The Best Boba in Irvine

In my opinion, clearly, with heavy bias. If you’d like to challenge my opinion, feel free to leave me a comment, or just try these places for yourself :). If no one’s caught on yet, I hail from the Irvine bubble in Southern California, and practically watched the boba scene unfold right in front of my eyes growing up. Now, I did move out as of summer 2022, and I know that there definitely have been a few new places that have popped up since then. I also haven’t tried every single place in Irvine, though it is on my bucket list to do so (crazy that there are so many!). However, as an Taiwanese-American Irvine boba connoisseur, I’d like to think I have an opinion or two on the boba.

Now without further ado, on with the ranking! It’s mostly decided by what shop I’d crave the most and quality of drinks. In memorandum of my childhood, I shall include ones that have also since closed.

1. Sunright Tea Studio: I have to say, after trying the gazillion boba there is to offer in this city, at the end of the day, I find myself finding comfort in Sunright’s drinks and defaulting to them. I’ve tried almost every milk tea on the menu at this point, so the only thing holding me back is the need to try a new drink or place for the blog (or my family’s convenience!). Their boba is amazing, their drinks are amazing, what’s not to love?
2. Tea Maru: In second place is Tea Maru! Tea Maru, similarly to Sunright, has great drinks, and great housemade flavored boba. Their menu is a little smaller and more specialized, but the drinks always hit the spot.
3. 7 Leaves Cafe: You can never really go wrong with the drinks from 7 Leaves. While the menu is small, all their drinks have been perfected, and the boba is pretty good.
4. Orobae: [“Temporarily” closed as of May 2024] At long last, Orobae makes the list. 4th isn’t bad is it? The viral number 1, I do agree that they make good teas. Their attention to detail and customer satisfaction is unbeatable. Are the lines worth it? Probably not, when a decent chunk of places now have good teas. Their boba is alright, you come here more for the tea.
5. Omomo Tea Shoppe: Here’s viral number 2, but on the opposite end of the spectrum. I think Omomo has decent boba, but their milk teas are really satisfying. The amount of drink options is a plus. Is the line here worth it? Probably not (unless you have someone who will wait for you!), again.
6. Junbi: Junbi has joined the Irvine scene fairly recently. Honestly, I’ve only gone once to this location, but Junbi does have my vote for good boba. They are a matcha specialty place, but they have a decent selection of normal teas, and their boba is pretty good.
7. Soma Tea & Mocktail: Soma has an interesting menu that’s quite different than a normal boba shop, even taking Orobae into consideration. I wish they had bigger cups, but their tea quality is top notch.
8. TPTea: Another more recent addition, is finally a TPTea in SoCal. I’ve only had once, but the drink was good, and the boba was a bit on the smaller side. Maybe something they get from Chun Sui Tang, their parent company who supposedly created boba?
9. The Alley: I think The Alley is a decent choice, but not one that’d I’d go to specifically, since it’s located in a mall. If I’m there, I’d definitely go, but not really a huge need to go out of my way for. They have good drinks, and good brown sugar boba.
10. Tiger Sugar (closed, now Macu Tea): Tiger Sugar is pretty cool. The drinks are good, boba is good, nothing too big to note or complain about.
11. HNTea: I used to be skeptical about their whole “healthy and natural” slogan, but now just take it with a grain of salt. They have pretty good tea options, along with some other interesting menu items
12. T to Tea (closed): Rip T to Tea. They were really good while they lasted. I think that location somewhat frequently rotates new tea shops.
13. Ben Gong’s: Okay, I’ve only had once, but from my one impression, it was pretty good. Boba was sweet, drink was good quality, and the menu was quite interesting.
14. Cloudy Co (closed): Although in the same plaza as Orobae, Cloudy Co offers a similar type of menu to Omomo and totally opposite vibes than Orobae. Their drinks are pretty good (but beware of nuts if you order the whipped topping), and there’s never a line. Closed as of February 2024.
15. ShareTea: A pretty standard chain from Taiwan with a large menu with anything you could want.
16. Ever After Tearoom & Eatery: A fairly new cafe to the area, I thought my one drink from there was good.
17. Tea Station (now rebranded as Go Yummy, now closed): I never had Go Yummy, but Tea Station was my entire childhood. They had the classic drinks, pretty good boba, was there for the beginning of Irvine’s boba scene, and I suppose it’s fueled by nostalgia.
18. Yi Fang Taiwan Fruit Tea (closed, now Hey Tea): Drinks are pretty good quality with fresh ingredients, but the prices are a bit high for the amount of drink you’re actually getting.
19. Cha for Tea: Has a pretty big menu, pretty good drinks, and sweet chewy boba. Their snacks are good too.
20. Class 302: Class 302 has good food, and the drinks themselves are ok, albeit not customizable. However, in exchange, you get the topping bar that’s customizable, along with the ablity fo mix and match drinks if you desire. Cups are pretty large too.
21. Ding Tea (closed, now Jam Jam Tea Bar): Pretty classic chain, with a large menu. Drinks were good, and their boba was golden! Haven’t tried Jam Jam yet.
22. One Zo: One Zo’s drinks themselves are ok, but their flavored housemade boba is pretty good. They also have some unique drinks.
23. Redstraw Tea Bar: Redstraw has ok drinks and ok boba, but some of their options, especially their fresh teas, are unique.
24. 85 Degrees: They offer boba and drinks, that are pretty good for not a boba shop. They are, though, firt and foremost a bakery.
25. Tastea: Large drink cups are a plus! Drinks are ok. Their boba is green though, which is a first, but also, a bit freaky and unnecessary if you ask me.
26. Gong Cha: Basic boba. I feel like I’ve only had actual American Gong Cha like, once.
27. Lollicup: Lollicup is one of those childhood things, and it was one of the few options that existed back in the day. All the fundraisers had Lollicup, so there’s another nostalgia factor. Actually though? Prices have gone up, and now it’s very not worth it compared to more legit places.
28. Tapioca Express: In the same category of Lollicup with a very similar menu, but I always viewed their drinks as slightly inferior. Good snacks though.
29. Spiritea / Cherubic Tea (closed, now Ben Gong’s): Spiritea goes at the bottom because it wasn’t even a boba shop with real boba. The drinks were quite a bit overpriced for trying to be healthy, and I think when they did start offering real boba, it was very fleeting and didn’t even last very long.