Top Boba Places in Oahu, Hawaii
Boba, which are black balls, is used in beverages like teas, milk teas or blended drinks. Other words used to refer to boba include bubbles and tapioca. Over the last few years, boba places have been popping up and garnering popularity among many people in Oahu. Here are my top 5 Boba spots in Oahu.
1 TEA TIME
Tea time is located in Pearl City, Kalihi, and Kailua. Tea Time has milk tea, smoothies and calpico drinks. This is my favorite boba spot on Oahu. It also offers desserts and snacks. These snacks include thick cut toast with a selection of coconut milk, peanut butter, strawberry, chocolate, or honey. Tea Time also offers dumplings. So this place makes a great stop for a light snack or an after meal dessert stop. The additional toppings you can add include small tapioca, jelly, custard, chocolate pudding, taro pudding, honey tapioca, or ice cream. They are known for their thick cut toasts so do give it a try when you stop by the shop. I’ve had the honey and chocolate cut toasts, and they were very tasty. Similar to Taste Tea, you can choose your sweetness level from extra to no sugar. My favorite drink from Tea Time is the matcha milk tea. If you don’t like matcha, the jasmine and regular milk tea are very good too. I can’t even describe the goodness of their milk teas. It’s just really great. You take a sip oh go OMG. Make sure to pair the drink with honey boba. The honey boba is amazing!!! Honey boba is much better than regular tapioca. I’m so glad I tried the honey boba. Don’t forgot to get a stamp card too!
2 TASTE TEA
Taste Tea is located at Kapiolani Blvd, Waikele and Kaimuku. Taste Tea has a wide variety of drinks including ice teas, speciality teas, milk teas, lemonades, and blended drinks. You can add toppings from small tapioca, regular tapioca, coffee jelly, azuki beans, matcha jelly, coconut jelly and lychee jelly. Taste Tea is known for their ice cream milk tea. ICE CREAM + MILK = WOW! I like Taste Tea because the prices are relatively good compared to other boba places. Also I like the texture of the boba. If the boba is not cooked right, then I won’t enjoy my milk tea drink as much. Taste Tea offers stamps cards; purchase 20 boba drinks and you will get one free drink. I also like the fact that you can adjust the sweetness level of your drink. This was one of the few boba places that offered this option, but now most boba places will have a sweetness option for you to choose. Recently, Taste Tea added split cups. So if you are new to the place and are undecided about what you want to drink you can split your choices! Or if you’re craving more than one drink then split cups would be a good option. Get half of one drink and half of another. I think this option is pretty cool! If you have time, hang out and relax at Taste Tea because there are plenty of seats inside the shop. My favorite drinks are Jasmine, Oolong and Regular Milk tea.
3 JJ2 BAKERY
JJ2 Bakery is a Taiwanese bakery that sells cakes, pastries and drinks. It is located at the corner of Kapiolani and Keeaumoku.I come here for the boba and pastries. This bakery is the cheapest place for boba that I’ve found in Oahu. The regular sized milk teas (Regular and Jasmine) are $3.25 including the boba. The large sized ones are $3.75 including boba. I recommend the Jasmine Milk tea and Oolong Milk Tea with the boba. The Oolong Milk Tea is a bit more expensive ($3.75). Just as a warning, if you order #12 Milk Tea, it tastes like the Hong Kong style milk tea, meaning it will have a slight coffee-like taste. If you don’t like that taste, then go for the Oolong or Jasmine Milk Tea. They have other fancier milk tea selections, but I go for the traditional flavors. Just to note, the prices above refer to the Milk Tea, Jasmine and Oolong Milk tea. The other Milk Tea flavors may cost more. Also note that they have a choice of creamer and fresh milk teas. If you choose the fresh milk tea, they actually use real milk versus creamer.
Mr. Tea has locations on at Kapiolani Blvd, Ala Moana Center, and Kakaako. They offer milk tea, hot tea, and smoothies. Their specialty drink is the potted milk tea, which has Oreo crumbles on top and a piece of mint. I usually go to the one on Kapiolani Blvd. This place has decent boba, but I think it’s a little pricey. The reason I like this place is the atmosphere and it’s a cute a trendy boba place. Also, it’s a nice place to hang out and study. The Ala Moana and Kakaako locations are a bit smaller so they don’t have many seats like the Kapiolani location and you can’t spend as much time inside due to space limitations. The Kapiolani location has a great ambiance to better your experience of drinking your boba. Mr. Tea also sells macaroons. Get a stamp card and purchase 10 drinks for one free one.
Honolulu Juice Factory is located in Ala Moana Center. They specialize in fruit blended drinks with tapioca. For those who are the mood for fruit blended drinks with tapioca or prefer fruit blended drinks with tapioca, then Honolulu Juice Factory is the place to go. Honolulu Juice Factory also sells non-boba drinks, milk teas, teas and fruit juice. The plus side about this place is they use fresh fruits in their drinks and not powder. The drink is a bit pricey, but you can be rest assured that the drinks are freshly made. My favorite drinks are the strawberry banana and the banana berry with tapioca. Other fruit tapioca drinks include mango, honeydew, guava strawberry, papaya, banana or guava. It makes for a perfect drink on a hot and sunny day.
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