[NATSND]: *slurping*
[NATSND]: *store sounds*
[Music]: “Wobbly Beat”
If you’ve walked around downtown Evanston, chances are that you’ve passed by a boba shop. From Kung Fu Tea on Clark to Moge Tee on Sherman to the newly opened Ume Tea on Church Street, the Evanston boba scene is ubiquitous. But why are there so many boba places? And what draws people towards their favorite location?
Julia Beckendorf: “College kids love, like, a silly little drink.”
That was Julia Beckendorf, a Medill sophomore and boba fan. Her boba go-to? Happy Lemon, located on the corner of Davis and Chicago.
Beckendorf: I like that place because it’s close to campus. It’s pretty easy—I think from Allison it’s like literally five minutes.
But with a boba shop on virtually every street in the small downtown stretch, convenience can’t be the only factor. For Beckendorf, there is a sense of security in sticking to the same store.
Beckendorf: I think I’m pretty open to trying like new places or, like, exploring but, like, when there is one place that I like, I will go back, but I feel like once I found, like, one thing on a menu, I’ll just get the same thing every time, so that’s why I still go to Happy Lemon.
When asked about her favorite Evanston tea house, Nina Gupta, Weinberg freshman and another Happy Lemon devotee, agreed with Beckendorf that its proximity and quality helped Happy Lemon stand out from its competitors.
Nina Gupta: It’s one of the closer ones, and also I’ve never gotten a drink there that I haven’t liked. I got the Jasmine green tea and I think I got the Jasmine green milk tea, also. Those are both pretty good.
For others, the choice in boba shop is about something a little deeper. Ziye Wang, a former barista at Moge Tea, noticed a trend in which students were frequenting her store.
Ziye Wang: Moge, in particular, stood out to me as somewhere a lot of international kids would go to, rather than like Happy Lemon, that’s one where like, everyone goes to it. Moge is a Chinese brand whereas Happy Lemons is actually an American brand.
The differences in boba shops aren’t just limited to the location and the customer base. While searching for a late-night treat, Wang noticed a significant variation between tea houses.
Wang: I was looking at Uber Eats the other day at Kung Fu Tea for their brown sugar and it was like six dollars. Whereas for Moge, like, ordering Uber Eats would be, like seven dollars and a few cents. So, like, it was a good percentage, you know, more expensive for the same like, size.
Part of the difference in price point may come from the quality of the ingredients used. Where Kung Fu Tea uses powders and syrups often in their drinks,
Wang: Moge uses, like, prides itself on using real fruit and cooking our own boba every single day. Actually, like, sliced mangoes and blended, like, adding green tea. I thought that was like a really authentic, like, you know, kind of drink. It wasn’t, like, it wasn’t any sort of weird, like, you know, additives or anything like that.
The higher price point does shape the customer base. Because Moge customers are primarily students,
Wang: 65% students and then like another 35%, like, adults
The cost of the drinks is often a bit of a barrier, and too high to become a regular habit.
Wang: It’s a place you go for a treat, you know, like actually to treat yourself..
Generally, the cost of boba tends to be on the pricier side, with 16 oz drinks ranging in price from five to ten dollars. Compared to a coffee of the same size, which often ranges from four to six dollars, it’s no wonder that the coffee shops around Evanston are consistently more packed.
[Music]: “Locked Inside”
But the more I talked with these boba connoisseurs, the more I realized that the “emptiness” may be by design. Unlike the coffee shops, which boast a large seating area and a carefully curated theme, most of the tea houses are minimalistic in decor and space, offering only a handful of chairs to sit in. Beckendorf, raised in the Chicago suburbs, noted that Evanston’s shops differ from the tea houses back home.
Beckendorf: Around here, I feel like it’s kind of, like, they want you in and out.
Gupta noticed the same thing coming to Northwestern. Back at home, she would spend lots of time at her favorite tea house, Cha House, a North Carolina chain.
Gupta: Their whole vibe is, like, aesthetic with, like, plants and, like, they sell little, like, aesthetic things like squishies and it’s just really cute, like, it makes it makes you stay there and hang out, but it’s nice because I used to go there with my sister and we would study. It just has, like, a good vibe.
Instead of studying at a tea house here, Gupta instead prefers the more spacious cafes, like Colectivo and Coralie.
Beyond the aesthetics of Evanston boba, I wanted to know what kept people coming back for more. I set out to find what was in the perfect cup of boba. I started with Wang, who told me what it takes to make the best cup:
Wang: Memorization skills, love and a strict manager.
Fair enough. But I wanted something a little more concrete. Gupta, who ran a boba review account back in North Carolina, broke down her big three categories:
Gupta: The first one was an overall rating, taking into account, like everything including, like, the customer service, the drink, like, the menu and how many, like, options they had, and then we had, like, a milk tea rating, or fruit tea, and then we had a boba rating, which is, like, kind of subjective because it depends on, like, what type of consistency and texture you like in boba.
For Beckendorf, the quality of the tapioca pearls was the make-or-break ingredient in a good drink.
Beckendorf: It’s hard to mess up just, like, a drink or if you’re just getting like a black tea or whatever. If your Boba is, like, undercooked, it really just, like, ruins it for me.
I suppose it’s no surprise that it’s the boba that makes, well, boba good. To close out my piece, I wanted to get some good drink recommendations for the next time I’m in the mood for a sweet little treat. Wang told me the most popular drink she made at Moge:
Wang: The most common order I saw was mango pomelo, um, mango pomelo tea slush.
Yum! But for those who are less fruit inclined, like me, Gupta and Beckendorf had their favorite drinks to share.
Gupta: I like more of like the earthy flavors like oolong or matcha and I like milk teas, and then in terms of the boba, I like it when it’s like, like when you get it in the cup and it’s, like, warm at the bottom and you can feel it and it’s, like, fresh.
Beckendorf: My go-to drink is a taro smoothie with boba and then, like, you modify the ice to, like, half, I think which is kind of weird because I don’t know, I just don’t like that much ice in my drinks, and then you do the sweetness at, like, 75%.
Writing this story definitely worked up my sweet tooth, but at least now I know what my next treat will be. See you guys next time,
For WNUR News, I’m Gabby Shell
[Music]: “Wobbly Type Beat”
Sound Effect from Pixabay: Drink Slurp
Sound Effect from Pixabay: Cash Register
Sound Effect from Pixabay: Coffee Shop Crowd
Music from Immuno, “Wobbly Type Beat” by Heston Mimms
Music from Immuno, “Locked Inside” by Heston Mimms
