Boba tea, also known as bubble tea, originated in Taiwan. The brown pearls seen at the bottom of the drinks are the actual boba pearls made of tapioca. One of our favorite treats to get in almost every city nationwide is a sweet boba tea. 

We have been to a handful of boba spots in the Portland Metro area, so we wanted to visit and review some local boba shops that we have never been to before.

We started off by trying Fantastea House in Beaverton, located on SW Murray Blvd. They also have a location six minutes away from Lincoln near the PSU campus. 

Sophie ordered the brown sugar milk tea with tapioca pearls. Overall the drink was a little on the sweeter side but the flavor was not overwhelmingly sweet. It had a very good balance of flavor between the milk tea and the brown sugar. The boba itself in the drink was very soft and had a really enjoyable texture. Overall we give this drink an 8/10. 

Sydney ordered the strawberry watermelon black tea and added lychee jelly to it. It was way too sweet. She had to wait for the ice to partially melt before finishing the drink to water down the sweetness. It also tasted highly artificial, which was not entirely surprising but caught us off guard. We give it a 6.5/10. Both of our drinks were $7.00.

The next spot we tried out was Honey Pearl Cafe PDX in downtown Portland. It is located on SW 12th Ave, just a four minute drive from Lincoln. Each of our drinks were $6.95. The cafe also sells rice balls wrapped in seaweed with various fillings, such as tuna or salmon.

Sophie ordered the “Brown Sugar Swirl,” their brown sugar black milk tea with condensed milk. It had a good ratio of the milk tea and their boba, which was very flavorful. However, we found that the drink’s brown sugar flavor was quite faint and overall tasted too milky. In the end we rated it 7.5/10. 

Sydney ordered the “Mango Dream,” a mango milk green tea topped with coconut cold foam. It had the perfect flavor ratio – we were able to taste both the mango and the green tea. It was just the right amount of sweetness. We rated it a 9/10.

Lastly, we visited Bobcat Tea House by the PSU campus, a six minute drive from Lincoln. They also have a location on NE Broadway St. Both our drinks were just under $7.00, Sophie’s being $6.79 and Sydney’s $6.49.

Sophie ordered the Bobcat milk brown sugar with boba. The first sip was really good with a very strong brown sugar flavor and very soft boba. However, as we continued to drink, it lost all of its flavor and it only tasted like milk. We ended up rating it a 5/10.

Sydney ordered the passionfruit white peach oolong tea and added lychee popping boba to it. The taste resembled a peach ring candy with a hint of passionfruit. It was very flavorful, but she did not love how there were chunks of fresh passionfruit in it. We rated it an 8/10.

Of the three new places we tried, Sydney’s favorite was Honey Pearl Cafe because of its unique menu and Sophie’s was Fantastea as the drink’s brown sugar flavor and boba texture were the best.