Living in the great state of New York or visiting it soon but curious to find the best boba places in New York? Well look no further, we’re here to tell you all about the best boba places in New York, the state (and city).
To clarify, some of these bubble tea shops are going to be located in New York City (duh) but some of these places will also be outside of the popular city to!. Don’t worry, the whole state is about to get some love with our boba recommendations.
Before we get started into the boba shops or cafes we’re about to recommend, be sure to check out 18,000+ other boba lovers here @talkboba. You’ll get exclusive access to the best deals and maybe some discounts on our very own shop like our custom pin!
Alright, onwards with the best boba places in New York.
Tea and Milk
It all started when 3 childhood friends realized they wanted to continue sipping boba or bubble tea during lunch together. As children, Mat, Wilson and Kendy (co-founders of Tea and Milk) would always sip their favorite bubble teas and have always continued this tradition into adulthood. This tradition and awesome bond has only helped propel them to own their very own boba cafe, Tea and Milk.
Spending a great deal of research and testing for flavors, the team at Tea and Milk have been able to set themselves apart from traditional boba cafes using powdered milk teas. Taking the time to focus on natural flavors and natural ingredients in modern boba, they pride themselves in serving only the best.
You’ll find nothing short of quality here at Tea and Milk located in Queens, New York. Our favorite here is none other than the traditional black milk tea that everyone seems to love. If you want to try something bold, go ahead and give their hibiscus teas a try too, we heard the pineapple hibiscus tea is a great start!
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Teado Tea Shop
Not popular amongst the nation but very popular locally (any New York City locals here?), Teado Tea Shop serves some of the highest quality tea there is in Lower Manhattan, New York. You might pass by this spot without realizing it for yourself but that’s the last thing you would want to do. With popular options like earl grey black milk tea and the ability for full customization in sugar levels and toppings, what’s more to love?
Might we also add, the ingredients here and tea itself are brewed to perfection from scratch daily! The owners behind this great bubble tea cafe work hard everyday to satisfy their customers as best as they can and holds true every time we take a visit. Like we mentioned, try their earl grey black milk tea or go for some rose milk tea! We’ll be back soon.
Pa Tea
Another local favorite in the streets of Chinatown New York. Pa Tea is a family owned Taiwanese boba or bubble tea cafe that boasts about how it’s “party time” when ordering here. Seriously, just say the cafe’s name 10 times fast and you’ll get the idea, Pa Tea Pa Tea Pa Tea (it starts sounding like something you’re very familiar with)!
Made with passion, Pa Tea has many great flavors to choose from with their huge menu. It’s broken down into different sections like brown sugar milk teas, tea lattes, fruit flavored teas and more! You’ll find yourself wanting to try so many flavors here with their flexible customizability too. If you’re wondering what we’d recommend, you can’t go wrong with their jasmine milk tea.
Fun fact: Bar Pa Tea is their sister location, so feel free to grab some of their amazing teas here too!
Ten Ren’s Tea Time
With over 6 locations around New York, Ten Ren’s Tea Time is no short of delicious quality. As they expand into new territory every so often, more and more people flock to their doors for a sip of their boba. Supplied with some of the highest grades of quality tea, no wonder they make some of the most delicious and flavorful boba flavors.
If you stop by one of their tea shops for boba or bubble tea, be sure to get some classic flavors like thai tea or black milk tea. With their premium quality teas, you’ll actually taste high profile flavors of the tea itself not just sweet milk. If you prefer more tea flavors in your bubble tea, this will be your next go-to spot.
Boba Guys
Does anyone not know of Boba Guys? Seriously, all they really do is “Serve the highest quality bubble milk tea in the world.” Nothing special right?
Are you kidding, not only are their milk teas some of the utmost quality, the atmosphere of their boba shops are spectacular too! Avoiding the idea of franchising, Boba Guys has been able to control the brand equity behind their transparent vision like a tea (see what we did there?).
Each location they have across the United States has its own vibe and personality to it. The owners behind the brand strive to bring you an experience worth remembering, which only encourages you to tell your boba friends to stop by. We can hang out in their shops all day!
Some of their favorite flavors include: classic black, horchata and matcha latte (with boba of course).
CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice
Boasting as the “New York’s #1 bubble tea brand,” CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice serve up really unique flavors that get the customer smiling for more. After all, they’re on a mission “ to spark up every drinking moment for our customers.” With over 400+ reviews that average to be 4+ stars, they must be doing something memorable, right?
In addition to bringing you the best experience possible with bubble tea, they create new flavors to try every 2 months! How crazy is that? We can’t even imagine what it takes to create new flavors that fast, but hey, we’re not complaining. We tried their cloud black tea (very smooth and delicious textures) and their red bean matcha latte (great matcha flavor with noticeable red bean accents). Let us know if you’ve tried these too!
Vivi Bubble Tea
You’ve seen the pink straws with cartoon characters on their cups right, that’s Vivi Bubble Tea!
With over 70 branches of boba shops Vivi Bubble Tea prides themselves in creating some of the best boba cups around the world. They specifically and ONLY ship their natural ingredients from Taiwan so that each customer can experience the true feeling and taste of Taiwanese boba. Isn’t that saying something? We’ve tried taro milk teas and thai milk teas from them at around 50% sweetness and definitely will come back for more.
Kung Fu Tea
Arguably one the most known bubble tea shops in the U.S. and other parts of the world. Kung Fu Tea is founded on the idea and concept of the Kung Fu spirit, pushing through struggles to see opportunity and growth, the shop has been able to out shine its competition like no other.
Offering high quality and innovative tea flavors, they amass one of the biggest followings for boba. Some may say they’re over hyped and that their tea isn’t all that great, but there’s a reason why they’ve been growing non-stop. Their product and customer experience must be good!
We’ve tried some of their new flavors recently like their strawberry yogurt lemonade and winter melon coconut milk tea and we must say they were surprisingly delicious! Go give it a try yourself and come back to @talkboba and talk all about it.
Well there you have it for boba New York! This is a non-exhaustive list of some of the best boba or bubble tea shops in New York, we may add more in the future if we end up finding some hole in the wall spots that you must try. We’ll keep you posted if you join our newsletter!
If you want to read more about boba, a good article to catch up on is our interview with Lion King’s Young Nala, Shahadi Wright Joseph. You won’t believe what she said about boba! If you’re still here, we just want to say thanks for reading and like always, just talk about boba!
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