Tea Maru - Housemade Boba — Restaurant in Santa Ana

I came here many times and met the man and the lady there who take order and also make drinks. I always get the matcha latte and I saw the man made my drink a few times.

In fact, Matcha is sit in the can for a while will be layered as the matcha powder got settled in the bottom - color obviously looks much darker than the top layer; and of course at this point the bottom layer has stronger flavor of matcha - top layer is more in just water and light green color.

Before making drink, I always saw him stir the matcha to mix up 2 layers well. However, unfortunately the lady I met there twice, she did not do that….. even I tried to order my drink with less milk , more matcha … you know, the hint, the flavor of matcha is sit in the bottom in the can already, top layer doesn’t have that much flavor and she mix that top layer with milk, even though she tried to put less milk I still can’t feel matcha in my drink at all, it’s just water, milk, and matcha’s color…. Sadly. I am just a customer, how can I tell her how to make a better drink without making her feel bad? Sigh she does really need...

I think the nice young man needs more training on how management wants him to handle orders. When we ordered he did not ask if we wanted toppings or what topping we wanted. Having had Boba often we assumed he didn't ask because brown baba was standard. After ordering our third drink my son asked for mixed boba instead. The young man informed us that they were out of all Boba except some of the strawberry. It's only 4:30pm on a Tuesday afternoon, how are they out of Boba? Then we ordered and got our drinks. Turns out "fresh fruit tea" contains no tea. No Tea! It's just water and the fruit. For a place named TEA Maru with "handmade Boba" printed on the cups they were shockingly devoid of...

This used to be one of my favorite boba spots, but unfortunately, it has really declined over time. The shop no longer feels well-maintained, and the staff often seem undertrained and slow. The last few drinks I’ve had were disappointing, either the sweetness was off or the boba was hard and unpleasant. On top of that, the atmosphere inside is lacking: no music, no air conditioning, and overall an uninviting vibe.

It’s genuinely disappointing because this place once had so much potential. I hope the management steps in to make improvements and bring it back to the high standard it once had. But for now, I don’t see...