Quite a few bubble tea shops have popped in the DMV, and I noticed that some guides haven’t been updated and don’t always include recommendations. There’s nothing like finding new ones to try in the area, and it’s been fun to work on such a focused project. This guide doesn’t include all bubble tea shops (yet), so it will be updated as I visit more shops. The ones on this list are ones that I have tried and enjoyed. I hope you find a new shop to visit!
Last updated: May 23, 2023
D.C.
BeauTea
BeauTea is nestled in Georgetown across from Georgetown Parking and near Sweetgreen. They have fruit tea, milk tea, yogurt drinks, blended drinks, classic tea, and seasonal flavors like the Lychee Virgin Mojito. Toppings include Lychee Jelly, Popping Mango boba, and cheese foam. It’s easily one of the busiest shops I’ve been to on this list, but they make the drinks fairly quickly. It’s a narrow shop, so it really doesn’t have the space for a long line.
My rec: Iced Passion Fruit Green Tea with Brown Sugar boba pearls (pictured below)
1073 Wisconsin Ave NW 1st Floor, Washington, DC 20007
Instagram: beauteadc
Tai Chi Bubble Tea
Tai Chi Bubble Tea recently opened in Georgetown! If you love variety, this is the place for you. They offer fruit tea (black or green tea base), lemon tea, milk tea, smoothies, milk crush drinks, and hot drinks. Toppings include tapioca pearls, lychee boba, herb jelly, and passionfruit boba. Tai Chi Bubble Tea also sell ramen and sushi.
My rec: Thai Iced Tea with classic boba pearls
1357 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC 20007
Instagram: taichibubbletea
Maryland
August 32
When I found out that there was a bubble tea shop in Beltway Plaza Mall, I made it a point to check it out. August 32 sells fruit tea, milk tea, milk foam fresh fruit tea, and smoothies. Their flavors include the Blueberry Green Tea Smoothie, Oolong Milk Tea, and Rose Green Tea. August 32 also sells tea-related products.
My rec: Grapefruit Green Tea Smoothie (left)
Read my review of August 32 here.
6000 Greenbelt Rd unit 102A, Greenbelt, MD 20770 (inside of Beltway Plaza Mall)
places.singleplatform.com/august-32-tea/menu
Instagram: aug32greenbelt
AunTea Boba
AunTea Boba has a great mix of classic and unique flavors, like the Taro Milk Tea and the Cereal Milk Teas pictured below. They share a list of “AunTea’s Faves,” which can be helpful in narrowing down what you want. They offer traditional teas, milk teas (topped with milk foam or just milk), slushes, and smoothies. As for toppings, you can choose from the categories of boba, cream foam, popping boba, and jellies.
My rec: the Cereal Milk Tea (left)
Read my review of AunTea Boba here.
9448 Lanham Severn Road, Lanham, MD 20706 (inside of Supreme Barbecue)
742 Cady Dr., Fort Washington, MD 20744 (inside of Gigi’s Kitchen)
2 Florida Ave, NE, Washington, D.C. 20002 (inside of Supreme Barbecue)
Instagram: aunteaboba
Bubbles&Tea
Bubbles&Tea is one of my favorite spots from my earlier days of drinking bubble tea. It’s located in Rockville where many bubble tea shops are located. They offer milk teas, lattes, milk foam drinks, classic teas, fruit teas, slushes, yogurt drinks, and specialty drinks. Their flavors include popular ones like Taro Milk Tea and Lychee Oolong Tea. Their not-so-common (in my travels) flavors include Pear Black Tea and Irish Cream Milk Tea.
My rec: Rose latte with classic bubbles (pictured)
Read my review of Bubbles&Tea here.
1319B Rockville Pike, B, Rockville, MD 20852
Instagram: bubblesandtea.rockville
Ding Tea
Ding Tea is a Taiwanese bubble tea shop that focuses on fresh tea by being selective about tea selection and flavor. They offer flavored tea, milk tea, slushes, coffee, fruit juice, yakult and yogurt drinks, lattes, and hot drinks. The flavors range from Honey Milk Tea to the Taro Slush. I’m sure there’s something here for everyone.
My rec: Blueberry milk tea with apple star fruit jelly; Lychee milk tea
Read my review of Ding Tea here.
785 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852
Instagram: dingtearockville
Gong cha
Gong cha is the bubble tea shop that I frequent the most, especially since there are quite a few in the area. If you love a ton of options, this is the shop for you. They have fruit tea, milk tea, smoothies, slushes, tea lattes, sparkling teas, and coffee. I love that they regularly add limited drink series to their menu.
My rec: the Dirty Brown Sugar Latte with boba pearls and/or red beans; Purple Sweet Potato Milk Tea
Read my review of Gong cha here.
The Spot: 255 N Washington St, Rockville, MD 20850. Check their website to find out more about their D.C., Virginia, and other Maryland locations.
JiDong Tea
JiDong Tea’s fresh fruit is some of the best I’ve had in a drink. Their menu has fresh fruit teas, milk teas, signature drinks, drinks with cheese foam, yogurt drinks, ice cream, and herbal jelly desserts. This cafe-like shop is a nice place to chill in College Park.
My recs: Mango Pomelo Sago (left)
Read my review of JiDong Tea here.
8145 Baltimore Ave, College Park, MD 20740
Instagram: jidongtea.collegepark
Jumbo Jumbo Cafe
Jumbo Jumbo Cafe is a boba tea cafe based in Maryland. They offer smoothies, milk tea, iced tea, classic drinks, and specialty drinks. Their toppings include classic boba pearls, lychee jelly, and red bean. I love that you can choose the House Black Tea or Jasmine Green Tea as the base for iced tea. The drink menu may vary across locations. Jumbo Jumbo Cafe also serves appetizers, rice dishes, and noodle dishes.
My rec: Blueberry Black Tea with classic boba pearls
College Park: 3711 Campus Dr, College Park, MD 20740
Rockville: 15192 Frederick Rd, Rockville, MD 20850
Instagram: jumbojumbocafe
Kokee Tea
Kokee Tea is a shop that I think has a solid list of drinks. Their menu includes signature drinks, milk tea, cold cloud drinks, and ice blended drinks. Kokee Tea makes their hand-crafted drinks with natural ingredients and uses all-natural golden cane sugar.
My recs: Dragon & Rose Signature Tea; Sweet Cloud Cold Brew; Orange Sangria (may be seasonal)
Read my review of Kokee Tea here.
11160 Veirs Mill Rd, Wheaton, MD 20902
Instagram: kokeetea
Manila Mart & Cafe
Manila Mart & Cafe is a family-owned that sells bubble tea, desserts, Filipino cuisine, and grocery products. Their menu is limited but has some great options: a few milk teas, a couple iced teas, and a couple of shakes.
My rec: Thai Iced Tea with coconut jelly
Read my review of Manila Mart here.
5023 Garrett Ave, Beltsville, MD 20705
Instagram: manilamart
SmoothieFRESH Bubble Tea
SmoothieFRESH & Bubble Tea is located in Bites Food Hall in Langley Park, MD. I went for the bubble tea, but they also offer smoothies. Their bubble tea menu is limited and includes popular milk and fruity flavors like Taro and Mango. They recently updated their menu to include interesting flavors like Passion Fruit Lemon and Chili Mango. You can add boba pearls, lychee/nata jelly, mango boba pearls, and more.
My rec: Thai Tea with boba pearls
Read my review of SmoothieFRESH here.
8046 New Hampshire Ave, Hyattsville, MD 20783 (inside of Bites Food Court)
bitesdmv.com/smoothiefresh-bubble-tea/
Instagram: smoothiefreshbubbletea
T-swirl Crêpe
T-swirl Crêpe is known for their crepes, but their teas deserve some shine, too! They have tea lattes, slushes, fruit tea, and milk teas with toppings like boba pearls, herbal jelly, and cheese milk foam. Flavors include the Fresh Grape Tea, the Matcha Green Tea Pearl Latte, and Thai Milk Tea.
My rec: Grapefruit tea with boba pearls (seasonal)
Read my review of T-swirl Crêpe here.
313 N Washington St, Rockville, MD 20850
Instagram: tswirlcreperockville
Tiger Sugar
Tiger Sugar is a very popular bubble tea shop chain that has opened shops in the DMV within the past year or so. Their drinks aren’t customizable, but they do offer many types of drinks. Their drink types include signature, classic teas, brown sugar drinks, coffee, jelly, coffee lattes, pudding, mochi, red bean, taro, and taro pudding.
My rec: Brown Sugar Boba + Pearl Milk with Cream Mousse
*Note: I have done ads for TS in the past, which doesn’t affect my opinion. I’ve since gone back and bought it with my own money.
12266 Rockville Pike Unit E, Rockville, MD 20852
restaurantji.com/md/rockville/tiger-sugar-
Instagram: tigersugar.rockville
YiFang
YiFang is a shop known for its Taiwan fruit tea. They also have classic teas, flavored teas, tea lattes, milk teas, brown sugar pearl drinks, traditional teas, salty cream-topped teas, and specialty/series drinks. They’ve had drink series like coconut and cheese foam.
My recs: Passionfruit Tea; Fresh Taro Milk Tea
*Note: I was gifted this tea, which did not sway my review.
Read my review of YiFang’s Rockville location here.
777 Hungerford Dr, Rockville, MD 20850
IG: yifangdmv
Virginia
Bambu
Bambu is another favorite shop from my earlier days of loving bubble tea. They have classic tea, milk tea, real fruit tea, basil seed tea, blended tea, sea salt teas, and robust Vietnamese coffee. Their toppings include egg pudding, sea salt foam, and lychee jellies. You can also choose your sweetness level: standard, 75%, 50%, 25%, or 0%.
My rec: Passion fruit milk tea with crystal boba
4220-B, Annandale Rd, Annandale, VA 22003
Ben Gong’s Tea
If you love having a lot of options and interesting flavors, Ben Gong’s Tea is the place for you. They offer fresh fruit tea, tea cube milk tea and fruit tea, cheese tea and smoothies, milk tea, sparkling lemon tea, traditional teas, yakult drinks, and coffee.
My rec: Mango Pomelo Sago (may be listed as Mango Pomelo Tea); Black Rice & Taro milk tea
4235 John Marr Dr, Annandale, VA 22003
Instagram: bengongstea.centreville
Fortune Cha
Fortune Cha has a bunch of options for each type of drink they offer: iced tea, fruit tea, milk tea, coffee, sparkling ades, slushes, smoothies, and signature drinks. Some flavors that I don’t see often that they have are Blueberry Fruit Tea, Mango Milk Tea, and Watermelon Slush. The toppings include classic boba pearls, mango popping boba, and strawberry heart jelly. If you love to have plenty of options, Fortune Cha is the boba tea shop for you.
My rec: Da-bang Coffee, iced Thai Milk Tea
Read my review of Fortune Cha here.
6231 Little River Turnpike, Alexandria, VA 22312
Instagram: fortunecha.va
Möge Tee
Möge Tee focuses on their tea having the most natural and fresh taste, and they use high quality ingredients to accomplish this.They offer cheese foam tea and fruit tea, fruit tea, milk tea, milk swirl, tofu pudding, uji matcha, fresh fruit yakult, and coffee.
My rec: Mango bubble milk tea
8051 Tysons Corner Center, McLean, VA 22102; two other Virginia locations; one D.C. location; one Maryland location
Mr. Wish Tea
If fruit tea is your jam, Mr. Wish is the place for you. They’re known for their natural fruit teas and having so many options. They sell fruit tea, diced fruit tea, milk tea, sparkling teas, and smoothies. I tried the seasonal Sunset Peach and the Apple Fruit Sherbet. Both drinks were flavorful.
My rec: Peach Sunset smoothie (seasonal); Apple Sherbet
Read my review of Mr. Wish Tea here.
VA: 6767 Wilson Blvd, Falls Church, VA 22044; MD: 1615 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852
Instagram: mrwishedencenter (VA); mrwish_rockville (MD)
Sharetea
Sharetea uses high-quality tea leaves and ingredients shipped from Taiwan to make their drinks. They have fruit tea, milk tea, fresh milk, signature drinks, brewed tea, ice-blended drinks, crema, choco teas, twist slushes, and specialty and seasonal drinks.
My rec: Strawberry ice blended with lychee jelly and ice cream
Virginia: 11211 F, Lee Hwy, Fairfax, VA 22030 (There are two other Virginia locations, one in Maryland, and one in D.C.)
Instagram: shareteafairfax
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Foodish Ways 