Boba Quest 2025 🧋

About

I'm a big fan of boba aka bubble tea aka pearl milk tea aka tapioca. Aside from it tasting good, I enjoy all the different varieties and unique combinations you can get depending on where you go.

Boba Quest 2025 🧋 is a project to try and review a different boba shop each week, totaling 50 new places over the year.

As a self-described "boba journalist", I have been formally and informally reviewing boba since 2019.

Learn more in the introductory post.

Licensing

All content on this site is available under a Creative Commons license, which allows you to reuse and remix the content, as long as you attribute me and also use the same license.

You can also browse this site's source code.

Methodology

I prefer milk teas, usually going for a jasmine green milk tea. I'll usually order that, but may choose to order the shop's specialty, if it advertises one.

In deciding which shops to review, I prioritize recommendations from friends (and strangers), then mom & pop shops, and then the various chains. I am also striving for geographic diversity too, as I've yet to have boba in The Bronx or Staten Island.

I pay for all the drinks myself and don't accept any special discounts that would not be otherwise available to other members of the public (e.g. using a BOGO deal or loyalty stamp card is fine).

Rating scale

Boba shops are graded on a 10-point scale:

• 4 points for the boba, both texture and flavor
• 4 points for the tea's flavor
• 1 bonus point for having something extra, like a privacy-perserving stamp card system or nice ambiance, etc.

The tenth and final point is for consistency: if a place earns a 9/10 on the first visit, I'll go back and if it's fantastic again, then I'll bump the score to a perfect 10/10.

Reviews

Brooklyn

• Bobavise, Crown Heights: 4/10 (March 5)
  

Manhattan

• Débutea, Greenwich Village: 9/10 (Feb. 12)
  
  Note: will be re-reviewed later in the year to possibly earn a tenth point for consistency.

Queens

• I'Milky, Long Island City: 7/10 (Jan. 12)
  
• Bobba Hubba, Jackson Heights: 6/10 (Jan. 15)
  
• Chun Yang Tea, Hunters Point: 3/10 (Jan. 22)
  
• Möge Tea, Long Island City: 6/10 (Jan. 29)
  
• Xing Fu Tang, Flushing: 9/10 (March 19)
  
  Note: will be re-reviewed later in the year to possibly earn a tenth point for consistency.
• Erye Tea Shop, Long Island City: 6/10 (April 10)
  

Long Island

• Boba Baar, Garden City: 5/10 (Feb. 19)
  

New Jersey

• AKIHI Bubble Tea, Newark, NJ: 6/10 (Feb. 5)
  

Pennsylvania

• Tea-Do, Philadelphia: 8/10 (March 12)
  

California

• Breaktime Tea, San José, CA: 10/10 (Feb. 26)
  

Subscribe

RSS

You can subscribe to Boba Quest 2025 🧋 by using RSS. You'll need a feed reader, if you don't have one yet, look at some recommendations from opensource.com, The Verge, and LifeHacker. RSS allows me to maximize your privacy, as I don't need to collect any information from you.

Use the following URL in your feed reader to subscribe: https://blog.legoktm.com/feeds/bobaquest.atom.xml

Mastodon

I post all reviews on Mastodon using the hashtag #BobaQuest. If you're on the Fediverse, you can follow my account, @legoktm@wikis.world or the hashtag itself.

Tips

I am interested in suggestions for more boba shops to review, as well as any other feedback. I can be reached securely using Signal; my username is @legoktm.12345