Where to Find the Best Boba and Bubble Tea in Atlanta

Jan 28, 2024

From local Atlanta bubble tea shops to nationally and internationally recognized boba chains

Boba, also known as bubble tea, is a tea-based drink traditionally served with tapioca balls at the bottom, though most boba chains offer an assortment of toppings like lychee jelly, sago, red bean — anything that gives the drink a “QQ” texture, a sort of tactile onomatopoeia in Taiwan to describe a chewy bounciness.

The true origins of boba remain shrouded in a rivalry between two popular Taiwanese tea house chains: Taichung’s Chun Shui Tang and Tainan’s Hanlin Tea Room. Chun Shui Tang claims that in 1987, its employee, Lin Hsiu-hui, created the first pearl milk tea when she poured a mixture of lemon black tea and iced milk tea over her favorite childhood snack, tapioca balls. Hanlin’s version of the story has its founder mixing translucent tapioca balls and milk tea in 1986.

Regardless of who created the first pearl milk tea, the resulting litigation the two companies embroiled each other in prevented any kind of trademark on the drink, allowing tea houses across Taiwan to sell their own boba. Though boba has been in the United States since the 1990s, first serving a primarily Taiwanese-American population in California, it wasn’t until the late 2000s that the treat took off across the country. The Atlanta area is no exception, now home to several dozen boba shops. Here are the essentials to check out.

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Since opening its first location in Duluth in 2018, Unbelibubble has spread across Atlanta with additional locations, including a stall at Chattahoochee Food Works, the Underwood Hills food hall. Popular items include the rose black milk tea, Unbelibubble fruit tea, and various crushes, fruit purees topped with a milk cap. Unbelibubble also offers a latte flavored with ube, a purple sweet potato popular in Filipino desserts.

A green tea with a fruit mixture of blueberry, dragonfruit, lemon, mango, strawberry, pineapple, and kiwi, the Supreme (this shop’s best seller) lives up to its name. Another tea-forward boba shop, try the ceremonial-grade matcha and cheese teas here. Teamo also offers a selection of six herbal tea blends, each with a specific purpose, from detoxification to digestion.

Based in Thailand, expect everything from a selection of milk tea frappes and refreshing green tea drinks to fruit sodas and Thai tea mixtures. Milk teas to try at Nobi Cha include flavors like strawberry, taro, cocoa, lychee, and melon with boba or pearl choices of brown sugar crystal, snow, and the shop’s signature nobi.

Originating in Taipei in 1992, Sharetea is nearing its 30th year in operation, with over 450 stores across the globe, serving boba lovers in Dubai, Sydney, and in Sandy Springs, Georgia. Along with the classic fruit and milk teas found at most boba places, Sharetea also offers mojitos (non-alcoholic) flavored with lime, mango, peach, or strawberry.

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Located just down the street from Ponce City Market, Honey Bubble tries very hard to be a local bubble tea shop, and it succeeds. Expect a selection of milk teas (offered with dairy substitutes) and snowcap slushies here.

On the edge of the Emory University campus, Tea Leaf and Creamery is known for its signature smoothie teas with flavors such as avocado, black grape, and red dragon fruit. Along with its smoothies, Tea Leaf and Creamery offers various tea infusions with ice cream or yogurt. A second location on Buford Highway opened in 2021.

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This North Decatur shop features a menu filled with delightful desserts, including shaved ice topped with fruit, slushies like mango-passionfruit, and waffle sticks garnished with sprinkles, Nutella, or mini marshmallows. Order milk tea with pearls here, too, like taro, honeydew, the shop’s popular Thai coffee, and strawberry black milk.

TeaTop takes its tea seriously. The tea in that cup isn’t just a vehicle for boba, it is something to be enjoyed, to be dwelled upon. The shop uses high-mountain tea leaves, grown in the mountain ranges of central Taiwan. Try the signature alpine green tea or Sun Moon Lake black tea, both offered hot and cold.

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Located in the H Mart complex in Doraville, Meet Fresh is another popular Taiwanese dessert shop known for shaved ice selections or bao bing like the decadent black sugar boba milky shaved ice topped with boba, creamy caramel pudding, red beans, and vanilla ice cream. But there’s bubble tea here, too, including win win milk tea with boba and lychee jelly and black sugar boba.

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Tucked away in a far corner of Doraville’s H Mart Plaza, the presence of 4.0 Ice Cream and Drinks is muted by its more recognizable neighbors, Tea Top and Meet Fresh. Now operating as a pick-up window, 4.0 features one of the more extensive, borderline intimidating, boba menus in metro Atlanta, with toppings such as mochi and chestnut (both $1.00). Customers are met with a storefront collage of posters for new limited-time specials, of which the mango sago slush and mochi sesame milk tea are stand-outs. 4.0 also offers milk teas by the gallon.

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A map of essential Atlanta boba shops isn’t complete without Sweet Hut Bakery. First opened in 2012 on Buford Highway, the Asian bakery and cafe has become a cornerstone of Atlanta’s boba scene, with four additional locations in Midtown, Duluth, Buckhead, and Marietta. The reliable line-up of milk teas here tend to lean toward the sweet side at 100-percent sugar, so order accordingly.

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Compared to boba shops with sprawling lists of toppings and flavors, Tan-Cha’s menu might seem limited. A more accurate word might be “curated.” Located in Doraville, the Los Angeles-based chain is known for its fresh fruit teas and its brulee milk tea, best enjoyed with an inch and a half of sweet foam on top. Said foam comes in three flavors: matcha foam; tiramisu puff cream; and cheese foam (a cream cheese-based foam that gives the drink a cheesecake edge.) The shop often hosts food pop-ups, too.

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With multiple locations throughout the northern Atlanta suburbs, Pearl’s Tea features both milk teas and loose leaf teas on its menu. Try the brown sugar or mango jasmine milk teas. Or, for taste of Georgia in the summer, order the white peach boba tea. Pearl’s also serves slushies and matcha lattes.

Tiger Sugar in Duluth and Kennesaw offers a limited selection of drinks sweetened with cream mousse and the shop’s signature brown sugar that streaks down the side of the cup like tiger stripes. The staff at Tiger Sugar advises people to shake the drink 15 times to fully incorporate the sugar. As part of a recent summer menu, the Taiwan-based boba chain served a tiger mango sago in limited daily quantities.

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Billed as Taiwan’s top choice for boba, and with locations all over the world, Xing Fu Tang is also a popular spot for bubble tea in metro Atlanta because of a handful of unique options on the menu. Try the gold foil brown sugar boba topped with a layer of edible gold or the brown sugar boba topped with an edible rose and edible gold. There’s even a fortune stick station (kau cim) at this location.

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