Tea Maru — Restaurant in San Gabriel

Sharetea is finally open in the SGV! I have been waiting for this place to open for a long time, and the minute I heard it was open, I went with a few of my friends to try their soft opening specials.

Sharetea is located in the El Pollo Loco plaza in place of Piece of Cake Café. It's in the plaza adjacent to Golden Deli and Benten Ramen. I thought the parking would be tough, but there were lots of open spaces when we got there around 8 PM.

The storefront is welcoming and well lit. Lots of brightly lit signs displaying their popular drinks. And plenty of tables to sit and chat with friends. As they are still figuring out the kinks and problems, they have an advertised soft opening special where if you check in on Yelp, you have a choice of any 5 pre-selected drinks for only $2. On that particular day, the drinks were quite intriguing so my friends and I ended up buying a lot of tea. But hey, you only live once, right!

The workers are very nice and seem to be learning the hang of things. There were still some big mistakes that were made, but after the workers were notified, the mistakes were quickly rectified.

Taro Blended Ice with Egg Pudding - I really, really enjoyed this drink. I added mini boba for an extra $0.50, which I thought was worth it because there wasn't too much pudding in the drink. But there was a ton of boba, which I really liked! The taro was blended to be very fluffy and sweet (despite the 80% sugar). I loved the taste and even though it was sweet, could still taste a hint of taro. My sister, who is not a fan of taro, took a sip without knowing what it was and really liked it as well!

Herb Jelly Milk (black) Tea - I ordered this with mini boba as well. They actually forgot to add the herb jelly in, but after I let them know, I was given the herb jelly on the side. I really enjoyed the drink. I could really taste the flavor of the tea, and I loved the smoothness of it. And with the mini boba, which were on point, this was probably the best drink. My friend ordered this drink as well, but it came with the salted cream mixed in, which resulted in her drink becoming salty and strange. The owner, I believe, personally fixed it and made sure that it was to her liking, which I thought was really nice.

Oolong Tea Crema - I like the idea of the drink. I really like milk cream and Hokkaido creams, but the cream on top of the oolong tea tasted completely different from what I am used to. First, the oolong was not pure oolong tea, which other tea places have. Instead, they use an oolong milk tea, which is already sweet and doesn't have too much tea flavor. When sipped with the cream on top, the consistency was really strange and the flavor really weird. So I mixed the drink, but there was this salty taste throughout the drink that didn't sit well with me. Not a fan of this tea.

Overall, definitely will be back to try more drinks and learn which is my favorite. Prices are not too bad, and they only have one size (which is a large!). And there is no minimum for credit card, which I really like! And it's great that you can customize your drinks with amount of ice and sweetness and toppings. Will be back ... very soon!

Came back to try some more of their special $2 drinks:

Passion Fruit Green Tea - the best out of the three. Had good flavor and wasn't too syrup-y.

Homemade Taro with Fresh Milk - Yeck, tasted horrible. Had no flavor at all and I couldn't taste any taro. Flavorless milk basically.

Hokkaido Pearl Milk Tea - was a bit powdery, but had more taste than the homemade taro drink. Not enough flavor and not...

When you roll into 626 looking for boba and find yourself in a trifecta of options in one street corner, it can be hard to decide where to check out. Fortunately, Tea Maru holds its own and was a great spot to grab boba.

Ordering is done completely through the kiosk but I'm sure you can ask the staff any questions that may be unclear from ordering.

While it's not clear at first they do offer lactose-free and non-dairy milk options including soy, oat, and almond, all free of charge. That is usually unheard of but absolutely appreciated as someone that loved their milk teas but no longer consumes dairy. You are able to select this as you scroll through selecting your sweetness and ice levels for your drink.

I ordered a Roasted Oolong Tea Latte with oat milk and boba. I was able to enjoy the high quality oolong tea and the sweetness of the boba and sweetener was extremely satisfying. Oh, and did I mention they make their own homemade boba here apparently? They were incredibly soft and chewy.

While there isn't much room inside to stay and hangout, there's plenty of space to stand while waiting for your order.

Bathroom is 'temporarily closed' as many places have been since the pandemic. Free parking is available in a...

I was in the area and decided to pop in.

Customer Service: Very friendly. The cashier girl let me taste the boba. Also, I didn't feel rushed at the counter, which I hate feeling rushed.

Quality: The boba is "Housemade" and you can really taste the difference. The quality of the tea and the boba ate great. Not sure if the tea is powdered but it taste brewed! The boba is sweet which is nice. Sometimes, boba tastes like nothing. There was a good variety of boba flavors. The only reason this place didn't get a 5 star is because it lacked other topping options such as: egg pudding, red bean, etc.

What Did I Order?

Dairy Free: I got the milk tea and luckily, they had a dairy-free option! This drink was refreshing and light.

My boyfriend got the handmade taro milk tea with sweet potato boba. This drink was so delicious, creamy with bits of taro or sweet potato in it! Perfect amount of sweetness. Didn't have to modify the %...