Cuppa Tea — Restaurant in College Park

I’ve become a regular here, after first trying their HK style signature milk tea one year ago. I am so happy that I can drink authentic tasting HK milk tea. I missed it so much after my trip to HK last year! It is like a special treat for me. The caffeine level is so strong so I can’t drink this in the afternoon or I won’t be able to fall asleep. I tried making my own HK milk tea at home but it doesn’t taste the same. I honestly have so many of Cuppa Tea glass bottles, and use them for assort storage at home, haha.

My daughter also loves the egg waffles, Chinese pastries/bread. We always order the Amber fresh milk for her (it’s technically brown sugar milk minus the tea.) I ask for less brown sugar. Their oolong milk foam tea is very delicious too at 50% sweet. I like to taste the delicious oolong tea and prefer less sugar. But others might find it not sweet enough. My husband likes the mango sago and we also have 4 of those glass cups that we reuse at home as water cups now. 😄 pineapple bun is so good too. I usually remove the butter.

Also, the manager is so awesome! She remembers my daughter’s name and her preference for clear jelly instead of pearls.

When you use their app, you can get rewards. They have a buy 3 drinks get one free drink promo sometimes. Monday - Thursday, they have a buy a drink and get 50% off egg waffle. My daughter likes their matcha egg...

4.5 stars! Came on a Saturday afternoon and it wasn’t very busy.

Parking: the building has a free parking garage (floor P1) behind it. As others have said, the parking spaces are quite tight but there were plenty of open spots when I went. There is two parking floors below this (P2 and P3) which are for apartment residents only. The parking floors do not connect. I made the mistake of parking on P2 and had to drive back out to enter P1 at a further entrance.

Atmosphere: Super cute and comfy interior with a variety of seating for small and medium groups. I think you could also push together some tables if you had a larger group and they weren’t too busy.

Food: I ordered the pineapple bun with butter and the jasmine pearl milk tea. The pineapple bun was soft but the top crust was not as crunchy as I prefer. I got it toasted and the hot sweet bun and cold salty butter was a delightful contrast of flavors. It’s not as good as other pineapple butter buns I’ve had in other cities but it is the best one I’ve found in the area so far. It definitely scratches the pineapple butter bun itch. The jasmine milk tea was very creamy and had a nice tea flavor. Pearls had excellent chewy texture and flavor as well.

Overall, I would be happy to return and reorder the...

It is hard to stand out among all of the boba options in the DMV, but Cuppa Tea has successfully carved its own niche with its quality drinks and Hong Kong snacks. We tried the taro pearl milk tea (with brown sugar), pineapple fruit jelly iced tea, and lemon iced tea. The drinks were high quality, with chunks of real taro and fresh fruits in each sip. The sweetness of the drinks can be customized, and the teas are served in beautiful high quality cups that we ended up keeping instead of throwing them out. They even have some teas packaged in cute glass containers, which makes great options to buy as gifts.

What helps this boba shop stand out from its competitors are its cafe menu selection. It offers many different snacks, including egg waffles, pineapple butter bun, and curry fish balls. We tried the ehg waffles and pineapple butter bun, both of which were fresh and delicious!

With its fast and friendly service, relaxing setting with plenty of seating, and great menu offerings, this place makes for an excellent study spot! I only wish that I could be a UMCP student again in order to frequent this more often.

Tip - parking is a little hard to find; look for a side entrance to the parking garage next...