Happy Lemon

Happy Lemon is my new favorite milk tea shop! Since I’m only visiting Cupertino for a week, I’ve been going twice a day x) can’t help it and I don’t know what to do when I’m back in LA without Happy Lemon!
Located in the corner of Cupertino City Center (for all you oldies, this is where Tartini used to be), Happy Lemon is pretty spacious and a super cute shop. I love their little lemon logo. The prices are reasonable and the drinks are unique.
Please don’t be disgusted by the salted cheese series because the idea of having cheese in your drink is weird. It’s so so so good! And I can barely taste the cheese. EVERYONE’S GOTTA TRY IT. (Honestly I prefer it over Gong Cha and TeaTop right now). I’ve also tried a bit of my friend’s lemon oolong tea? I don’t remember the exact name but it’s pretty different too.
+ Plenty of parking inside the parking garage
+ They have a rewards card now! It’s plastic like an actual card which is awesome. After 10 drinks, you get a free one! :)

Initially wasn’t too keen on drinking tea with… Cheese? Turns out it’s cream cheese foam on the top of the drink, which tastes like a creama with a hint of cheesiness.
I got the black tea with cheese and boba as a topping. Adding boba was actually a mistake because the drink is served in a lidded cup with the small hole, so I couldn’t eat the boba while drinking the tea at the right angle (as suggested by the employees there). You’re supposed to drink the tea and foam at the same time so you get the perfect combo of sweet and very slightly sour.
There are several tables and outlets scattered through the bone shop. Would definitely study/​work here some time!

WHO KNEW salted cheese went AWESOMELY with milk tea!!! I was so scared to try the salted cheese series but I did not regret when I mustered the courage to take the leap of faith. The salted cheese part of the drink is a cream cheese mixed with condensed milk and salt.
The drinks are so creative and they even have a whole method for you to enjoy your drinks properly. For people who just want to grab a milk tea and go they still have stuff for you but it calls out more to the adventurous ones.
The staff are super friendly and help you with the menu since basically everyone is befuzzled by the title of salted cheese tea.
Be sure to ask for a sample of the salted cheese tea so you can give it a shot without risking the money!
I tried the light oolong with salted cheese and the black tea with salted cheese and both were DELCIOUS!!! I definitely recommend both!!!

Milk tea places are a dime a dozen nowadays but I’m happy to say that happy lemon is one of the better ones. Almost everything here that has a lemon head next to it is on the menu is pretty good. I recommend the salted cheese with black tea which is their version of black tea creama and the green matcha latte lemon.
I would have given them five stars if not for the fact that they do not have a reward system which in my option is unacceptable since most if not all places nowadays have five stars or some kind of stamp card system. Hopefully the owners will get on that real soon.

Ahhhhhhh I should have come to this place earlier! I was quite excited when I hear the news when they open a branch in cupertino. However, I didn’t want to spend a lot of lining up so I didn’t decide to pay a visit until Sunday. Boy oh boy I am so surprise how good this place is! I am a big fan on lemon, grapefruit, and yakult in drinks. This place makes drinks mainly out of lemon. I ended up getting a lemon grapefruit slush, it’s one of the best drinks I had in recently years. There are real fruits inside, and some jelly.
I am pretty sure I will return very soon, probably tomorrow!

Their lemonade drinks here are super refreshing and so is their customer service. Always friendly and remembers their customers :) My boyfriend and I usually come here at night and enjoy walking around the little courtyard area on warmer summer nights. I usually get the grapefruit lemonade and I’ve also tried the mango and lychee jelly tea. I finally tried the cheese boba last week and its actually pretty good! It seems like happy lemon is a pretty strong boba chain and I hope it stays part of the neighborhood.
Tip: parking is kinda tricky. there’s a parking lot like a building down for retail customers since it is located in a residential condo complex. But theres also a hidden parking garage a bit closer.

I think it’s only been a week since my initial review, but I’ve already come back a few times, so I thought I’d do a quick update on the drinks I’ve tried. Additionally, it’s seems to be always a pretty full store, granted it’s a small store space, but it seems like a lot of people like Happy Lemon. Drinks have always come out very quickly, and I didn’t realize until today, they actually have a tv set up, so that as soon as your order is taken, it shows up with a timer. In other words, they’re really holding themselves accountable in terms of efficiency, so that your drink will be made fast, and I think that’s awesome. Additionally, after placing your order, you’re given a cute little lemon sign with your number on it, which will be called when your order is ready.
Green tea with salted cheese: Another great salted cheese drink as I work my way down their salted cheese menu. Their green tea is a bit on the bitter side, which makes it perfect to be offset by the saltiness and sweetness of the salted cheese. I still do prefer the light oolong salted cheese, but this is another solid option to try. 4.5÷5
Matcha mango latte: Stronger in terms of mango flavor, but it tastes great to me, as they use fresh mangoes in it, not mango syrup as far as I can tell because I got a few chunk in my draw while consuming the drink. It’s also a blended drink, which you wouldn’t immediately infer from the name. A lot of my friends raved about this drink, and for me it is nice, but I personally prefer more matcha flavor, so I would pass. It’s definitely worth a shot if you enjoy both flavor, and it’s blended well. Again only available in their smaller size. 3.5÷5
Freshly squeezed lemon light oolong tea: It was a hot day when I got this, so I thought this might be a great refresh because it’s basically an iced tea with lemonade right? Unfortunately, it didn’t quite hit the spot for me. I have quite a sweet tooth, and even for me I found this drink a tad bit on the sweet side. The added lemon juice is definitely fresh as well as refreshing, but for me either the ratio is off, or it was the citrus element combined with the sweetness added, but I struggled to find the oolong flavor. I mean they do call their oolong light oolong, so other freshly squeezed lemon drinks might be better, but I wouldn’t recommend this drink because it just felt like a lemonade. Also, only available in their larger size. ³⁄₅
Overall, I’d still stick with the first two drinks I got here, which were the light oolong salted cheese and the bubble milk tea with milk puff. I definitely will try their green milk tea soon, and possibly some of their lemon slushies. I find it a bit strange that some of their drinks are only available in once size, but I guess it’s not that big a deal, and they’re upfront about it, so I don’t have to ask and then be denied. Pearls also have a great chewiness and flavor, but they’re the only toppings, I’ve tried so far, so I may need to deviate in the future.

The workers are super friendly! A+ service.
Everyone is recommending the salted cheese drinks. There is a good reason, because salted cheese is not the most appetizing way to describe how delicious it actually is in practice.
The cheese foam is made using cream cheese, but it is very foamy and light and creamy. If you ever had a salted foam drink at other milk tea places, know that the flavor is very very similar. I would say that this is a touch creamier and richer tasting than your typical salted foam and goes very well with the black tea (which is their recommendation).
Overall delicious drink, and I am definitely coming back. Too bad the cheese foam drinks don’t come in a large. Or is that a good thing?

GET THE SALTED CHEESE drinks!
I was attracted by the cute lemon logo and had been ordering the lemon series until I tried the salted cheese.
You can find many stores with cream cheese on top type of drinks, Happy lemon has a unique one. It’s richer, more on the sweet side, and it is more cheesy.
The workers are very friendly and patient.
I hope they can survive in this plaza where none stores had succeeded in this particular location. :(

Perfect on a 90 degree day or any day. REFRESHING! Service was friendly. The drinks were yummy. The store was super cute.
Recommended Drinks:
**FRESH Lemon Honey Green Tea with Aloe or Jelly. — They blend the lemon with the tea. Super refreshing. Wish they have it available in the large size. Only medium. I needed more. So good. FYI, this drink isn’t for you if you like it super sweet.
**Kumquat Lemon Green Tea — Good sweetness but also refreshing. Totally can taste the Kumquat. Love it! Perfect with jelly. Large size only.
Please open one in San Francisco!

The mango lemon slushy was fantastic! Tart and sweet, and just perfect for a hot day. Not a big fan of the lychee jelly here though; too soft and formless for my taste.
Salted cheese green tea: as other people have mentioned, it’s not actual cheese, it’s cream cheese. When you mix it into the tea, it tastes almost exactly like a regular milk tea. Not sure what the hype is aside for the weirdness of the name.
One of my friends ordered a regular bubble tea. I was pleased to find that it’s not very far on the sweet side and the astringency of the tea is still there somewhat.
The location is part of a hotel plaza, but thankfully there is a free, indoor parking garage right next to it that links up to the store. Free wifi is great, and the cashier was happy to explain any part of the menu to people lining up. Most drinks cost 4.50−4.75, but additions are an extra .50.
In short, glad to see this Asia based chain coming to the US!

A friend told me one of her favorite Asian boba chains was making its way to Cupertino and I was intrigued. I asked her what differentiated it from so many other boba places. She told me the salted cheese drinks were very popular. To be honest, I was grossed out. In my head, I was imagining some melted cheese topping like what’s on French Onion soup or like when people put cheddar on their apple pie (which I also think is strange). She assured me it was very good, but I was still pretty skeptical. Still, I’m a sport when it comes to milk tea and I ordered the Black Tea with Salted Cheese.
My drink came out in one of those hot drink cups where you flip the lid to reveal a small opening. This ensures that you get a good taste of both the cheese and tea with each sip (much better than a regular cup with a straw because what’s the point of the foam if you’re mixing it together anyway?). The cheese, like others have mentioned, is more like crema, but has a richer, creamier taste — think cheesecake-​esque — and the touch of salt provided a nice contrast. Overall, the drink is proportioned well between tea depth and creaminess as well as the sweet and savory.
It’s now been a week since my first visit and I’ve gone back 3 times. Can’t wait till they get their loyalty cards!

My oolong salted milk tea in original size (comes in only medium) cost over $ 4 but was really delicious! It wasn’t too sweet or salty and the cheese flavor tasted more like whole milk. I would come back for this drink for sure. Service was quick and friendly. The place is clean with several options for seating and plenty of outdoor space for lounging around. The menu doesn’t have any food options (that I noticed) but they do have some non tea drinks that include slushies and yakult drinks with aloe. They were out of grass jelly when I came :-(so I’ll have to try that next time. You get a cute little lemon wood block with a number on it rather than have your number on your receipt. It seems unnecessary but I thought the little token was really cute.

We were waiting for Happy Lemon to open for quite some time. Whenever we’d drive by, my husband would ask, «Is it open yet??» Well, finally Happy Lemon opened and it is oh so happy! I especially love how the logo girl’s hair is a lemon. Haha
My husband tried it in Shanghai and thought it was one of the worst milk teas he’d had, so we weren’t quite sure what to expect. But it’s kind of similar to how 85c is not very good in Taipei but quite tasty in the US!
We tried the salted cheese, fresh lemon with black tea, and fresh lemon with green tea. All 3 were pretty good, but I’d say the fresh lemon drinks were my favorite and refreshing on a hot day. If you’re confused about the salted cheese drink, so were we. But the manager explained it’s not really cheese, it’s more like a salted cream. So imagine something similar to salted caramel. but it’s milk tea with a hint of salt. I liked it but it didn’t quench my thirst, and it was hard to finish the whole cup.
Grand opening weekend was BOGO free; unfortunately, it looks like prices are back to regular now. On a nice day, you can sit outside in the front on benches. They also have a few tables inside. Parking is a little weird but you can usually find a spot inside of the garage (entrance is off Stevens Creek).

Apparently this is a famous pearl tea shop.
Their service was extremely friendly. The workers were smiling and took the time to explain everything. When asking for no sugar, they offered to let us try a small sample of it to make sure we’ll like it.
The management also talked to us about what kind of things are important for a reward system. I vote for the phone number system :) Also I do appreciate the frequent e-​mail offers I get from others like «Hey, stop by XYZ this week to get ½ off» I take advantage of them. Also there are some big Facebook foodie groups that is a great place to post offers :)
The logo and the characters are cute. Store is clean because it’s new :)
Bubble milk tea with taro was delicious.
I recommend this pearl tea place!

After having dinner at Kula, we decided to get something liquid and sweet like boba. We decided to try Happy Lemon as we all never have been there. As there are so many boba places in the area, it’s hard to compete, but since it’s been open for a couple of weeks, I’m sure they’re still working out some of the kinks in the drinks, so I do wish them luck going forward.
L O C A T I O N
Located off of Stevens Creek and De Anza on the corner with the Le Boulanger.
P A R K I N G
There’s a parking lot in the building that’s a little hard to see. You’ll see a driveway that goes down on the side of Stevens Creek. Just don’t go too fast. It’s to the side of Le Boulanger. If that’s full, then there’s another outside parking lot right after the complex.
I N T E R I O R
There are some tables inside, but they were all filled when we were there and ended up sitting outside but it was nice outside though so we lucked out. Otherwise, there’s no awnings to stand under if it were raining.
S E R V I C E
The guy at the register was super nice and friendly. Able to answer questions we had about the menu and showed us what puff cream was and what it was made of. It was nice that they had an ordering menu which showed you the progress of your drink though it was a little off. It would say it was ready, but they would still have some finishing touches to do on the drinks. They also give you a little token to show you the number of your order.
D R I N K S
The menu had some of your standard tea drinks, but they had some interesting items like the salted cheese, puff cream, fresh squeezed lemon, and ability to add Yakult (for a $ 1) to any drink. Drinks are standardly priced at $ 2.75-$ 4.75 but are around $ 3.50 for a medium drink with $ 0.50 for an upgrade to large when you can get it. We got a A1 which is the green tea with salted cheese (No ice and 25% sugar) and the D7 which is the milk tea with boba, pudding, and lychee jelly (no ice and no sugar).
~ A1 — Green Tea with Salted Cheese ~
The salted cheese drinks only come in medium size as they’re limited to the lid they put so you sip on it and not through a straw. I sipped it and it was thick and did taste like a creama that you’d get at 85 degrees or Gong Cha but it also had the taste of cheese which was unique. I swirled the drink and mixed it… bad idea. It lost all the flavor and the tea was super watered down although bitter in taste. It’s not a drink that will last sitting out a while as the salted cheese cream does start to curdle which gets a bit gritty in texture.
~ D7 — Milk tea with boba, pudding, and lychee jelly ~
The milk tea was good. Solid drink, a bit sweet even though we got no sugar in it. I’m sure it’s from the toppings. The only sad part of it is that although it says «pudding» there was a very small amount of it compared to the amount of lychee jelly and boba. Also they were tiny slivers which if you drink too fast you won’t even notice they’re there. Would’ve been nice to have just a large slab in there like at Half & Half and other milk tea spots. The boba itself was made well. Boba was sweetened which is good cause I like it to stand on its own. The milk tea feels like it’s a standard black tea with milk.
We ended up mixing the two drinks at home which actually made the drink better. So learn from me, get two drinks and make a monster drink!
O V E R A L L
If there’s no other boba spots around to try, then maybe I’ll be back. I’m still a little curious to see how their lemon drinks are since it is called «Happy Lemon» after all. So maybe one more try and perhaps it’ll change my mind to it being more than just a boba spot but a specialized lemon boba spot that I must come back again. We’ll see!

I’m so glad I drove here for their signature salted cheese series drinks. Drinks here are nothing I have seen before… Especially the salted cheese foam they have. I have always had the milk foam milk tea, matcha milk foam milk tea, but never have I had some kind of drink with cheese and its salted cheese?!
The only reason why I came here or drove all the way here is because my friend told me that Happy Lemon is opened from Shang Hai and it’s the only one opened in the nor cal right now. Hot and new! When I walked in, I was greeted by the workers and I stumbled upon their menu. Salted cheese hmmm should I be a risk taker today? I got their black tea with salted cheese. OMG it was soooo good I ended up ordering another one for later. The girl at the register laughed with me when I told her that I was actually being a risk taker when I ordered the first drink. Hehehe. Come try!!! :)
+they have seating area + restrooms so you can come here and chillax with your friends!

I’m glad I stumbled across this place when I was on my way out of the gym going home! Welcome to the boba family in ‘Tino :)
There’s some parking in the garage that you enter on the right side just as you pass De Anza Blvd while on Stevens Creek. There are limited spaces for retail (there’s a gate for residents only). I didn’t have any issues coming by around 7pm tonight.
I perused the menu and decided I wasn’t brave enough to try the cheese drink tonight. I opted for the milk tea that came with boba, egg pudding, and lychee jelly. A medium is only $ 3.75. A lot of places will run you $ 4+ if you get 2 toppings, so this isn’t a bad deal. I think their medium is a tad smaller than other places though, but I’m not really complaining. I forgot to ask for less sugar in my drink (I usually go with 50% sweet because I can’t handle too much sugar), but it was fine as-​in :)
This one’s for you Julie W.

SALTED CHEESE INSIDE MY DRINK? SALTED. CHEESE. What in the world kinda combo. yes, my thoughts exactly. Super hesistant to order it because just thinking about cheese infused in my drink sounded absolutely unappealing.
Cheddar cheese? Pepper jack. monterey, american??? None of those, thankfully! If you’ve had a creama/​milk foam, you’re gonna like the salted cheese drinks here. ‘Salted cheese’ is just another name for creama/​milk foam, or that’s what I think. I got the green tea with salted cheese and it tasted exactly like the milk foam green tea at Gong Cha, except the cream was a little thicker. I really enjoyed it. I also tried the lemon green tea — extremely lemon-​y and a bit sour on the first sip, but it’s refreshing to drink on a hot day. If you like lemon tea, get this.
I think it’s located in a weird spot. right below an apartment complex in the corner somewhere. Other than that. I think the drinks are worth trying! They’ve got free wi-​fi and outlets so if you wanna do some work, you can!
Wi-​fi password: TRI12345. No bathroom inside but there is a bathroom to the right of the store when you exit in this little alley way to the parking lot.

I came by with my friend after seeing the grand opening and hey buy one get one free? What a great deal. It was actually pretty crowded and there were a ton of people at 9pm. The interior is pretty small — but I would say about normal for a boba shop. There aren’t too many tables /​chairs so it’s quite hard to get a spot when it’s crowded.
Anyway you wait in a line and they give you a little plastic lemon with a number to grab your drinks. They somehow completely forgot our numbers because when our order came out they shouted out the names and that they didn’t attach a number to it. And what made it worse was that they had messed up one of our drinks so we had no idea it was ours. Lol.
For the drinks I ended up getting the Oreo Milk Tea. The milk tea itself its pretty good but honestly it tasted like milk tea with Oreo sediment floating around. I didn’t care much for the oreo. Save yourself and just get the regular Milk Tea.
My friend got the Bubble Tea with Puff Cream. We asked the registrar what a puff cream was and she got some vague answer that didn’t really explain it. The drink itself didn’t taste spectacular — just more milky.