I was recently asked what I thought makes the best bubble tea. In my opinion, a perfect cup of bubble tea must have chewy pearls, ample tea flavour and leave you wanting more. I’ve been to dozens of bubble tea spots throughout the Metro Vancouver area and I’m here to share with you the best spots for Bubble Tea in Vancouver.
Best Specialty Tea: Suntea
Suntea offers some of the most unique drinks I’ve had in Vancouver! Their fresh fruit drinks are their show runners with a slush or tea version to choose from depending on what you’re looking for. Their fresh teas always come with a variety of toppings which make them unique and fun to drink! Another drink they are known for is their creme brulee milk tea. A milk tea that’s swirled with fluffy caramel cream. Full review can be found here.
Best Brown Sugar Milk Tea
Xing Fu Tang is known for their Brown Sugar Milk Tea drinks and is the winner of this category. Their brown sugar pearls are always soft and chewy in texture with the brown sugar adding a caramel-like flavour to the drink. This little drink might be priced at $6.50 a cup but is so worth it! I’ve never been a fan of brown sugar drinks but the one here isn’t overly sweet and has the perfect amount of richness that make it practically a dessert! Full review can be found here.
Note: their regular pearls are NOT good, so don’t order them by mistake!
Best Fruit Tea
Yi Fang is known for their fruit teas and has swept Vancouver by the storm with them. They have their signature fruit tea with an assortment of fresh fruit inside and other ones as well. My personal favourite is their fresh pineapple tea because I’ve never had anything like it. It’s lightly sweetened from the pineapple and is super refreshing on a hot day. They also have specials when they launch new drinks so check out their social media for a good deal! Click here for full review.
Best Steeped Tea
Tea 18 is one of my favourite spots for steeped tea because of their variety. Not only do they have iced teas but they have cold brew teas which allow the teas to soak in more flavour! Their teas are from Taiwan and has fruity notes. I also love coming here because they have unique specialty pearl flavours including black sesame, matcha, rose and caramel pearls! Click here for the full review.
Best Milk Tea
This was a bit of a dough one for me because I just couldn’t decide! There are so many factors that go into the perfect milk tea.
Chun Yang Tea: The milk tea here is for those who love to still taste the tea flavour in their drink. The amount of milk to tea ratio favours the tea so that the robust notes of the black tea comes through the background.
HouCaiLei: This is perfect for those who like a rich caramel-like milk tea. They pre-make their milk teas instead of making it on the spot so the tea flavour is lightly incorporated into the milk. It’s more of a latte style drink.
Bambu: Bambu is my recommendation for those who like flavoured milk teas. Their taro milk tea here is one of my favourite because instead of using powders and syrups, Bambu uses pastes to flavour their drinks when they can. They also have unique flavours of milk teas here including rose, pandan, and more! Plus they have ten different toppings for you to choose from!
Best Pricing
Milk and Sugar is known for their cheap prices. Most of their drinks go for $4 – 6 and come with FREE toppings! If you order from their special board, you can get a large drink with topping for $4.20! You really can’t beat the pricing here. They offer milk teas, fruit slushes, cheesecake drinks, ice cream smoothies, and hot drinks. Full review can be found here.
Best Stamp Card Program
Bobacabana is a spot that I haven’t been to in a while but should really start revisiting. I LOVE my reward programs and they have one of the best bubble tea loyalty programs that I know. Every 5 drinks you either get a free topping or free drink. On your 20th drink, you can get a free waffle dessert! I love them so much I even got their re-usuable boba cup which lets me have free toppings for life! Review post can be found here.
Well, that’s my list of the best Bubble Tea in Vancouver. I know I haven’t been to all the spots around town so please leave a comment below to let me know where I should try! Or if you disagree, let me know some of your best spots and why they’re your favourite! [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”tz8brq8opb” question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”0″][/wpdiscuz-feedback]