Ten Ren Tea: worth it or not?

After scrolling through countless pictures of Ten Ren’s boba on Yelp, we knew that we had to try it out and see if it was really a ten out of ten as its name suggested.

One Monday after school, we set out for Ten Ren Tea, which was about a 15-minute drive from school. The recently remodeled tea shop is located at the corner of Wolfe Road and Homestead Road in the Cupertino Village along with other restaurants and dessert stores. It wasn’t too hard to find as the big bright green sign reading TenRen’s Tea stood out from the other shops.

As we walked in, we immediately noticed the simplistic, earthy design of the store, from the green and light brown color theme to the strong constant smell of herbal tea, which emanated from the countless boxes of tea leaves stacked on display for purchase. Light mainstream pop music played in the background, giving the store a zen-like vibe.

Ten Ren offers a decent number of options, ranging from basics such as pearl milk tea and iced teas to hot gourmet herbal tea and “teazers,” which are essentially slushies.

We ordered two drinks, the small Red Bean Milk Black Tea and the Strawberry Teazer. The wait time was approximately 10 minutes. The shop was a bit too small for comfort because there was no seating inside. We were forced to find chairs in other stores, making it inconvenient to just find somewhere to drink the tea.

The Red Bean Milk Black Tea was $3.75, which was a bit expensive for its size. There was a good amount of red bean at the bottom of the drink, giving it a sweet taste and unique texture. The milk tea had just the right amount of sweetness with the red bean and the milk combined.

Despite our satisfaction with the Red Bean Milk Tea, the Strawberry Teazer was not as impressive. Through the strong taste of strawberry, we could taste a intense undertone of black tea. For some, it might add just the right amount of bitterness to balance out the sweetness from the strawberry, but for us, it was a little bit too overwhelming.

The average price of a drink at Ten Ren was around $3.75. Upon first glance, it may seem like a pretty good deal as other similar shops such as Teaspoon charge $5, but the drink is much smaller compared to the standard Teaspoon size.

None of the drinks particularly stood out to us, so we wouldn’t give it a ten out of ten, but it definitely deserves at least an eight. Although it was not the best tea place we’ve ever tried, it’s a good spot to grab a quick drink on-the-go when you’re in a rush.