We’re back with the second half of the TEA. 

If you didn’t read the first half we don’t know what you’re doing here. Go read the first half first. Then come back here.

Here’s the grand finale. Enjoy.

Cafe East

Cafe East is the closest place to get boba for those who get the craving while on campus (as it’s literally located in Lerner). It sells a variety of different things, from sushi to açai bowls to cut-up fruit, but Bwog was there for the boba. You can pay with Dining Dollars, which is a major perk, and it appears to be tax-free if you pay with Dining Dollars. However, there is no rewards program (gasp). The straws are the PRETTIEST (they’re shimmery) and they automatically give you no ice (it’s cold enough without it).

Here, Lori got the standard Green Milk Tea, and Eunice got the Cherry Blossom Green Milk Tea. The Green Milk Tea was fairly sweet, but you could taste some tea. The drink also wasn’t too milky. The pearls themselves were sweet and chewy but on the smaller side as a warning to those who dislike small boba. 

Eunice was extremely skeptical about her selection at first, but it wasn’t bad at all! It had a balanced blend of floral tones while retaining the green tea taste. Some quotes include “I like this more than I thought I would” and “Oh wait I coughed and I tasted a flower you know? I tasted the smell of a flower.” A pleasant experience.

Location: In Lerner Hall on the ground floor next to Santander’s
Hours: M-Th 11:30 am – 10 pm, F-Su 11:30 am – 9 pm
Prices: Green Milk Tea (m) – $4.50, Cherry Blossom Green Milk Tea – $5
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Culture Tea

Culture Tea was an experience. It’s further uptown, and we walked the few-minute trek up. Out of all of the boba stores we went to, Culture Tea was the hardest one to find. Even though we actively kept an eye out for it on the walk, we ended up walking past it and had to go back. Turns out it’s inside Chokolat Bakery, so when you see that on the window, you’re at the right place. 

Culture Tea actually lets you completely customize your drink, from the type of tea down to the sweetness and amounts of ice. They have a large variety of teas, some of which sound very weird and some of which sound very good. As for seating, there is some cute seating, but the store is small. They also serve pastries and actual food that smells really good. Culture Tea also has a rewards program of buy 8 drinks get one free, which isn’t bad. 

Here, Eunice ordered the standard Green Tea with a little bit of milk, standard pearls, and 25-30% sugar. They actually got her order completely wrong and gave her a lot of milk, pearls, and NO SUGAR. A lactose intolerant bitch was shaking but decided to go through with it for the sake of Bwog. The drink itself was actually not that bad, and would probably have been fine with the right amount of sugar and LESS MILK.

Lori ordered the interesting sounding Candy Apple Green Tea with milk and pearls and 30% sugar and no ice, which was a very interesting drink. The tea itself wasn’t actually Candy Apple flavored (or tasted like it had any sugar at all for the matter), but instead, the pearls were sweetened and candy apple flavored. This made for an interesting taste combo that wasn’t particularly enjoyable to either Eunice or Lori. 

However, soon after leaving the store and heading to our next location, Lori’s straw cracked, which made drinking her drink almost impossible :(

Location: *inside Chokolat Bakery* West side of Broadway just above 123rd (walk a little past the Manhattan School of Music)
Hours: Su-Sa 8am – 8pm
Prices: Candy Apple Green Tea w/milk and pearls – $4.75, $5.17 w/tax, Green Tea w/milk and pearls – $4.75, $5.17 w/tax
Rating: 3/5 stars pre cracked straw, 2.5/5 stars post cracked straw

Mellow Tea

Our foray into rating Mellow Tea actually started out very disappointingly. The first time Lori and Eunice visited, they were told that they, a boba shop, had run out of boba! And that it would be a 30 minute wait before they had more! Disappointed, sad, but lowkey happy they didn’t have to drink a third boba that day, they were left to return later that week.

Mellow tea is a very small shop that doesn’t have very much seating, although it is really cute (there are little succulents as decorations!). There are many drink options, including interesting drinks like Yakult Boba and Drunken Boba. Mellow Tea has a good rewards program too– buy six get one free. 

At Mellow Tea, Lori got the standard Jasmine Milk Tea and Eunice got the Dirty Mango Milk Tea. The drinks were a m a z i n g. The boba was chewy, slightly sweet and just the right size. The milk teas weren’t too sweet despite forgetting to requesting sugar modifications, and they were just the right amount of milk to tea. Again, Eunice was skeptical about the idea of “dirty mango,” but lo and behold she was NOT disappointed. The mango part was in the form of a syrupy mixture, and the mango-milk combo was a lot better than she expected– there were even little mango chunks at the bottom with the boba. Very yummy. 

Basically, everyone should go here. It’s a teeny bit of a trek, but totally worth it (hit up Oaxaca Taquería while you’re at it).

Location: West side of Amsterdam between 122nd and 123rd

Hours: Su 11 am – 8 pm, M-Sa 11 am – 9 pm

Prices: Jasmine Milk Tea – $4.75, $5. 17 w/ tax, Dirty Mango Milk Tea- $5.50, $5.99 w/tax

Rating: 5/5 the GOAT

So, you made it to the end of our report. After much thought, we compiled a new list ranking these 6 places from pErSoNaL eXpErIeNcE.

Without further ado, here is our final list: 

1. Mellow Tea
2. Gongcha
3. Cafe East
4. Teamagic 
5. Culture Tea
6. Wu + Nussbaum 

Thanks for sticking with us– we lowkey endangered our health out in the field for this. If y’all have any ideas for future 2girls1snack posts for us, let us know in the comments :) 

-Eunice and Lori

Images via Bwog Staff