A bite of San Diego: boba

Discover the best boba San Diego has to offer in this week’s food column 

Ashley Ingraham / Contributor

Boba tea first emerged in the Tawainese culinary scene in the 1980s. Since then, it has grown to become a consistently popular item throughout the U.S., with an especially noticeable presence in Southern California. Convoy Street in Kearny Mesa hosts many of these tea shops due to its large Asian community, making boba easy to find for San Diego residents.

To give a brief overview of what “boba tea” actually is, the concoction is usually a sweet drink combined with milk, flavored tea, and tapioca balls. The tapioca balls, or what is referred to as the “boba,” are typically dark spheres at the bottom of the drink with a chewy texture. Other popular items that are commonly added to milk tea include red bean, jelly, pudding, and popping boba. 

If you’re a fan of boba, or want to give it a try, this list will surely give you an idea of  some of the best boba shops in San Diego. 

The Korean Rose
7655 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. Ste. 502 
San Diego, CA 92111

First up on the list is The Korean Rose, a fairly new boba shop in San Diego. Its soft opening happened recently, on Feb. 1 of this year. Nevertheless, it has quickly become quite a popular spot. 

Not only does it have excellent boba tea, it also offers other items that make its menu unique. Such items include its Instagrammable specialty drinks, cheesecake and yogurt smoothies. Besides tasting great, its drinks look great too, featuring a wide range of vibrant colors. This is what makes its speciality drinks so perfect for posting. A popular drink for posting all of September was their monthly speciality tea lemonade named “Euphoria.” The drink has cascading ombre colors of purple, pink, and red finished with a shimmer to make the drink appear glittery. I find that its year-round matcha drink options more than satisfy posting needs. The shop also has cute LED light roses put up throughout the location that are perfect to take pictures in front of.

I personally enjoy any of their drinks that include the rose flavor, the black rose milk tea specifically. Since the shop is called “The Korean Rose,” this is definitely a place you want to go to if you yourself are also a rose tea fan. It’s common for other boba spots to have too strong of a rose taste in their tea making it a little overbearing, but I find here that the balance is perfect.

Another plus is that it’s open until midnight on weekdays and 1 a.m. on weekends, which means all your late-night boba cravings can be accommodated. Parking is easy to find and prices range from $2 to $5. 

Boba Bar and Desserts
4619 Convoy St, San Diego, CA 92111 and 7655 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, San Diego, CA 92111

Boba Bar and Desserts has two locations in the San Diego area, one being on the ever-so-popular Convoy Street. At this tea shop, many go for the boba but stay for dessert. Customers love the boba tea and smoothies at this restaurant, but they rave about Boba Bar’s “puffles.” Puffles are a waffle dessert with frozen treats, toppings, and drizzles of your choosing. You can pick from their specialty puffles or build your own.

Customers also love the tapioca balls at Boba Bar and claim they have the perfect consistency, making the experience at this restaurant that much better. Boba Bar is a great place to go to for typical black milk tea and Thai tea drinks since their flavoring and drink quality is always consistent. I know for me personally, I love having a go-to place that I can be confident in receiving good product. 

Parking at peak times can be a little hard since the shop shares its lot with surrounding restaurants, but the great pricing makes up for it with item prices not exceeding $10. 

Ding Tea 
5945 Balboa Ave
San Diego, CA 92111

Another popular chain tea shop that has locations all across Asia and America is Ding Tea. Instead of having traditional boba, Ding Tea offers golden boba. The only difference between traditional boba and golden boba, however, is the color. Ding Tea also offers crystal boba, which has a chewy, yet not as jelly-like texture as usual boba and has a subtle grapefruit, citrus flavor. 

A customer favorite at this tea shop is their Signature Milk Tea. Ding Tea’s menu has a multitude of other flavored milk teas to choose from including Jasmine Green Milk Tea, Honey Milk Tea, Lychee Milk Tea, and many more. Moreover, they also offer iced teas and coffee which all range from $3 to $5. 

Along with its boba tea, Ding Tea also offers Yakult yogurt drinks. Yakult is a fermented milk drink that helps with digestion and building immunity by increasing the number of beneficial bacteria in your digestive system so harmful ones cannot take over. Ding Tea offers different flavors of this popular Asian drink like green tea, passion fruit, and mango to name a few. 

Customers also love that at this location there’s activities to do while hanging out and drinking their tea. Ding Tea has board games available and a wooden foosball table set up as well. 

An extra plus to this tea shop is that if you can’t find parking out front, there’s an ample amount of spots behind the restaurant as well. 

It’s Boba Time 
4344 Convoy St Unit A
San Diego, CA 92111

Want a boba place that has endless options to choose from? It’s Boba Time is the perfect shop to pick with its service of over 100 drinks. Their “Top 10” menu includes milk tea, smoothies, frappes, and shakes of all flavors. You can even search for certain beverages on their website. Plus, all their drink prices range from $3 to $6. 

With a menu as extensive as It’s Boba Time’s, there is of course also unique options for those willing to venture off and try different kinds of drinks. 

One of the most interesting items on their menu is Cheese Foam Top. True to its name, Cheese Foam Top drinks are green or black tea topped with foam made from salty or sweet cream cheese, milk, and whipping cream. 

With Halloween right around the corner, make sure to keep a heads up for a 10 percent holiday discount since they have been known to offer this for holidays in the past. It’s Boba Time  also has street parking and a private lot, making getting in and out with your boba a breeze. 

Vivi Bubble Tea
3904 Convoy St #116
San Diego, CA 92111

Last on the list is another popular chain restaurant in San Diego, Vivi Bubble Tea. This franchise branched out from Taiwan and opened locations in the U.S. in 2007, and have been quite successful. 

Tea aside, Vivi Bubble Tea feeds millennials’ Instagram addictions through their signboards and cute decorations, making each moment picture-worthy. The shop’s interior and exterior design has fun cartoon skull characters and bubble font signs. To top it off, its walls are also painted baby pink to match the artwork and add to the overall vibe of the place. The shop’s cups also have adorable designs mirroring the aesthetic of the tea shop. These images range from the skull-like cartoon characters mounted and painted around the restaurant to pixelated and highly stylized world maps.

What many customers appreciate about this particular tea shop is their non-traditional flavors for their drinks. On their signature menu, customers rave about the Blue Galaxy tea. The blue, purple, pink, and yellow ombre set colors make the drink eye catching and a fun choice. While Vivi Bubble Tea does have typical black milk tea, their menu also ventures out to hold flavors like honeydew, ginger, and flaming brown sugar to name a few. To top it off, they also have the standard boba pricing from $3 to $5.