Tested Teas:
Tea Papa iTea Tapioca Express Honeyberry Tea Island Ten Ren
Most Expensive: iTea $3.75
Cheapest: Tapioca Express $2.98
Largest Cup: iTea
Best overall: Tea Papa
Worst overall: Honeyberry
Sweetest Tea: Honeyberry
Best Pearls: Tea Papa & Tapioca Express Best Tea: Tea Papa & iTea
Best Smell: Tea Papa & iTea
A blind experiment on which stores in Milpitas and Fremont have the best pearl milk tea was conducted by students from the Journalism class. Pearl milk tea, also known as boba milk tea or bubble tea, is a popular Asian drink that many students on campus enjoy. It originated from Taichung, Taiwan. There are different ways for pearl milk tea to be made. It is usually a tea-based drink mixed with chewy tapioca balls, sugar, syrup, milk, or creamer. The categories that were used to judge the pearl milk tea included sweetness, pearls, tea, smell, and overall taste.
There were six participants in the blind experiment. They rated the quality of each store’s pearl milk tea quality on a scale from one to ten. The best overall pearl milk tea was from Tea Papa in Fremont. Tea Papa had the most consistent scores for sweetness, best pearls, tea, and smell. The worst overall pearl milk tea was from Honeyberry in Milpitas. One of the participants said that it was terrible.
Honeyberry had the sweetest tea, which was not necessarily a good thing – it did not make up for the bad pearls, which were rated to be the worst out of the six stores. The two stores with the best pearls were Tea Papa in Fremont and Tapioca Express in Milpitas. iTea and Tea Papa were the two stores that had the best tea and smell. It was interesting that iTea was one of the stores with the best tea since iTea just recently opened. It makes sense why there are long lines at this store to buy the drinks.
It was quite surprising that Ten Ren did not make place highly in the listed categories. It was only the third best drink overall and third best in the other categories. Another interesting fact is that iTea had the largest cup, even though the drink was also the most expensive. Tapioca Express was the least expensive store, which is a bonus on top of having the best pearls.
When the participants were told where each cup of pearl milk tea came from, they were shocked. They were not expecting the results they received, especially since they already had preconceived ideas of what each store’s milk tea would taste like. There are many milk tea stores in Milpitas and Fremont, so go check them out and form your own opinion about each place.