Tai Chi Bubble Tea

Let me start off by saying that it is very hard to find good bubble tea. Sure, it’s a beverage, but there are more components to it than most people think. Sometimes the tea doesn’t taste quite right. Other times, the texture of the bubbles is off or something feels like it’s missing; something that could be added to elevate its flavor. Most of the places I have tried have bubbles that are raw in the middle, or tea that is too sugary.
I walked in to Tai Chi Bubble Tea with some friends and very low expectations… As some of the previous reviews have stated, it’s in a weird location. I pretty much only went because I was thirsty from shopping all day.
To my surprise, the interior is very trendy-​the furniture is sleek and there is Asian music and shows set in the background via speakers and TV sets. The store itself offers a large selection of teas, snacks, smoothies, and frozen yogurt. Staff members were very friendly and offered samples of frozen yogurt. Not all of them were well trained (in fact, it seemed like the owner was there training new workers at the time we worked), but we had no complications.
Now, as for the tea itself…
Amazing.
I had the standard large milk tea with boba with some strawberry jelly. The black milk tea had a light floral note, giving it a bittersweet taste. The jelly, of course, being made beforehand, was already very sweet, but really helped to balance out the tea. The bubbles were very soft and easy to chew (good for me, since I had a sore throat that day). Everyone else seemed to be enjoying their beverages as well, which is saying a lot since they are a picky bunch.
One of my friends did complain that they added too much ice to his Thai tea, but this can be easily avoided by kindly asking the staff to cut down on the ice.
I’m spending the summer away from Henrietta, so it greatly saddens me that I can’t enjoy Tai Chi Bubble Tea for a few months. Even the bigger, much fancier tea shops in urban areas can’t compare to this place!

Excuse my language but this place is the SH*T! Seriously, to all my bubble-​tea die-​hards, this place is a MUST-​VISIT. You will not be disappointed! Great atmosphere, first and foremost, but the taste, quality, selection and price of this bubble tea can’t be beat. I consider myself to be somewhat of a bubble tea snob, and having tried almost all the places in Rochester this is the one I frequent the most. Plus the hours are amazingly flexible. Highly recommend! (Try the Passion Fruit!!)

My first visit didn’t leave me yearning to come back. They were filling a large order for what seemed like a Fraternity. The staff was juggling between packing the never ending boxes and the present clientele. So of course, my basic Taro boba was watery and flavourless.
With that first experience aside, I was recently back in the area and gave them another try. Very happy with my second experience as it reminded me of the boba drinks I’ve had in bigger cities. And it’s about time too! They didn’t skimp on the pearls or the powder. I am not jumping into signing up for rewards since I do not frequent HELLrietta, but I will the moment one is open in Downtown, Pittsford or on the east side.

I stopped by this place on my way to NYC and ordered milk tea with pearls. The tea was decent (reminiscent of Lollicup and Quickly) and the pearls chewy/​a good consistency. The pearls were not sweet as I would have liked; instead, it tasted like nothing. The ambiance was nice and the there was plenty of seating. Overall, I would recommend this place if you have a bubble tea craving and are in the area.

I was pleasantly surprised to find Tai Chi, a dedicated bubble tea shop, after moving away from Rochester for 2 years. I always thought Rochester had a big enough market for such a place, including college kids, international students and Asian population in general.
The interior of the place is nicely decorated with modern black furniture and ample lighting. Tai Chi seems like a good alternative to the traditional coffee shop and a decent place to study given the number of tables and seating.
I ordered a jasmine milk tea with tapioca. The tea was good, I found it nice that you can fully customize the level of sweetness and the amount of ice in your drink. However, I had a bit of an issue with the tapioca balls.
I’m not sure if they were freshly made, but it seemed like they didn’t get enough time to cool off and a bunch ended up sticking together and clogging off my straw. It was a pain to drink at times.
Overall, even with the less than ideal tapioca balls, Tai Chi deserves 4 stars for being the one-​of-​a-​kind bubble tea place in Rochester. The interior is fairly upscale for a bubble tea shop and they seemingly offer a variety of drinks. I hope they do well, because i’ll be a returning customer.

This was great bubble tea. Great atmosphere and great service. I really hope they stay around. Hard to find a big variety but they got it all.

Have you ever had GOOD boba? You know, the kind of boba that is soft, warm, chewy and sweet? This is NOT it! I will preface the rest of my review with this, I have been spoiled by the BEST boba in LA, so I have high expectations for what boba should be! There are not a lot of boba places in rochester, so for ROCHESTER, I guess this is as good as it gets. The boba was cold, hard and tasteless so I just drank my milk tea and spit out the boba. I was SO disappointed. I didn’t get to try any of their food, but I do want to give this place another try if the craving ever hits.

Good bubble tea place in Rochester. Finally! Didn’t expect much when we first arrived here. They have really nice lounge too.

So right off the bat I want to say this is a weird location for a bubble tea shop. Right between a tire store and a mattress store. It’s a little far to walk from the mall but still very close. I guess I’d imagine a place like this in the SouthWedge or Monroe neighborhoods, not so much Henrietta.
When you pull up to park in the lot and see the actual store front… it’s a little intimidating because the glass windows and doors are blacked out… but when you go inside you can tell it’s just tinted. I think not being able to see inside makes it a little weird at first. Walking in my first impression was like… holy crap!!! I was not expecting it to be so chic and modern! This is such an adorable little tea and yogurt shop ! The atmosphere very relaxed, filled with sophisticated black couches and a few tall tables. Totally blown away. I felt like I was in Koreatown for a minute there, especially with the k pop music playing on the flat screens.
The menu is very elaborate with all flavors of bubble tea either with milk, no milk and even smoothie options ! So many things to choose from ! I liked how the menu was a drawn chalkboard display, even the little fruits were drawn with perfection. Very artsy and unique. The staff is very friendly and helpful.
I usually get the smoothies or slushes, and they’ve all been excellent. I will try some of the other options on my other visits since I will for sure be going back for more !!! This could easily be one of my favorite bubble tea spots in Rochester ! I’ll have to do a taste test comparison with White Swans Café !!!

Rochester has very limited bubble tea options, Tai Chi bubble tea is definitely one of the better ones. They let you customize your sweetness and ice. Nice atmosphere but service is awfully slow when they have a small crowd. They really need to learn how to handle the line better.
For a bubble tea lover, it does the job, not blown away — but it satisfies the cravings.

I came with my girlfriend after dinner to pick up some milk tea to go. It’s been a routine for us since its opening. I’ve been an avid milk tea lover and milk tea is huge in my home country China. So I think I can have a say in this. The milk tea here is legit.
I usually go for the classic milk tea. The balance of milk and tea is usually good, and I think the «regular sweetness» is about right. I think the highlight here is the bubble, which is chewy and sweet. Some milk tea places simply don’t get it right, sometimes make the bubble too stiff and plain, and in the worst case, the bubble tastes like plastic.
The environment in Taichi is pretty killer, and they play decent Chinese pop here.
Their bubble tea is on the pricer side, but as the saying goes, you get what u pay for.

Finally a delicious bubble tea place with a lot of flavors! I ordered a taro coconut with lychee jelly bubble tea, it was so amazing, I wish I got a large. The bubbles were cooked perfectly not too hard and not too soft.
The décor is nice. There’s a frozen yogurt station with lychee and taro, I’m excited to come back and try those flavors. I like the variety of so many different types of bubble tea, hot or cold, bubble size, and fruit jelly.

Found out about this place on Facebook, opened around late October. First day was just terrible, most orders was mess up, waited to long, they fail to give us a receipt with our order number… But you gotten give everyone a chance to improve, especially since the business is run by a dozen of college students.
Out of all the restaurants in Rochester that specializes in Bubble teas, White Swans was one of my favorite, but now I prefer Tai Chi Bubble Tea. During my second visit, the service was much better than my first visit, so far I tried the following:
–Matcha Red Bean (
)
–Thai Milk Tea (
)
–Jasmine Milk Tea w/​Mixed Jelly & Red Bean (
)
–Their Signature Boba, Tai Chi Bubble Tea (
)
–Chocolate Bubble Tea (
)
They also have frozen yogurt and toppings (already there), since the location used to be a frozen yogurt location. Will they keep serving frozen yogurt in the future or is it just leftover?
Tip: The original milk tea is good, highly recommend.

I feel like I’ve been living in a bubble all my life. I feel like I was Tai’d down, like someone locked me up and threw away the Chi. But now I’ve been set Tea. They say if you love someone, set them Tea. And the first thing I did with my newfound freedom, was drive to Rochester and ask for my fortune to be told at this place.
They said «sorry we don’t do that.» I was like «BUT IT SAYS YOU HAVE TARO.» They said, «yes, we do have Taro.» I said «SO I WANT A TARO READING DUHHHH.» They were confused. Not about their sexualities (that would be me), just in general. They whipped me up a purple drink (usually when people do that, they’re giving me illegal drugs, but not this time). The rest is history.
I’ve tried White Swans (2^nd fave), Bubble Fusion, Yummy Garden, Flavors Of Asia, SEA, all in the 585, all for Bubble Tea. Can you tell I love Bubble Tea. This one pees all over the others from a great height like Thom Yorke in Paranoid Android.
This is by far my favourite Bubble Tea shop in Rochester, and also better than any of the Buffalo offerings. I’ve tried the Taro and the Peach w/​Lychee Jelly. Most recently I had the Original Milk Tea and the Taro again (you will too, it’s that good).
They have absolutely lovely service too, and it’s a lovely, clean, dim-​lit place that would be a perfect place to bring a date, right by the highway for easy access (I love people… I mean places… with easy access)… but I’m all about the taste, and here, it’s exemplary.
Taro was absolutely amazing, blissful, one of the best I’ve had. Peach with lychee jelly was good but a little too sweet, loved the jelly, and lovely servers here too. And the original milk is excellent too but I highly recommend the Taro.
Come here and give it a try. If you like Bubble Tea, you’ll love this Taro. If you hate it, you might find that in fact you like this version of it.
And if Warren G was from Thailand, then would he be known as Thai G? I’m not sure, but someone should Regulate my reviews because that wasn’t even funny. I can’t believe we’re not in love anymore. Let’s go and get a Taro reading at Tai Chi and fall in love again babes.

So happy that we have a location in the Henrietta area that specializes in Bubble tea. Initially I came in and got the taro milk tea which was wonderful and not too sweet. Went back last weekend and got the Almond milk which is so wonderful, so much almond flavor — definitely my favorite. You can customize the level of sweetness and ice for your beverage. The tapioca pearls are so nice, light and just the right amount of chew — they were perfect/​fresh.
The interior is dark, trendy with music videos on. They also have frozen yogurt and toppings which were already there previously, as the location used to be a frozen yogurt location. The frozen yogurt just seems like an after thought at this point. They have some nice plush chairs for relaxing.
Staff are very friendly and appear to really want to please you. They are a little slow and sometimes do take awhile to get through the lines, but its worth the wait. I am not sure if they have a rewards program but if they do I would like some info on joining, as I will likely be a regular customer.

The first time I went was wonderful. There was karaōke and great servers. I went back today and things weren’t the same. First, there was only one person working… other than a ridiculous line that wasn’t moving, she managed to get my order wrong.
Also, the songs playing weren’t Asian — it was all Spanish — which isn’t really what I wanted since all the karaōke videos were muted. Maybe it’s just this particular worker.
Finally, they still don’t have all the flavors. You’ve been open for a month and still don’t have honey bean? Get your ingredients or don’t put it on the menu.

YES finally bubble tea in Rochester. Pretty good bubble tea, but half the pearls were under cooked. Still one of the best bubble tea places in Upstate NY so far. Also love the lounge chairs and big tv’s playing kpop videos. Makes me so nostalgic of the boba places back home.

This place opened this past Saturday. By Sunday, I had already been there twice. No shame.
I’ve tried the following:
— Classic Milk Tea with Boba, Grass jelly, and red bean: Did I over do it? Maybe but literally I love this combination. Highly recommend it!
–Red bean matcha tea with added boba: I could not get over how delicious this combo way. Matcha flavor was not really strong.
— Jasmine Green Tea: Comes with boba. Yum! There were some less over tea leaves in my tea which was slightly annoying.
— Kumquat Tea: This is one of my favorite summer drinks. It’s just sour and sweet enough to be refreshing.
— Thai Milk Tea: Comes with Boba. I wish I had requested cream with it to tone down the sweetness a bit.
— Chocolate Milk Tea: My friend loved this, but I was less keen on it.
— Strawberry Milk Tea: I believe this was made from strawberry mix. Real fruit would be amazing, especially considering the logo.
I really like the interior layout and the height of the tables in the back. It really does seem like a great place to study and do work, and I’d honestly be there all the time if I lived closer. It is a bit weird that the windows are tinted — doesn’t look all that friendly from the outside. Maybe they could let some natural light in during the day, and re-​do the karaōke style ambiance for the evening?
The boba are cooked to perfection here. Best place for bubble tea in Rochester!
As somewhat of a bubble-​tea addict, I would really love to see different options for ice and sugar content (none, 25%, 50%, 100%) and sea salt milk caps (literally the stuff of gods) added to Taichi Bubble Tea in the future.
EDIT — Woo, they have ice an sugar content options now! And some new flavors too on a new menu to the side of the register. :) There is also now a case with different snack options — think mochi and coconut desserts! This place just keeps getting better and better.
Have yet to try the froyo, but the flavors look really intriguing!

Totally new to the city!
They took a place of where used to be yogurt city on the West Henrietta rd, but don’t worry, they totally kept the frozen yogurt machine as well!
The inside has a great ambience and relaxing atomosphere. Free WiFi available for studying :)
Bubble tea selection is amazing, we need a check list to check off! :) Tapioka was perfect texture, not too hard, nor soggy. Yum!
Overall I give 5 stars and hope that they will keep thriving in this city :)

Yep, definitely a cool place. Can’t think of any other place that only specializes in just bubble tea. I ordered the Mango Milk Tea with the assorted fruit jelly. Quite tasty, but I suspect it’s made with the mango flavored powder. Perhaps the smoothies are blended with real fruit. I’ll definitely be giving most of their drinks a try. The staff is very kind people, and I love the Asian music in the background. Really nice longue area to hang out and have a drink.