The Best Boba in Sapporo, Hokkaido

In my opinion, clearly. If you’d like to challenge my opinion, feel free to leave me a comment, or just try these places for yourself :). I moved to Hokkaido in summer of 2022, and went from a place with too much boba to basically no boba. To put that in perspective, my hometown list has 20+ shops. To be fair, this doesn’t mean that Japan as a country is short on boba (I had quite a few good ones in Tokyo!), but Hokkaido really needs to step up the boba game. According to some research I’ve done, there used to be a few others, but they’ve since closed before I got to try them. Now I’m sure there’s more than these, but the ones I’ve tried are more Sapporo central, where it’s within reasonable commuting distance for me. If I try others I’ll add to the list. This is a cross post with my travel blog!

Now without further ado, on with the ranking!

1. Shin An Ju: The best quality by far. Has great flavored and chewy brown sugar boba, and their menu is pretty varied with some unique items as well.
2. The Alley: I liked The Alley in America, and I think it’s pretty good here. I’d like some of the American items here, but Japan has some exclusive menu items that are pretty cool too. No ice is free here, which is a big plus. Boba quality is always good.
3. The Tea: A local chain store. Their drinks are ok, but they also sell Taiwanese snacks [as of moving to Cocono, they only sell scones now]. The boba is nice and chewy, but with little flavor. No ice is also free, and all the drinks come with a topping included.
4. Gong Cha: An international chain, some items are general while others are more Japan-specific. They also have seasonal teas and drinks monthly, which have been pretty interesting to try out. Boba is fine here.
5. Tsutsumiya: Technically, this is more of a crepes and drink place that offers boba. While the cups are tiny, the drinks are actually really good quality tea and boba for a non-boba place! Boba is available as an add-on for their drinks, which places it a bump above the other non-specialty places.
6. Mister Donut: The quality is pretty good for being a non-boba place. They only have two items to choose from though, in terms of boba drinks. Donuts are good though, ha!
7. Bund Cafe: A really cute cafe specializing in all types of Chinese and Taiwanese teas. They have a few items with boba on the menu, and it was not bad for a non-boba speciality place.
8. Matcha Cafe & Sweets RIQ: A matcha and sweets cafe that offers boba drinks on their menu. The cups are small, drinks are just ok, and the boba is not great. Plus, no-ice means a third of the drink is just missing.

To be ranked:

• Quickly
• TAPIOKA FACTORY KOHAKU
• Bull Pulu [I’ve had a different location before though.]
• 福因福果
• タピオカ専門店 tapi
• Da Pai Dang (Cocono)

As an aside, I believe the ice cream/parfait place Klim also offers boba as a topping on their ice cream. No boba in drinks though.