon staffers have reviewed various local boba shops. While those reviews were well intentioned, what follows is the only boba review you should actually listen to.
Why listen to me? For starters, I’ve been drinking boba since elementary school and multiple times per week throughout high school. I also regularly make actual tea at home and have worked at a boba place (ISCU tea) for a year. Most importantly, though, my taste buds are elite from the sheer amount of food and drinks I’ve consumed on a daily basis throughout my four years at SHS.
In order to keep this story under 5,000 words, I’m going to introduce the five best (in no particular order) local boba shops. Each store will be given a Falcon score out of 10, a brief introduction and a scoring system breakdown.
Wanpo: 9.4/10 Falcons
Drink selection: 10/10
Tea Quality: 8/10
Toppings selection/quality: 10/10
Brand Design: 9/10
Store vibes: 10/10
Size and price: standard (roughly 22oz cup and roughly $7)
Wanpo is a Taiwanese chain that offers a large variety of drinks. My favorite thing about its menu is the huge variety of fruit teas. While its milk teas are also good, I’d recommend trying Wanpo’s fruit teas first. My favorites are the honey pomelo oolong tea and the aiyu jelly lemon tea.
Wanpo uses high-quality ingredients — from tea leaves, toppings, to fruits — and it makes a real difference compared to most US boba chains. Finally, Wanpo’s branding and marketing are aesthetically pleasing, with a high-quality website and a sweet brand backstory. Inside, the store features a traditional wooden design, making for a cozy and traditional vibe and pleasant dining experience.
TP Tea: 8.9/10 Falcons
Drink selection: 10/10
Tea Quality: 7/10
Toppings selection/quality: 10/10
Brand Design: 8.5/10
Store vibes: 9/10
Size and price: standard (roughly 22oz cup and roughly $7 with topping)
TP Tea is also a Taiwanese chain. Similar to Wanpo, it offers a wide and extensive range of drinks. In comparison to Wanpo, TP Tea’s milk and fruit teas are on more equal levels. From the mango boba milk tea to the lemon black tea, it’s hard to go wrong with any of the drink selections here. Like Wanpo, TP Tea uses good quality tea leaves and real fruits in their drinks, leaving you satisfied with spending the hefty $7 price tag for a drink.
In terms of branding, TP tea has a slightly more modern look than Wanpo and the Cupertino store is often packed with customers, while workers scramble to push out an entire row of drinks. Although occasionally the wait can be a little long, ordering ahead ensures minimal wait times. In case you don’t trust me, just head on over to the store and chances are you’ll see Asian parents chatting over their TP Tea outside — always a good sign for a boba shop.
Chi Cha San Chen: 9.1/10 Falcons
Drink selection: 8/10
Tea Quality: 10/10
Toppings selection/quality: 9/10
Brand Design: 9/10
Store vibes: 9.5/10
Size and price: high end (roughly 16oz cup and roughly $8 with topping)
Chi Cha San Chen is, once again, a Taiwanese chain. Out of the really hyped up internet famous boba chains that have recently come to the Bay — Hey Tea, Molly Tea and Chi Cha San Chen — this is the only one that isn’t overrated. Chi Cha San Chen’s main selling point is its high quality tea leaves that are freshly brewed to order. Every Chi Cha San Chen store is equipped with teapresso machines where workers make customers’ tea orders on the spot.
In terms of drink selection, the chain also offers a decent variety of milk teas, fruit teas, and seasonal drink options. While there is a smaller variety than Wanpo and TP Tea, there is a stronger focus on the sheer quality of the tea leaves. Because of the intense emphasis on tea quality, the drinks sizes are also smaller than standard boba cups, more similar to a coffee cup size.
For similar reasons, Chi Cha San Chen has fewer toppings but their boba is always the perfect texture. You really can’t go wrong with any of the teas here; it just depends on what fruit flavor you like the most (they categorize their menu by tea leaf type rather than flavor). Finally, Chi Cha San Chen offers pleasant branding and the interior of the Cupertino store is modern and welcoming. While the lines were insane in the first few months after it opened up, the wait is now usually under 15 minutes even if you order there.
Wow!: 8.3/10 Falcons
Drink selection: 7/10
Tea Quality: 10/10
Toppings selection/quality: 6.5/10
Brand Design: 9/10
Store vibes: 9/10
Size and price: higher end (roughly 16oz cup for milk teas and roughly $7 with topping)
Unlike all the other stores on this list so far, Wow! is not a chain store. Wow! specializes in milk tea, using really high-quality tea leaves and the same made to order tea steeping technique Chi Cha San Chen is popular for. Compared to other popular high-quality milk tea chains like Molly Tea, Wow! offers the same quality of tea that you can taste boldy through each sip. Additionally, it has very aesthetically pleasing packaging and good quality boba. Of the few fruit teas it offers, the lemon oolong is also top quality and insanely tasteful. The bottom line: Wow! is an underappreciated gem compared to other boba places in the area.
Teazzi: 9.1/10 Falcons
Drink selection: 9/10
Tea Quality: 8.5/10
Toppings selection: 9/10
Brand Design: 9.3/10
Store vibes: 9.5/10
Size and price: slightly higher end (roughly 22oz cup and roughly $8 with topping)
Teazzi is another Taiwanese chain. It has a few selected staple tea types and tailors its menu around them. The store offers a decent selection of milk teas, fruit teas and seasonal speciality drinks. The pure taste of the tea is good quality, indicating a reliance on quality ingredients. Although the tea quality is not quite on par with the most tea quality focused brands, the taste of their drinks is balanced and it’s easy to find something that matches your taste. The thing about Teazzi that stands out the most to me, though, is the branding, which I think is incredibly aesthetically pleasing because of the balance between modern simplicity and traditional Chinese painting, all centered around a blue and white color theme.
Final Recommendations
While I could continue going on rating all the boba places I’ve had in this area, I think you’ve gathered a good idea of my top choices in the area. Here are some other recommendations that aren’t quite at the same level as the places above, but still worth stopping by for drinks, studying or plushies: Cozy Tea Loft, Rose Tea Lounge, T%, Yi Fang, Tao Tao Tea, Molly Tea, Hey Tea, 7 Leaves, Chun Yang, Ume Tea and Shang Yu Lin.
Overall, the boba in the Bay is the best in the country. As I prepare to head off to college, I’m leaving this boba guide behind in hopes that future SHS students will take care of these businesses for me in my absence. Just be prepared to watch $7 leave your bank account daily, as I have done for the past several years.
