Ice Milk Company

For being a small hole in the wall in the heart of I.V. This place has the most amazing boba I have tasted to this day. I haven’t gotten around to trying their food yet, college areas are way too crazy at lunch time for me. But I’ll get to it. The food always smells and looks great and the boba makes it worth the trip by itself. A friend recommended IMC to me and now I recommend it to everyone. Delicious. Period!

HERE’S AN UPDATED 5 STAR REVIEW FOR THE CLUTCHEST HAWAIIAN CHICKEN AND RICE BOWL! A really tall bowl with delicious saucy /​partly crispy chicken and white rice? Only about $ 7 including tax? NEVER SKIMPING?
Perfect.
Also I was glad to hear that they’ve added some more Asian food to the menu. Love it.

I have been coming here since their grand opening, and although their boba is not the best– it is still better than most places here. Recently, I feel like they have been watering down their drinks, esp the jasmine milk tea.

If it weren’t in IV, I’d be here way more often. Great tea and good service. Oh, and their snacks are yummy, too.

After our horrible first experience with the jasmine tea, I didn’t order drinks this time despite their four stars rating. Maybe I should had brought it up to the staff and have them redo my drink, but I honestly do not like sending things back to the kitchen.
I did say in my previous review that I was going to come back for the egg rolls and potstickers, so I did. Their price is still 2 snacks for $ 5, which is good. I got my snacks quickly and headed out to Starbucks to work on a project. The potstickers and egg rolls taste like the kinds you get from the frozen aisle in grocery stores. Since they have student as their staff, I wasn’t expecting them to make their own egg rolls and potstickers, so that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that my egg rolls were still frozen in the middle! Sigh, Ice Milk Company, you disappoint me greatly. If I wasn’t desperate for any type of Asian food in the SB area, I really would had said «goodbye forever» the first time.
The worst part is that this place makes me feel like a dumbass. I still want to come back to try the popcorn Hawaiian chicken. We will see how I feel in a few months…

Boba pearls aren’t consistent here… sometimes they are hard, which is unfortunate. Their milk tea is fine but on the sweeter side. Caramel sea salt was super sweet so it’s not my favorite. Their avocado smoothie felt like ice cream– I actually enjoyed it! Overall, I like 805 Boba way more because of the Boba pearls. Hard to compete with LA or OC in general.

I’ve been having trouble deciding which boba place is better… Ice Milk and Wake Up Cup are definitely the top choices for me.
Ice Milk Company has the weirdest interior design where it literally makes no sense BUT everything else is amazing.
I always get the jasmine tea and it’s always so fresh. I like how you can customize the level of sweetness here AND they don’t charge for extra boba! I’ve also tried the Hawaiian chicken strips. Yes, they are deep fried but so, so good. They give you a lot of chicken pieces for $ 6.50 too. Definitely a guilty pleasure and I will always try my best to resist the chicken.
The customer service is STELLLARRR. If your drink is too sweet or bland, they will remake it for you until you’re happy! One time, I asked the worker to remake my Jasmine milk green tea 3 times because they kept missing my sweet level preference and every time, they were so friendly about it and didn’t make me feel bad for being ~picky~. ⁵⁄₅

I heard there was a new boba place besides Hana Kitchen and Naan Stop, so I decided to check it out. I always order a thai iced tea with boba (if they offer it) to judge a new place, and I was pleased. The boba was a perfect consistency, not too chewy but not too tough. The tea was good but not the best I had but it’s fine, there’s not a lot of places that offer a thai iced tea with boba.
But too be honest, I’m not really pleased with the way their menu is set up or the customer service. The menu was super confusing to read and I had to ask the cashier for help many times. And the girls working there were super sweet and professional BUT it took fifteen minutes to get my drink. There were maybe six or seven other people waiting like me and it was kind of frustrating. But I also understand that this a new business, so I suggest coming here and trying it for yourself.
I like the place and I’ll go back!

This is the best boba place in IV! The owners are super sweet and the drinks are amazing. I would recommend trying strawberry and taro ice milk with boba!

This place used to be in Albertsons. I get the Green Tea Ice Milk Blended and its my favorite. They don’t use powders so your not left with this disgusting powder film in your mouth… instead your left with pure deliciousness! The boba is on point and probably the best boba I have ever tried! They now serve food which is pretty awesome as well. I really like the rice bowls. They give a lot of food for the price and the bowl is filled with a good portion of chicken. They have so many flavors of boba to fit whatever you are into to. Go check them out you won’t regret it!

I came to check out the boba one day and it was alright. I enjoyed the Thai tea boba but it tasted watered down and the boba was a little softer then I would usually like/​expect. I then ordered the popcorn chicken that comes with the dumplings and it was really good. I highly recommend it. The popcorn chicken is fairly priced and it’s a big portion. I think you could even share it.

Overall, it’s an okay place. They moved from Albertson to IV, my gf and I had been loyal customers since before they moved to IV. But they jacked up the price. I remember ordering a specialty drink and it came out to be $ 6~$ 7. That’s one meal for a drink lol, definitely not worth it in my opinion. Drinks are not comparable to LA or norcal boba shops, and really expensive :\

A little too sweet. I got the Thai milk tea. The boba is not too bad but something seems off with the tea. It’s also overpriced, but perhaps that’s just Isla Vista.

I’m used to boba in Los Angeles and Irvine, but I kept an open mind when coming here. After all Hana Kitchen’s boba was not too bad if you’re craving boba tea in the central coast. To start, Ice Milk’s chalk board menu is confusing, but after dizzyingly glancing it over I just played it safe and went with a «top five» flavor, Horchata (which they spelled Hocharta, that was a red flag right there in itself). It was too sweet and very thick, tasted like melted ice cream (if you’re into that), but at least resembled Horchata flavor if you’re desperate. However, I was not desperate, and was willing to trade it in for something less sweet.
The cashier was kind enough to offer me regular milk tea, but I had a gut feeling they make it too sweet for me too, so I just asked her for plain black tea with boba. I was worried when she had to go to the back to get it, and when I got it, it looked like watered down coffee. Black tea usually looks, well, just a lot clearer than that. To my dismay, it was a little thick and the tea was overly bitter. It tasted like they might have brewed it a couple days ago and left the tea bags in there until they dissolved! I’m not exaggerating, there were little leaf particles on the side of the cup and the straw. I should have brought my strainer with me.
On a positive note, the tapioca pearls are soft and taste fresh. My recommendation is to just order the plain milk tea, that might be okay.

I came here again because I was craving a drink, but I was kind of disappointed. I got a strawberry kiwi green tea with lychee jelly. Last time I had the horchata milk tea.
Positives:
–you can mix the flavors
–it wasn’t overly sweet
Negatives:
–the flavor just wasn’t that good. I’ve definitely had a better strawberry kiwi tea
–the quality of the drinks seems inconsistent. I’d go for the horchata again and maybe try another milk tea but I wasn’t impressed with the regular fruit teas

Boba– on point!!! Love getting their Thai tea slush with a pump of vanilla. Their horchata drink tastes more like chai tea, but it’s good nonetheless! Really enjoyed the mango milk tea, and their melon slush tastes just like those Asian Melona honeydew bars! I also really like that they make their teas using real tea leaves– no more of that powder stuff.
Food– I ABSOLUTELY LOVE their huli huli chicken! Very flavorful and it’s great with a side of ponzu or spicy mayo. I know the ponzu is more for the potstickers, but it takes pretty good with the chicken too! Their sesame balls are a really nice dessert! When done properly, they’re crispy on the outside and soft on the inside… love the red bean that makes it sweet!
Once the owner gave me a couple samples of their potstickers– so delicious! I go at least twice a week and I can’t seem to stop craving that chicken!
My only complaint is that there aren’t any veggies! I know they used to put cabbage in their bowls but took it out because customers wouldn’t eat it and would throw it out. Maybe make it an option?
Also– it would be AMAZING if they also started serving Korean/​Asian potato salad or macaroni salad. And if they had kimchi as a side option too. That would be bomb! Keep it up! So happy you came to IV. You can’t get better boba anywhere else in SB.

When I saw a review on this place through Unilocal’s «near you» feed, I was like NO WAY! BOBA IN IV? I MUST GO NOW! And so I dragged J all the way here to get our hearts ripped out in utter disappointment. I know, I know, I am being way too dramatic; but when your jasmine tea tasted like 98% tap water with 2% jasmine tea flavor as seasoning, you would be as upset as me. I seriously could had made better tasting and actual jasmine tea in my own apartment with tea bags I bought from Costco.
The tapioca were not really soft nor did they taste like honey boba. I don’t even know if they were suppose to taste like honey boba but some Unilocalers mentioned honey boba. Hey, I know I grew up in the SGV and lived in the Bay area for the last few years, but I did not come in here thinking I was going to get the best boba experience ever. I just wanted decent boba. Guess I will just have to wait to satisfy that craving when I drive home.
Will probably be back for egg rolls and pot stickers because I love egg rolls and pot stickers. Hopefully I don’t get my heart stomped on twice.

WHY I GO:
+ The owners are super sweet and care about the students that come in.
+ Free samples.
+ They cook meat on a salt plank. That’s legit.
+ The popcorn chicken and potstickers is a good deal ($ 6.50), could be 2 meals for small stomachs.
+ A lot of indoor AND outdoor seating.
WHAT TO BE AWARE OF:
— Sometimes the tapioca/​boba isn’t steeped in honey enough. (This usually happens when there is more demand than supply in a short time.)
— The tea is not as strong as LA or SF, but hey it’s SB. It’s the best in IV.
— The syrups are Torani. I don’t like them because I like the tea
Recommendations:
If you like the tea flavor, get black milk tea or thai milk tea. Syrups overwhelm the tea flavor.
If you like a sweet treat, get the horchata blended. Note: It’s best right when it’s made; it’s very sweet when it’s completely melted.
DON’T BE AFRAID to get flavored tea without milk… usually fruity drinks taste better. Like passion fruit green tea.

Seeking an escape from Hana kitchen, I found this place a couple of days ago. I needed another milk tea place after the last time I ordered milk tea in IV.
When I walked in, the place seemed like a normal place for milk tea; there were tables to sit, a bar for drinking, and outdoor seating. It seemed like the same old, same old.
The menu is very difficult to read, there are many choices, but it doesn’t say how to order and what kinds of drinks they had.
I ordered a lychee milk tea with boba. I personally thought it was really sweet, but overall it was good. Not like SF/​LA good, but it’s easily the one of the better milk teas I’ve had here.
Positives: nice location, nice seating options, good drinks, free add ons, fast drink making
Negatives: too sweet, hard to order; for some reason, you have to order two food items in order to order food, boba’s a bit chewy
Overall, it was good boba. I’d come back here before some of the other places which I won’t mention by name.

I (generously) rate this a Santa Barbara 4 stars, for boba. Comparatively, it quickly would drop to a 3 in San Francisco or San Diego. But it is on par with Ventura/​Oxnard boba.
Since there are so few boba serving establishments in SB, competition is low. But I would, and will, drive from downtown SB in the middle of the night to get a boba drink from here (since they are open until 2 a.m. Th-​Sa).
Boba was good, not chewy, slimy or old tasting. My first drink, milk tea, was average. I couldn’t put my finger on it. But it doesn’t compare to big city boba. But again, I’m ecstatic that this place even exists.
This business is a transplant from a shop they had in the Albertson’s near Costco. When I would go there, I would get a drink called Tiger Tea (half milk tea, half Thai tea). I’ll probably go back to that next time.
Note: I haven’t tried the food yet.

Decent boba! My drinks as of late were very chalky though. The food is ok and is worth it to share with others but the downside is you have to get a combo of two or more and the portions I’ve received are huge. I really like
The seafood fritters and potstickers but be warned their food is very greasy! I think the only guilt free snack here are the inari rice balls which are actually very filling. The recycled froyo cups wrapped in foil aren’t really great for to-​go orders.

I bookmarked and subsequently tried Ice Milk Company because:
A) Boba? I gotta have it!
B) Popcorn chicken? AND open late?
I thought the above would be an excellent addition and a great replacement of the space previously occupied by Pita Pit. (RIPppit)
The menu at Ice Milk is simple because it lays out the food options on one side as «Fire» and the drink options on the other side as «Ice». For drink you can either do a liquidy drink or a blended drink — the third option is to have an ice milk float which is kind of the middle of the two extremes.
Taro was solid but I think the Ice Milk generally is the dominant flavor. It’s good though, trust me! You can add toppings like boba or popping boba for no extra charge, which makes sense because the drinks are like $ 4 – 6. So get the additions.
The food sucks, I mean I only had the potstickers and the popcorn chicken but given the taste of those items I would say just come here for drinks and avoid the food.

I ordered the Jasmine Milk Tea with boba. Boba is pretty good, but the tea was so watered down. I felt like I was drinking milky water and was also lacking in sweetness. I told the workers that it didn’t have a strong enough tea flavor and it wasn’t sweet enough, but they only pumped in sugar for me, they didn’t do anything to help fix the tea flavor. I’m pretty sure I got like 5 extra pumps of sugar in and it still tasted the same, and at that point I gave up. I drank half and threw it away.
I also tried my friends black milk tea, also watered down.
They need a stronger tea brew, it’s lacking in flavor. Overall I don’t like the drinks here. For those who know of Banh mi Che Cali in LA, let’s just say their buy 1 get 1 free boba milk tea tastes better :/

In short, this is a nice addition to IV for quick Asian snacks and boba that’s open until 2 am. But it cannot be compared to similar places in LA or even San Diego. Maybe it is better than Hana Kitchen, but not by much.
I had the lychee green tea blend with boba and lychee jellies. My cup had fewer boba pearls than usual, which was disappointing. There were more jellies of a firmer texture. Both the boba and jellies weren’t quite the right texture, not dense enough and barely even chewy. Something about my drink tasted dirty too, almost as if it was made with dirty water. I doubt it was, but the flavor was just off.
Even more difficult to finish was the Hawaiian popcorn chicken. The dish comes with potstickers. There was nothing Hawaiian about the chicken. The pieces were bland and oily, the worst popcorn chicken I’ve ever had. Maybe try adding some seasoning or basil leaves? Popcorn chicken is sort of a staple at boba places… Potstickers were tasty, not that you can mess frozen potstickers up.
My boyfriend was confused when the employee called his order for the chicken and potstickers because they were served in two separate containers.
I don’t like to tear apart businesses, it’s just a matter of experience having tried other boba shops that do it better. This is a nice location and students who love boba will continue to come here. But unless the drinks (food would be nice too) improve, then I don’t plan on returning.
On the bright side, the menu board was large and attractive. I like how the top five drink flavors were ranked. We also liked the screen displaying song lyrics. This place has potential and I would return if it improves.

The BEST boba in Santa Barbara, and I’ll even go far enough to say I prefer it over popular Boba shops in LA like half and half and Cha
I was a loyal fan of roll a lot back when it was in albertsons, so I was ecstatic to see them come to IV as Ice Milk Co. Although the first drink I got during their soft opening was watery, I had plenty of faith that they would serve the amazing boba they had in the past. Needless to say, my faith was rewarded (:
And thanks to the employees/​owners for always adjusting the sweetness for me! You guys are awesome!

Maybe it was the flavors I tried or they were still experimenting, but the drinks were mediocre. I went during its soft opening, they did not have their official grand opening yet.
I had these drinks at the Albertsons in Goleta before and they were the best boba drinks in the area. However, the one in IV was a disappointment.
I got the honeydew ice milk ($ 6 with tax) and it was way to sweet, watered down, and powdery. However, the workers were extremely nice and let me trade my drink. (I saw others doing this too). I decided to get a regular milk tea because how could they mess that up? The milk tea was super watered down and I couldn’t even taste the flavor. :/​My friend also got the mango green tea and said it was too bitter.
The plus side is the price includes free toppings, such as boba/​lychee jelly, and the workers are extremely accommodating.

If you’ve ever tried the drinks at the boba places in LA/​OC, you’ll know that the ones in SB has never compared… until now. When I heard that this used-​to-​be-​in-​Albertsons joint would open in IV, I thought «ahhhhh– finally a legit boba place.» It’s about time!
First off, two words: POPCORN CHICKEN. Oh my lawwwd, their popcorn chicken is so good! They give you a huge portion of it + two potstickers (which are also REALLY good) for $ 6.50. I like to dip it in spicy mayo as it gives it a lot of flavor, but if you’re not a fan of dipping, it tastes great alone. It’s definitely filling & then some!
More often than not the milk tea’s flavor at other boba places in SB is never consistent, and they’re way too sweet or watered down. This place uses actual brewed tea leaves and flavored syrup so you never get that powdery taste. I’ve tried the jasmine milk green tea float and the thai vanilla-​cinnamon iced tea, and they’re both amazing. I also tried my friend’s sea salt coffee, which tasted great! Might I mention they also add boba/​popping boba/​jelly at no additional cost?
My new go-​to boba joint!

This place is the bomb diggity. I came here for their soft opening, and the place already had a lot of people. They (unfortunately) ran out of regular boba, which was no problem. I opted for popping boba and to my surprise, my drink was 50% off for the inconvenience of running out of regular boba. Boba/​jelly/​popping boba is included in the price, so no more surprises at the cashier. The owner and employee were super helpful and nice. They only serve milk bobas, so if you want slush, go to Hana Kitchen. Their milk teas are made with REAL tea, not the powdered stuff. They also add Torrani syrups to their milk teas for flavor, so it ends up being sweet. If that’s a problem, you can ask for less sweetener.
I got the Thai Iced Tea with popping boba, and I was so happy with it! It wasn’t too sweet nor bitter. It didn’t have any artificial gross after-​taste. The popping boba was good too. My friend got the Peach Milk Tea, which was a little too sweet for my taste, however, she loved it. I prefer this way over Hana Kitchen, which, in my opinion, tastes like leftover froot loop cereal milk with extra sugar.
There is plenty of seating outside of Ice Milk Company, so it’s a good spot for friends. I heard they’re open pretty late, so that’s an added bonus! I will definitely come back, as this is officially my favorite boba spot in SB.
I can’t wait to try their food at their grand opening. It looks promising.

You just don’t get any better, anywhere, ever. I’ve taken all my friends here, and it’s become a go to place for everyone I know. It’s just so good. The staff is incredibly nice and they have been very willing to do special order — get the Tiger tea… It’s da best.
Update: I tried 805 Boba, to diversify my boba portfolio, it was a poor decision. This place the Ben and Jerry’s of Boba, 805 Boba is the Rite Aid Thifty’s. Why waste the calories on anything but the best?