Bubble tea, or boba, is essentially a cold milk tea drink with chewy tapioca pearls, when combined a truly wonderful sensation. The original classic drink is the brown sugar milk tea (with the tapioca pearls). Then the more modern drinks are the fruit tea drinks that are better accompanied with bubbles or jelly, that are ideal for summer and the heat. Two quite different drinks to be honest, but both are loosely termed as bubble tea today.
These drinks are quite old drinks in Taiwan and China, they date back to the early 1980s. They aren’t the uber trendy social media friendly drinks over there that they are currently here in London. There’s a new bubble tea spot opening up every other week on every other corner of the London streets. Every other blogger is posting a picture of their bubble tea drink. In Taiwan and China, these drinks are as common as water – I mean even McDonalds do a bubble tea drink. In this post I’ll highlight the most popular bubble tea spots in London and I’ll divide them into the home grown names, international names and a couple of modern alternatives. Welcome to your ultimate bubble tea guide!
Home grown names
I always prefer promoting and endorsing home grown names as opposed to international ones, so I will start with this even though my favourite one in London is actually an international one. What seems to be the popular theme with British bubble tea names is health consciousness. They seem to want to be the healthy version of the bubble tea drinks that we all love. There are a few in London, but these three seem to be the most popular.
Cupp
This is one of our personal favourites. Their drinks have always hit the spot. The story of Cupp goes back to 2009 and to the birth place of bubble tea, Taiwan! While the founders were living there they fell in love with the culture, food, people and most importantly the national drink: the bubble tea! So, when they returned to England, they wanted to bring back some of their Taiwanese memories with them and what better way than via the bubble tea!
Biju
Biju is a bubble tea spot that is founded by a gentleman who grew up in Singapore, Nick. It was born in 2014 (Biju, not Singapore nor Nick). While in Singapore, Nick developed an obsession for bubble tea (and I can confirm the high quality bubble tea options available in Singapore are insane!) and when he arrived in London, he noticed a gap in the market. The gap for good high quality bubble tea. So, he left his career in finance and ventured into Biju!
Bobar
In the middle of the pandemic, in May 2020, Bobar was born. The reason being they saw a gap in the UK market for bubble tea drinks that were for the health conscious and that included high quality ingredients (similar motive to the above two to be fair).
International names
Let’s face it, no one does bubble tea better than Chinese and Taiwanese spots. And thankfully for those not living in China and Taiwan, most of the big names have traveled and thus allowed us to sample some of the best most authentic bubble tea drinks.
Xing Fu Tang
Like the Ronaldo Messi debate is the Xing Fu Tang The Alley debate. Everyone has their favourite bubble tea spot in the capital, but most will name of these two giants as their number one. For us, it’s Xing Fu Tang. And it is no surprise that it is the number one bubble tea brand in Taiwan, the home of bubble tea. We love that the drink is constructed from scratch right in front of you. It adds theatre and drama to the whole occasion.
The Alley
Arguably, the most popular bubble tea spot in London. They’ve expanded fast over recent times and so now wherever you are in London, you’ll probably be near an Alley shop. I like how they identify their top 5 selling drinks to make what may be daunting for some simpler (i.e. ordering bubble tea).
The Whale Tea
The Whale Tea is a bubble tea company that has come all the way from Nanjing, the former capital of China. They have over 300 outlets in China alone as well as others around the world. Named after the whale because it symbolises strength and sustainability. They pride themselves in trying to match the amazing taste of bubble tea along with dazzling and eye-catching visuals. We absolutely love their drinks and have always been impressed. We believe their Flaming Whale bubble tea is probably one of the best drinks in London!
Gong Cha
They may be late to the London party, but they are no small timers. They are a huge name in China and Taiwan (their home country) with about 1500 stores worldwide! I even remember having a drink from them during my stay in Beijing!
Jen Tea
May not be the biggest name on in the international list nor the London list in general, but we definitely love a hidden gem here. And this is a proper hidden gem in London. Jen Tea is a bubble tea spot in London straight from the home of bubble tea, Taipei Taiwan. Tucked away in a hidden corner of an alley in Spitalfields, blink and you’ll miss it. If you don’t know of it, you probably won’t come across it. The crowds here and the popularity of the shop prove its quality. When we visited the shop was packed and the queue spilled over to the street.
Bubble tea alternatives
What if you don’t like bubble tea? Here are a couple of alternatives you can try instead!
Nuttea
This is one with a very unique selling point. Nuts. A completely vegan bubble tea spot that achieves this through the use of nuts to create nut milk! Five nuts are used to make the the nut mylk (and cream): macadamia, hazelnut, walnut, almond and cashew. A concept that is way ahead of its time. In a time when health consciousness is a big deal, Nuttea have created something that is delicious and good for health! Something that is on trend (bubble tea/fruit tea) and that is ahead of its time (nut mylk and cream). A very impressive concept.
Machi Machi
This place is another one from Taiwan and they also do the usual bubble tea (i.e. with tapioca pearls), but they are more famous for their cheese tea drinks. Cheese tea is the current trend and craze in China and Taiwan where people are queuing up hours upon hours and this place right here does one of the best versions of the drink in London.
