Nihao Cafe & Tea House — Restaurant in Town of Union

BEST bubbles in Binghamton! And cheap! I love bubble tea! My family is from Taiwan. I grew up in Flushing (Queens) where there are over 20 bubble tea shops within a mile of my parents' house. In other words, I'm an expert on bubble tea.

Nihao is the ONLY place in Binghamton that gets the bubbles (aka tapioca pearls) right! Some people might disagree, but for me the most important part of bubble tea is the tapioca. Most bubble tea places mess up the bubbles. They either do not have the right texture (e.g. too mushy, too hard) or taste (e.g. too sweet, not sweet enough) or both. I've even had bubbles that were hard on the inside and not fully cooked! Moreover, after being cooked, the bubbles have a shelf life of a few hours, after which they become gummy and slimy. You can't refrigerate them either because then they become hard. In Taiwanese, the ideal texture is stylized in English as QQ, which is a very specific type of chewy that has some bounce to it (as opposed to, say, taffy which is chewy but has little bounce). All that to say, it's VERY hard to get the bubbles right. But somehow Nihao does it!

THAT SAID... Nihao does have fewer options for toppings compared to some other places. Some people in my family love to add pudding and grass jelly, which Nihao does not have.

Also, personally, I'm not picky about the tea. I know some people do not like the powdered mixes. There's no question that actual brewed tea with milk tastes better. But imo that's small potatoes! I can brew and mix the perfect cup of milk tea by myself at home. What I'm unable to do is obtain good quality tapioca and cook it to perfection!

OH! ALSO! Nihao is about $1-2 cheaper per drink than every other bubble tea place in...

Very disappointed in our experience here yesterday!

My daughter, her friend and I all ordered drinks. My daughter's friend ordered jelly in her milk tea and I think she thought she was ordering the pop balls. Needless to say, they are two very different things and she really didn't like it (disliked it so much I could tell she didn't even want to drink it). I went back in with the drink and I explained this to the owner hoping he would help fix it. He said he wouldn't do anything because that is what she ordered.

I was quite taken back that he didn't care that she didn't like her drink. My daughter and I have been going there routinely over the past year and this situation truly left a bad taste in my mouth. He wouldn't sacrifice one drink. Nevermind the fact that the $2 tip i put in the jar would've probably covered the cost to remake the drink anyway. I was so shocked he didn't care. I felt like taking my tip back out of the jar and now rethinking if we will ever go back.

Update - thank you for your response. I am understanding that sometimes we are having a moment or an off kind of day and may regret our mood/choice after the fact. I appreciate this response and we will...

Okay so I've lived in back in Johnson City for nearly a year now and I owed I've been seeing that sign for more than a year like yours will apparently they've been open for 10 years and that is like that you experience of learning the whole bubble tea thing but I was sort of confused so it took me a little bit offer two sizes and I really can't tell you a lot but they broke it down to three stops I'm just kind of silly I didn't understand but if you know it's just conversation and getting to know our business owners around us and they were very nice and I'm going to be going there quite frequently awesomesauce I'm super happy actually better deals than I've ever...