Boba’s Healthy-ish Cousin – Cherubic Tea / Spiritea

Ah, I’m finally covering the boba place that’s not a boba place. I remember when I first heard of Spiritea opening a location in Orange County, I looked at the aesthetic and the menu and thought, Wow, a new boba shop with more things unique. All the drinks sounded fancy, with all the fancy tea names, and bragging about their healthier ingredients, but the thing that was missing on the menu, was actual boba. They have crystal boba sure, but no traditional boba to be found. So really, is it actually a boba shop?

Then after a while, the Orange County location rebranded to Cherubic Tea with a grand reopening for some reason. New management? Not sure. Introduced a few new gimmicky drinks, but keeping those wild high prices. Really, located in the same plaza as Class 302, if you wanted boba, you’d probably go there. Honestly, I’d probably only go to Cherubic Tea if I was meeting a friend or for the free drink, but there’s totally better options out there for better deals.

Like, Spiritea, or Cherubic Tea has good drinks, but it’s really not worth it. And they don’t even have boba here. What? Honestly, it’s the spot where all the Instagram foodie influencers come, get sponsored once, and attract more one-time customers. Can’t really think of other reasons why you’d come here over other places.

Chain? Yes. I’ve only been to the Orange County/Irvine one, but their other two locations are in New York and Richmond, Canada. I think those are still under the name Spiritea though?

Drinks Tried: Peach Cloudtea, Mango Cloudtea, Matcha Lattea

Boba: No real boba here…so does this really belong on this blog? I’m kind of kidding. Anyway, they do have crystal boba, which I tried once, and it was…fine. Basically a hard jelly. Apparently, they had this whole rebranding launch about starting to actually sell brown sugar boba at a boba hour or something and made fresh in batches only to be sold at certain hours. The time I went after this launch, I asked the guy, and he said it was actually unpopular. Wild.

Price: Yikes. Even if everything here is supposed to be high quality, the prices here are outrageous, and at least like a dollar or so more than an average boba place nowadays. You’re really paying for the novelty of the place, but really, not worth it…

Size: They used to have one size, a tall slender cup, but recently, for one drink in particular, they introduced a smaller cup. They also have other bottles with their repackaged teas of various prepared drinks. Kind of a weird system in my opinion, but whatever.

Interior: Very aesthetic. I remember the first time I saw pictures, and all the pastel pink interior, it was so up my alley because the palette and everything is my style.

Wait: Wait’s usually not bad. Although kind of popular, whenever I’ve gone, there’s usually no one in the store.

Sell Food? Yes. I’ve tried their cakes. They’re nice, but a little bougie and super overpriced for the size and the actual cake. I think they also sell flavored macarons, and mini croissants recently?

Reward System? Yes. There’s an app. There’s also a few tiers of rewards, but obviously if you save up the points it’s more worth it in the long run. I think you also get a birthday drink.