Many college students are familiar with boba shops. In fact, going to boba places would be considered a relaxing activity given how small they are and the fact that most of them have cute interior decorations. Have you just come back from a stressful midterm exam? Did you come back from rehearsing for a dance rehearsal or exercised and wanted to treat yourself? Do you desire a sweet drink because you haven’t had one for a long time? If you answered “yes” to at least one of the questions, then ordering boba might be a great option for you!
Boba tea is one of the best delicacies to have when looking for a sweet drink as a sweet treat. Here in Oakland, there are six boba places, but I will focus on three!
- Fuku Tea
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One thing I like about Fuku Tea is that it is one of the cheaper boba places in Oakland. It also comes with an option to customize your own flavored drinks. Most of the drinks there also taste good, and the service and atmosphere are good.
However, if you want your boba to taste sweet, I recommend going for the 100% sugar option when selecting the level of sugar. I once ordered a 50% sugar boba and much to my surprise, that boba I ordered tasted a bit too bland for my liking.
Fuku Tea is arguably the most visited place given its most convenient location on Forbes Avenue. However, some might argue that Fuku Tea wouldn’t be the best in how well it is received by the taste of the drinks compared to other boba places. Nevertheless, Fuku Tea is a great place for people who want to try boba.
- Tsaocaa (朝茶)
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This is probably the bit more expensive boba place (around $5-6, which would be considered cheap to most Americans, but that would be considered expensive to people from China, where you can find large boba drinks that cost 1 yuan (= 0.14 US dollars)).
Tsaocaa has a kiosk for customers to order what kind of drinks they want, which could be considered convenient for most customers if they can’t directly order from the cashier. Most of the drinks are also said to have just the right amount of sweetness.
Tsaocaa is overall one of the best boba places that I have gone to not just in Oakland, but pretty much out of all the boba places I had been to inside and outside of Pitt. The drinks in Tsaocaa arguably resembled most of the boba seen in boba places in China, and I highly recommend this place if you want to try boba drinks with authentic toppings.
- Love tea
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Love Tea not only sells boba but also appetizers like shrimp tempura or Takoyaki. If you are thirsty for a sweet drink and hungry for a snack at the same time, Love Tea might be worth trying for you. In addition, the set of Love Tea not only has a few seats but also a billiard table in case you get bored.
The one downside of Love Tea is its location. Love Tea is the farthest boba place from Pitt’s Oakland campus. In addition, the parking lot is small and tight. I also noticed that some of the reviews from Google Maps say that the service was sometimes a bit too slow.
To sum it up, Love Tea is where people are free to come and order what they want, but only if they have enough time. It is also the closest to a dine-in restaurant out of the three boba places I’ve been.
One thing to know about bubble tea or milk tea flavors is that there are certain tastes in one boba place that taste different than others. That is because there are certain boba flavors that are hard to pull off, like the taro-flavored and Hong Kong-styled milk tea. Some fruit-flavored boba is easy to make, but there are cases where some fruit-flavored boba in some boba places doesn’t taste that good to consumers in general. The best option for boba flavors when entering a boba place you’re new to is the brown sugar or original milk tea one, but it is fine if you decide to choose a different flavor if you don’t like brown sugar.
Overall, the three boba places are great to visit for the same reason: the drinks.