Tea Era — Restaurant in Mountain View

Coming to Tea Era was my last attempt to enjoy boba since I had tried it a few times before and had been extremely disappointed by it. I decided to trust my fellow yelpers and get the roasted barley milk tea (cold), and I have to say, I understand what all of the rave is about now.

Do I think that I will ever crave this? No. However, I now can appreciate it. The tea is absolutely delicious. It was a little daunting coming into this place because the menus are mostly not in english and I was very confused walking in. However, I told the woman behind the counter that I had never been there before and I asked what she suggested I get and she immediately said the roasted barley milk so I figured, why not?

I thought the way they make the tea was really cool. They have this machine that shakes it and then puts a seal on top of it that you break through with your straw. The woman even asked after I tried it if I liked it which showed that she cared about my experience. That was a nice touch.

All in all, I definitely would come back. I recommend giving this place a try if you aren't a fan of boba. You can always get the tea without it as well, and the roasted barley milk can definitely...

A close second to Cupertino's Fantasia for me. I love anything with taro so I was ecstatic to find another tea shop besides Fantasia that served taro balls! The Tea Era taro balls are quite different from Fantasias. You can only get them in a cold drink and they are much smaller and have a smoother texture than the fantasia taro balls. I asked the Tea Era employees why I couldn't get them in a hot drink and was told they would melt :(.

My go-to drink is the roasted barley milk tea (large of course!) with taro balls and no ice. Their regular boba is great but taro balls are just so much better. I did order taro milk tea + taro balls once and it was pretty good for the first 1/2 of the cup. After that, it was taro overkill. I guess I am not as much of a true taro fanatic as a I first thought.

The line can get long here but it's worth the wait! If you don't know that to order they have a list of the popular drinks on the board and different toppings you can add. Be sure to bring cash, and make sure you get your loyalty card...

I think this is the best place to get boba if you're in the mountain view/palo alto area in comparison to Verde and Tapex which is just around the corner of this place.

Their drinks are tasty and their boba are chewy! I don't come here often enough to know the consistency of their boba but the few times I've had it, it was pretty good. Just wish it could be a little softer. Their milk teas have been great, and my favorite to get is their roasted barley milk tea! I've also tried their teas and I enjoyed those as well. They have a machine that shakes up all their drinks for you which is pretty cool! It's cheap since most of their drinks are under 3 dollars, only the smoothies and slushies are above 3 dollars. In comparison to some of the other boba places, this place is cheap! Downside though... the place is CASH ONLY...so come...