Yaya Tea DURHAM — Restaurant in Durham

Bubble tea… one of my guilty pleasures. Whether you call it bubble tea, boba tea, milk tea, boba, squishy ball milk… we all have somewhat of an idea of what we’re looking for when we get that craving for some chewy, yummy, brown sugary sweetness.

Yaya Tea as a shop is not new to me, being a UNC graduate my friends and I used to frequent the Franklin St location religiously for their Thai Milk Tea, Rice Balls, and Spring Rolls. Imagine my surprise when I realized that there was another Yaya within walking distance of my house! When I walked in, it was pretty… well, dead. Besides pop music playing, there wasn’t a person in sight. When someone did finally emerge from the back, I received a lackluster “Hello”. Not much acknowledgement or direction to order at the tablet that was placed on the counter. Thankfully I’m not too out of touch or technologically challenged and got the gist on what to do to get my order started.

The overall atmosphere of this particular location at Golden Belt was pretty nice. Modern, faux greenery scattered about, an LED light motivational quote. It’s obvious that it’s a younger audience they’re marketing towards, which is made complete by the Hello Kitty and Friends keychains hanging on the wall for sale and plushies lining the shelves in various bubble tea and food forms. Listen, I’m not mad at it either. It gave me something to look at and use as a hangry stress ball while I waited for my drink. Which didn’t take very long. I ordered a large black milk tea with tapioca pearls, light ice, 100% sweetness, and within 5 minutes it had been placed on the pick up counter.

Now, the milk tea is VERY sweet. And I’m a sweets kind of girl. The idea of getting a drink at 125% sweetness after tasting the regular 100% sweetness made my teeth ache. I should have went with my gut and set the sweetness at 75%, so keep this in mind.

The tapioca was just right, not too soft and not too hard. However, there wasn’t enough of it in my drink, and within 5 sips I was almost completely out of tapioca and left only with this super sweet and sugary milk tea (that albeit, I was finding it hard to finish).

Overall, the tea was decent, just not spectacular. Maybe I will make the walk again to try another tea (with a lot less...

I would like to say this is the first time I’ve experienced this, I’ve ordered here before and had a much better experience. I was in town and was really craving these rice balls since we don’t have anything like this where I live. I ordered 6 total for my friend and I to split. I got 2 yaya chicken and 2 spicy tuna, hoping to take a couple back home with me. I ate one of the yaya chicken and was disappointed to find hardly any meat and that the rice was crunchy. I ate this as soon as we left and it was still hot so I figured maybe it was a one off and maybe the rice balls were meant to steam some in the plastic. Later on that day I tried eating a spicy tuna and it was the same. Mostly crunchy rice. This was surprising because usually they hold pretty well, my friend would bring them when she came to visit and they’d be sitting out for quite some time and were still really good! Never crunchy and the meat to rice ratio was a lot more balanced. My friend didn’t eat hers until now but she had the same...

I came to visit my family in Durham from Minnesota. I’ve always seen boba tea online, but my small town doesn’t have any of the trendy things. I was recommended Yaya Tea from a family friend, and I chose the location in Durham because of the proximity. Upon walking in, I was greeted by the staff, and they were extremely nice to me. They described the different tea flavors to me, and I ended up choosing the Taro milk tea (totally recommend), and it was absolutely DELICIOUS!!! I added in some boba and it was so sweet and chewy, and it totally didn’t disappoint. I’ve never seen rice balls in person, and I was STOKED to try some. I ended up choosing the shrimp with crab rice ball and the spicy tuna rice ball. They were so filling and not too spicy for my poor tastebuds. I ended up visiting this location 5 more times before heading back to Minnesota. I would 100% recommend this place to anyone trying to get a delicious meal on the go. I even want to take a trip to Durham just to try their food again. LOL. Will be...