Philadelphia has such a unique and rich history. If you’re visiting the city soon, there’s tons of great things to see. For one, there’s this thing called the Magic Gardens that is great for the gram during a sunny day.
It’s perfect with a cup of boba, bubble tea, or milk tea in one hand and a camera in the other.
Some other great things to do is go around the city on a food tour. Trying out all the different cuisines from diifferent cultures around the city is a must! With a Chinatown bustling with great cuisine and other parts of the city offering other wordly foods, you won’t be dissapointed.
Wash it all down with some boba too!
Since you’re looking for the best boba places in Philadelphia, let us help you get started. Continue reading for the best boba places in Philadelphia. Be sure to comment below which one you like the best too! We’d love to hear your suggestions and add more to this list.
Let’s begin.
Vivi Bubble Tea
Starting with Vivi Bubble tea, a huge name in the bubble tea industry.
It started in 2007, breaking its traditional tea service into something more innovative by using the latest technology and concocting recipes that are new to the boba world. They introduce a variety of never heard of before drinks, such as flaming brown sugar milk tea.
It’s not on fire per se but they torch the sugar down, kinda like crème bruleè. Yea, dessert in a drink- it’s Legen-DAIRY. Though it’s not on fire literally, the drink itself is quite fire.
Tea Do
Conveniently located in Chinatown in Philadelphia, this place is one of those must go to boba houses. Though the place is a bit cramped and not enough chairs available especially when there are lots of customers, nevertheless their bubble teas are good enough for us to keep coming back.
They have many drinks and bubble tea flavors for you to try. Here are just a few of them. Black milk tea, coconut, green coconut, taro, Thai and Japanese green milk tea.
Oh by the way, if you’re interested in grabbing a snack or two, they have this as well. Many college students and young adults come by for a quick snack and bubble tea. Onigiris are some of the most popular snacks here. They’re essentially rice balls (or triangles) wrapped with seaweed and other delicious fillings like spam, veggies etc. Give it a try and let us know how you like it!
A Cup of Tea
This boba shop if you’re familiar, serves some of the more unique flavors of boba. There is the regular boba milk tea, milk foam with French tea (this one you gotta love), especially the rose tea with milk foam, and the Yakult tea, mmm!
Yakult, this is like the golden drink of Asia, almost every Asian loves this drink. And most likely you’ve grown up with it in your household during your childhood.
For those who are not familiar with Yakult, it is a probiotic fermented milk drink that has Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota, that is supposed to improve your digestion, it is a water-like consistency with a tangy, not too sweet, not too milky and a hint of fruit flavor.
It really reminds us of a simple yogurt drink, but it’s great for digestion apparently.
Lulu Café
Do you like authentic Taiwanese food and drinks? We’re sure you do if you’re researching bubble tea in Philadelphia. After all, boba is a Taiwanese drink. In that case, head over to Lulu Café.
They serve quality premium Taiwanese boba tea and really add EMPHASIS on QUALITY.
They are most proud of their café for 6 reasons. First, Halal chicken- no hormones nor antibiotics, all-natural. Second, freshly brewed loose tea leaves. Third, lactose-free milk. Fourth, fresh and aromatic flowers and fruits for your drinks. Fifth, pure canola oil. Sixth, gluten-free sweet potato fries. So, come and try Lulu food and boba teas, and who knows you might actually meet the cute little French bulldog, Lulu. 😊
Woosa Bubble Tea
One of the many cafes in Philly, as you can see if you’ve been reading all the boba shops above. This boba shop is very similar to the mainstream boba shops, modern and simple. They serve boba teas in different flavors both traditional and specialty, with great textured boba pearls.
Kung Fu Tea
Of course, the king of all bubble milk tea. Why?
It’s everywhere. It’s like the Mcdonalds’ of bubble tea chains.
It’s convenient, you practically know what you want, almost memorize the menu, price is good, milk tea to go to when you have cravings, and it’s easy to spot. Just imagine being thrown in an unknown land, nothing is familiar, you know no one, you don’t speak their language, you are lost, and you get thirsty, what would you do? Kung Fu Tea, it’s familiar, and you know you can trust their premium quality, fresh teas. Don’t trust me? Google it. Oh, by the way, buy the Taro bubble tea.
Mr. Wish
I wish for boba tea! then eight Mr. wish boba tea house came up. There is one located in Chinatown, King of Prussia Mall, Washington Ave, Ben City, Oregon Market, Rittenhouse Square, Temple University and Northeast Bustleton ave. This is one of the best boba tea houses here in Philly because they serve delicious, mouth-watering and craving satisfying boba milk teas. If it’s your first time here, you might want to try Black tiger milk, it’s composed of black sugar, boba and milk and is very very tasty.
Yi’s Boba
One of the local’s favorite spots. It has a very nice and warm atmosphere, very friendly people, nice staff, quick service, price is right and of course tasty bubble tea. although they do not have a large selection of milk teas offered, I would still choose this place over the bigger named boba houses. Here at Yi’s, I feel more relaxed, away from the hustle and bustle of the city life. Just me and my delicious boba tea. By the way, their Jasmine Milk Tea is the best.
TBAAR
So, we found this place via yelp since it has quite some good reviews and we decided to stop by. Tbaar is in a shopping center at St. Vincent St., the same shopping center was China Gourmet resto and Oriental Market is located. The place is a bit small with limited seating, but it was not so hard to get seats since most customers come in here to order to-go drinks. Anyway, we had Panda Green Milk tea and Bubble milk black tea, both of them were delicious. But what really caught my attention was their fresh fruit vegetable juice, boba less but really healthy here is one that we had to go to.
At first, green energy is composed of kale, spinach, cucumber, apple, celery, orange, and wheatgrass sounds unappetizing. But it was actually good!
We’d definitely give it another try after this.
I Tea
I Tea is known for its Asian food like the famous Korean fried chicken (talk about cravings), you know the one you see in k-dramas that they always had with soju. That’s the one. Most people come here for the food, a quick Asian Fix as what they call it. They also have a variety of items, like Chinese and Thai food.
The bubble tea here is also a must whenever you order food. Plus, why won’t you get bubble tea when you eat Asian food anyways? And we keep saying food, this place really shows our appetite for Asian Cuisine haha.
But in our opinion, the best milk teas are the Lychee popping bubble tea and honey black tea.
So there you go Philadelphians (or Philly travelers), a quick fix to you boba milk tea cravings. The team here hopes you found this list of best boba places in Philadelphia very enjoyable. This list was a long one, but it was fun to write about.
Let’s make this a challenge, can anyone visit all the stores? If you do and send us pictures @talkboba we’ll give you a special discount and hello. (Let’s see if anyone will do this haha). We’ll see you soon boba lovers, thanks for reading with us!
