My Top 5 ‘Bay Area’ Boba Shops
I’ve always wanted to write one of these — not just for others to see and criticize, but for me to keep track of my favorite places and any changes in my tastes.
A lot of people have been coming to me, telling me to try the life-changing Boba Guys, but I have not tried it so it will not be considered in this :-)
I wouldn’t call myself a judge from Food Wars, but I do love me some good boba. I get boba around 4–5 times a week, pretty casual, but I’m also the GOAT so I think I know just a little bit about boba.
My criteria is very simple:
- Tea quality
- Boba (pearls)
- Menu
- Warmth (atmosphere, homie feelin u get when sippin)
I won’t comment on any other toppings as they don’t go with every single drink you order.
For me, a good menu is diverse and consistently good. Sugar/ice options are a must.
Service/wait-time is a non-factor and will never be considered. Please be respectful to those that put their love into the most magical drinks in the world.
Aite aite LET’S GO!
1. U-Cha (Berkeley, CA) — [4.8/5]
- Tea Quality: 4.5/5
- Boba: 5/5
- Menu: 5/5
- Warmth: 5/5
- Frequency: 2+ times a week
- Snacks: Yes
- My Score: 4.8/5
https://www.yelp.com/biz/u-cha-berkeley?osq=ucha
Highlights: authentic, perfect boba, 11/10 without Berkeley goggles, #1 boba university in the world tied with UCLA, better than Stanfurd
Honestly, Berkeley boba is kinda sad. But U-Cha is the savior of all boba, and saves Berkeley’s reputation for having shit boba like Purple Kow and expensive hipster places like Asha.
U-Cha is definitely my top-rated place of all-time for boba, and someone super cute and smart should look into bringing it to the San Jose area *looks in mirror*
Tea leaves are of high quality and are brewed to near perfection. Each drink that uses tea has a balanced proportion of sweet/bitterness.
The pearls are consistently chewy and are soaked in honey (my preference). The honey blends especially well with their fresh milk and milk tea drinks :-)
Can’t go wrong with anything on their menu. Everything can be made to order so lactose-intolerant peeps don’t have to worry too much.
Just that fat aroma you surround yourself with once you enter, goddamn. The thing I loved most about this place was the kind of people that would go to U-Cha; since it wasn’t as centrally located like other shops in Southside Berkeley, you always knew the people that came were committed folks. The aroma, people, and taste always made me feel like I had a home there. #biased
My pick: Roasted Oolong Milk Tea, 50 sugar, typically 100 ice (I drink slow and like the transition to a slightly diluted drink)
Try: Fresh Milk series!
2. TeaTop (San Jose/Milpitas, CA) — [4.5/5]
- Tea Quality: 4.5/5
- Boba: 4.5/5
- Menu: 4.5/5
- Warmth: 5/5
- Frequency: 2+ times a week
- Snacks: No
- My score: 4.5/5
https://www.yelp.com/biz/teatop-san-jose-2
Highlights: Authentic, classic Taiwanese boba drinks, tea
Like U-Cha, they use high quality tea leaves (from Mountain Tea company I believe), and brew it to perfection. I’ve never ran into any taste issues when I frequented the San Jose location, but I’ve definitely ran into some consistency issues at the Milpitas location. still gud tho dam
With U-Cha being the leader in the boba department, TeaTop is good, but not as good as U-Cha. Still good tho.
Though they have a diverse menu, they lack classics like Roasted Oolong MT, but don’t sleep on their milk foam drinks. I believe TeaTop is among the only shops that use Alpine Green Tea or Sun Moon Lake Black Tea, which are basically stronger variants of green/black tea.
The atmosphere (San Jose) tops U-Cha’s in my opinion. There’s just so much to love about the fact that so many Asian moms come with their CUUUUUUUUUUUUTE kids and spend hours just studying, reading, or just having conversations. It’s also located in a very peaceful neighborhood in the San Jose/Cupertino border.
My pick: Milk Foam Sun Moon Lake Black Tea (50 sugar, 100 ice)
Try: Crushed Ice Series! (Grapefruit, Lemon)
3. OneTea (Fremont, CA) — [4.25/5]
- Tea Quality: 4.2/5
- Boba Quality: 4.5/5
- Menu: 5/5
- Warmth: 4/5
- Frequency: Every other week
- Snacks: No
- My Score: 4.25/5
https://www.yelp.com/biz/one-tea-fremont-2
Highlights: dessert boba
If you like desserty drinks, dis place yo place. They have many variations of ice cream and tea, one of the most magical combinations you’ll ever have. Imagine Elsa, but better. So basically Anna, the real MVP.
I assume that because they lean towards more desserty drinks that the tea quality doesn’t matter as much to them. Not to say that it’s bad, it’s definitely up there, just not as good as my top two babies.
OneTea has “matcha pearls”, which are kinda like honey soaked pearls, but with a slight matcha taste to it. I never asked how they do it, but it pairs well with fruit teas such as their Peach Green Tea.
OneTea has a very bright atmosphere (natural light looks gr9 in their white and light green color scheme) and their workers take care of you like you their baby. I like that. Good stuff.
Btw, OneTea’s Peach Green Tea w/ matcha pearls is the best PGT I’ve ever had. And don’t go to their downtown San Jose location, it’s ass, and expensive. Like Michael Kors.
My pick: Peach Green Tea, Matcha Pearls, 50 suga 50 icy (don’t dilute this baby too much) [5/5]
Try: Gotcha Matcha (matcha milk tea, red beans, mochi pearls)
4. i-Tea (Milpitas, CA/multiple locations in Bay) — [4.20/5]
- Tea Quality: 4.2/5
- Boba: 4.5/5
- Menu: 5/5
- Warmth: 3.5/5
- Frequency: 2+ times a week
- Snacks: Yes
- My Score: 4.20/5
https://www.yelp.com/biz/i-tea-milpitas
Highlights: FAT MENU, snacks, hideous website
I’ve only been to the Milpitas location (original USA location located in Oakland), but if you’re ever having withdrawals from your latest rave festivals, you can always trust i-Tea to be blasting mainstream EDM and every once in awhile, good EDM. You know, like, not Chainsmokers. Sorry Becky!
Tea quality is pretty good but also average for your typical Taiwanese boba spot. When compared to everything else out there, it’s pretty damn good but I might make it sound not too good just cuz there are places that are tea masters.
Either they recently changed their pearls, or they just liked to give me bad batches of pearls back when I first started frequenting the place. But for the past two weeks, I’ve gotten a whole new kind of i-Tea pearls and they are good and honey soaked YEET.
Like OneTea, i-Tea’s menu is fat, but differs in that it leans towards more tea-y drinks. They probably learned from their failures, specifically their tiramisu milk tea *gags*. Their fruit tea selection is so fat that I have yet to go try everything. So far, it’s the best selection/taste dat I have tried and i luv that each fruit tea drink has it’s own toppings included
i-Tea has some of the best Taiwanese/Japanese snacks I’ve had from boba places that offer snacks, which makes it the perfect hangout spot ^_^
I’m not a fan of Taiwanese boba places that blast EDM all the time and it’s general ambiance is not the greatest for feeling ‘at home’. Low points there.
My pick: Apple (Green?) Tea w/ Boba, 50 suga 100 ice ice baby
Try: Strawberry Fruit Tea
5. Ten Ren (Milpitas/Cupertino, CA) — [4.0/5]
- Tea Quality: 4.5/5
- Boba: 4/5
- Menu: 4/5
- Warmth: 4/5
- Frequency: Every other week
- Snacks: No
- My Score: 4.0/5
https://www.yelp.com/biz/ten-ren-tea-co-of-milpitas-milpitas
Highlights: authentic, inhouse toppings, ten ren tea leaves for sale
Ten Ren is a high school classic for me. For awhile, it was the best thing I ever knew, until TeaTop came to San Jose towards the end of my college sophomore year.
I really like Ten Ren’s tea leaves in general, as they sell the loose leaf tins, and it’s my go-to when it comes to buying mommy some Taiwanese tea leaves.
At least at the Milpitas location, their pearls and grass jelly were made inhouse (could be wrong nowadays). I strongly prefer honey soaked pearls, which Ten Ren does not do. But the quality of the pearls itself, they are something else.
I always enjoy going to boba places that are located in Asian plazas. There is an element of inner peace that comes with it, and the Milpitas location delivers each time. But both the Milpitas and Cupertino locations has no seating, so no good for cute dates.
Ten Ren also has limited sugar/ice options, which is an absolute must.
My Pick: Roasted Oolong Milk Tea, pearls, rivals U-Cha’s if you don’t consider lack of honey boba
Try: Guava Green Tea (no milk, pearls)
Honorable Mention
Happy Lemon (Multiple Locations) [4.0/5]
- Highlights: salted CHEESE, lemon tea, popular, cute
- They have the best Grapefruit Oolong Tea (or any Grapefruit tea variants)
- Limited menu choice for people looking for a typical Taiwanese boba experience
- It’s good, but you can do better. Good for trying salted cheese!!
Burn Book
Tastea (San Jose, CA)
- Highlights: ABGs, convenient location, Viet-esque drinks, expensive
- It’s convenient, but you deserve good boba. Tastea is not good boba. But it’s better than Quickly’s at least and whypipo boba for sure.
- Snacks are good, don’t get me wrong.
- Basically, taking away from authentic Taiwanese boba shops for the sake of convenience is a huge no-no. Especially with those extremely high prices.
Sharetea (multiple locations)
- Highlights: there’s one everywhere!
- When Sharetea first hit northeast San Jose, it was lit. Somewhere down the line they did us all wrong, as did the rest of the franchise.
- I’ve been forced a couple times recently to get Sharetea, and my opinion is slowly growing more positive. But why go to Sharetea when there are 5 other bomb places you can go to? *thinking*
..and every other place that capitalizes on this ‘boba trend’ that is not Taiwanese in any sense
I’ve tried many places, mainly in the San Jose/Cupertino/Sunnyvale/Fremont/Berkeley area. Feel free to ask if I’ve tried any that you wonderin about :-)
I have pretty simple preferences that are obviously biased towards authentic Taiwanese places. I’m not big on sweet, but I enjoy fruit teas, especially after a fat lunch meal. I’m not big on toppings either, but boba is somethin you always gotta judge.
Hope you enjoyed my top 5 picks! Feel free to roast me ❤ hope it’s roasted oolong tho
