Boba Life NYC

Saw the promotion outside the door and went in for my 2 for 5 medium drink. I was surprise how well they made the green tea. Doesn’t taste like packaged at all. It was a small cute spot. No bathrooms though. (***)
I must say the workers didn’t seem to welcoming or maybe they just want to take my order so they kept looking at me. (***)
There is a large selection to choose from. I haven’t tried their finger food, but looks pretty good when I peeked at the table next to me. (***)

Right after eating the best soup dumplings, joe’s shanghai, we decided to finish the night off with some boba tea next door.
The menu was big but everything looked and tasted the same. You have an option of green tea or milk tea then they add a little bit of flavor to the bottom and shake. Hmm… not the best hoba place around. but with the promotion they had, I guess you cant go wrong. (2 medium drinks for $ 4 or 2 large drinks for $ 5)
Service was a bit slow. only 1 person working.

Not bad. They have a summer special where it’s $ 4 for two mediums or $ 5 for two larges. I got two pearl milk teas, Hong Kong style and rose. The rose flavor was a bit artificial, but the Hong Kong milk tea was very aromatic and flavorful. The pearls are nice too.
3.5 stars

Looooooooooooooove bubble tea and I love this place.
I think they have a TON of options for bubble tea. And you can mix and match flavors. Everyone that works here is SUPER friendly. I made some mistakes when ordering and they were so nice about it and acquiesced to all my requests.
Taro, Almond, Coconut, Fruity ones, you just can’t go wrong. (I will say the only one I didn’t quite like was their Thai Ice Tea, that tasted weird and not like any other Thai Ice Tea I’ve ever had…) They have slushies and milk teas and hot ones. Go get your bubble tea!
**SUMMER SPECIAL: Buy any tea and get 1 FREE** Can’t beat that deal anywhere!

JANKY boba shop in Chinatown BUT honestly one of my favorite tea shops in manhattan! i just wish they had more than 3 tables so people could hang around
they have random limited time specials (ie. 2 small drinks for $ 3 one time)
—lychee milk tea w/​lychee jelly: yummy! not too sweet
—hong kong milk tea w/​coffee jelly: great combo
—rose milk tea w/​lychee jelly: i liked this unique combo. they put real dried roses inside which were yummy at first bite but then got dry & unpleasant to chew
LOVIN’ the CHEAP prices, the fact that boba/​jelly comes w/​the drink, & that you can customize your sweetness
NOTE: CASH ONLY & don’t forget your student ID for a 50 cent student discount

Chinatown has plenty of places to get bubble tea but Boba Life is great in every category. First the selection is huge, including milk teas, green teas, slush, ice, basically any form of liquid they sell it here with a choice of bubbles. The selection of bubbles or boba is big too. The place is clean, modern, and trendy. Not that I have anything against getting my bubble tea from a decrepit old bakery, I just rather get it from this place. The prices are great too. They had a special: $ 3 for a large. Lastly, the staff was very friendly and helpful.
random thought: I love how all the bubble tea places seal the top on the drink. Why do only bubble tea places do this?

I’m not crazy about bubble tea. It doesn’t have caffeine in it. I’m not lying in bed with hives and insomnia sucking down tea with valerian root so I wake up for work the next day. So what is the point of bubble tea? It’s kind of tasty.. .. I think. Well, this was our 1^st stop and Z’s pick for our Manhattan portion of our borough crawl. Our 3^rd Staten Island place was closed. So yes, we actually successfully made it to 3 boroughs. Waves small white flag of victory. This particular bubble tea shop is located on a random freaking street in the middle of China Town, kind of near that neat speak-​easy, Apotheke. It’s brightly lit and hard to miss.
On this particular day they were advertising that you can get 2 small iced milk bubble tea flavors for the price of one. I decided to get one with chocolate because they were out of oreo and I didn’t want to od on caffeine at 5pm on a Monday. Steph got the second half of my deal and opted for almond. Both were delicious. Better than I expected. It was like drinking a dietary milkshake. They accidentally put bubbles in mine. But they weren’t too bad. My other friend opted for a hot coffee/​tea style drink. They also had a one dollar appetizer menu of asian treats if you are feeling adventurous enough. I recommend it though if you are into bubble tea stuff because this is easily probably the best that I ever had, though, it is also something I don’t find myself particularly having or craving very often.

Yes, I gave a bubble tea place 5-​stars. Why not? An establishment doesn’t have to have Michelin stars to impress me.
Why do I love thee?
1-​For the price of a small sized bubble tea, $ 3, I get a free upgrade to a large tea.
2-​I get to choose up to 3 toppings in my drink that is included in the $ 3 price!
3-​Get a loyalty card because for every drink you buy, you get a stamp on your card. Collect 4 stamps get a medium drink for free.
That is why I love BobaLife NYC!!!

This boba is perfect in every way possible. Perfect amount of ice. Perfect amount of sweetness in the tea. Perfect consistency of pearls.
The pearls were smaller than the usual size of pearls I’m used to. If you’ve been to Quickly’s before I’d say its exactly in the middle between the small and large pearls.