Cool Tea Bar

I would like to order honey lemon aloe, so I asked cashier if the drink come with the sugar or just honey? He said it come with sugar! So I said I just want honey but no sugar. And the drink comes out really weird. I barely taste honey so I thought they forgot add honey for me. But they said they did… but the color of the drink is really white… And they told me that honey is not like yellow but white color… I’m like what?!
Although they add some more «honey» for me, it still taste suck…

The usual boba tea fare (no fresh fruit ingredients). Free wifi.
A bit weird that this $ dumpy spot with Eurotrash EDM music on blast is right across from $$$ Tosca Café.

Note the phone number is incorrect! If you call you’re ordering from the wrong location :(
The correct number is 415.529.2998

This has all the elements of my ideal boba shop… lots of seating, loud EDM music, fast service, and tasty boba. The menu makes it easy to order, and I could not resist trying the number one best-​seller, Grass Jelly Roasted Milk Tea. It was pretty good, but I think my boyfriend liked it more. I was able to steal some of his Litchi Green Tea with Boba which was even better! You can adjust the sweetness of your drink, which is nice. The regular cup size is already huge, and the large cup size is just ridiculous. My bladder hurt after glancing at that large cup.
I appreciate that they accept credit card despite the CASH ONLY sign on their wall. There is also plenty of seating, so perfect for large groups. Or for doing work on their free WiFi network. They are also open until midnight, which is awesome if you happen to be wandering around Chinatown at that time. My only complaint… would it kill them to take out their overflowing trash bins? Anyways, glad to hear they’re opening up more and more locations around Norcal!

I finally got my Cool Tea Bar cherry popped, and it’s no surprise it was in SF’s Chinatown since there are four locations!
Top Sellers
1. Grass Jelly with Roasted Milk Tea ($ 4)
2. Pearl Milk Tea ($ 4)
3. Jasmine Milk Tea ($ 3.50)
4. Kumquat Green Tea ($ 3.50)
Add $ 0.50 to upgrade to a large, but the regular size is already larger than normal boba cups!
I really enjoyed the grass jelly with roasted milk tea drink. It was a nice balance of tea flavor and sweetness. If you get the mango green tea, get it at 50% sweetness. I hear their drinks are on the sweeter side, so lower the amount of sweetness if you’re not trying to get diabetes!
— Cool points: having free WiFi
— Not cool points: so many middle and high school students! (I don’t need another reason to feel like an-​almost-​cougar, hah!)

spotted Cool Tea Bar on Columbus so pulled over and ordered a tea. couldn’t figure out the main menu (teas, milk teas, etc. all tossed together).
with 7 minutes on the meter i picked one of the «favorites».
drink: mango tea (L. 4) 30% sugar, no toppings.
–cup is HUGE! 24 ounce? service faster than purple kow
got into car, noticed meter not expired yet.
–satisfying drink on a hot day.
3.5 stars for value, quickness
drips:
–cool tea bar has 4 locations now in chinatown.
this one has lots of seating, fast service
–menu looks simpler than chain boba shops, no crema series seen
–will try a more «difficult» drink next if time permits to choose same.

If you want your drinks made in a timely manner with satisfactory service, you’re better off at the Clay St. location.
I mean, unless you like coming to a boba shop with 3 baristas who look like they would rather be at home playing LoL than work.
Honestly, how do you think you would feel if you came in and saw three high-​school-​age employees, who:
1) take their sweet time to the cash register,
2) take their sweet time acknowledging the customer, if they did at all,
3) take 10 MINUTES to make Cool Tea Bar’s signature drink, which happens to be my drink of choice (if you hadn’t guessed, it’s the grass jelly roasted milk tea), and
4) make it sweeter than what I had requested (30%, tasted like 75% or so)?
Unacceptable.

This place has three locations, the original one in Chinatown is closer and better quality control.
The teas here are pretty good and strong. I like the fruit teas better than the milk teas. The jasmine milk tea can be really strong or super milky depending on who’s making it.
The peach green tea with lychee jelly was very refreshing and will quench your thirst.
Boba is decent but not the best. I tend to like chewier or harder boba.
Make sure to not order the large without looking at the sizes. Made that mistake the first time and had to pee like three times after.

ANOTHER kind of unnecessary boba place in my opinion.
Nothing makes them stand out. At least in a positive way.
Cons: Their décor seems unfinished. The boba tastes like everywhere else. Price is $ 3.50. Also, I’m tired of places using the plastic that gets melted on as a lid. It always makes the first couple of sips taste weird.
Pros: You can adjust the sweetness.

We stumbled across Cool Tea Bar when visiting North Beach and Chinatown over the weekend. We came just past 11am on a Saturday and there was no line.
We ordered the large kumquat iced tea with boba regular sugar and a large mango green tea with boba with 70% sugar. The large size drinks are truly LARGE which is a good thing. At least you get what you pay for. The sweetness level was perfect, however, I didn’t care so much for the boba. It didn’t really have very much flavor to me.
Also when arriving, their menu posted has TONS of things listed and the font is pretty small which made it hard to read. I would suggest getting a bigger sign with bigger font or lessening what is offered. Overall, this place was clean and spacious and I would return for their tea again.

Wifi with spacious seating! Yay!
Probably the most convenient boba place I have been to yet that isn’t crowded and you can enjoy the tea drink while on the laptop comfortably on wifi!
The choice selections offers the percentage of sugar you want if you are concerned about sugar overload!
They accept credit cards if you don’t have cash!

Man this place sucks
The guy who works there (see photo) is constantly mocking the customers.
I got the honey milk tea… when it was ready, the server kept yelling in a mocking voice
honnnnneey. honnnnnneeey. honnnnneey milk teaaaaa. honeeeeeey
man so annoying. I know that’s not the way he speaks, because I heard him trying to chat up this other girl customer using his «normal» voice. What a douche. That guy should not work there
Definitely not going back to this place

Huge fan of the grapefruit green tea (30% sweet) with grass jelly. It’s so refreshing. I’ve been trying to get the same grapefruit green tea at Sharetea, 85C, and gongcha. Cool tea bar is my favorite!

Smells a little funky in this location, but it’s very roomy for socializing with your friends. They ran out of macha tea for my friend, which was a bummer considering they were completely empty. Also on the pricier end for even just plain boba.
Probably won’t be back here anytime soon…

Theres FOUR Cool Tea Bars in the SF Chinatown area and I like this location the best.

ANOTHER Cool Tea Bar in Chinatown? I feel like they’re the starbucks of chinatown — found every 2 blocks. Though I’m not complaining.
They are honestly the only good place to get boba in Chinatown. So find yourself a location and go check them out!
My favorite/​usual is the mango green tea at 70% sweetness with egg pudding. Absolutely refreshing.
I tried the aloe topping because it was in my brother’s drink, and it didn’t taste so great in my preference. He enjoyed it though.
Really nothing much else to say.

HANDS DOWN BEST MILK TEA PLACE IVE EVER BEEN TO. (Besides tpumps)
I love no.1 roasted milk tea with grass jelly!!! BOMBAF! Too scared to get anything else though because I tried the mango green tea and it was not up to par. It tasted like perfume and I couldn’t even finish it even when I tried to. After two sips, it went into the trash. The green tea matcha and grass jelly drink are the BEST! Addicted to this place. They need to make more bars throughout the city and branch out to other cities as well!
This place has plenty of seats and vibrant pink walls:) however they put too much ice in their drinks. Still like this place though!

Love their Honey Pomelo Juice! It’s great with aloe vera. I checked out this new Columbus location after having been to the Pacific one several times. I thought the quality of the juice was a little watered down at this one, but they did just open so I’ll let it go. The space is a little more open and better than the Pacific one, which is kind of cramped into a weird Chinese mall.
You can adjust the sweetness rating, which I always appreciate at boba places.
The kumquat tea is good, and better warm!

I’m currently on a major boba kick (dangerous because I know those little tapioca balls have lots of calories!) and have visited this spot a couple times lately. I’m so excited that there’s boba in North Beach now!
Unfortunately they don’t have soy or almond milk like Boba Guys and I try to skip most dairy so I’ve ordered tea without milk both times. My first visit I tried the passion fruit green tea with boba 30% sweet (you can customize your sweetness level) and it was delicious but very sweet. Today I tried the litche (they spell it this way on the menu but said it’s lychee) green tea 30% sweet which was also yummy but too sweet. I need to switch to the no sugar option on future visits. I also ordered my friend’s hot jasmine milk tea with no sugar (yummy!). The total for both good-​sized drinks was ~$ 8.50. That seems like a reasonable price to me!
The employees are very nice and were apologetic today when my order took a bit longer than it should have. I’ll be back sometime soon!

Boba is boba, no matter how small (paraphrased from Dr. Seuss), right?
I’m not talking about the tea cup size, but the boba itself. Cool Tea Bar is one of the many PMT places in SF, but unfortunately it’s not my favorite. Came here after having dinner with my family, and we got three different drinks. I had their pearl milk tea with boba, and I thought it was simply… average.
Boba pearls were pretty chewy, not too soft or hard… but average. The tea itself was the best part of the entire taste experience (and that’s not saying much)…I had 0% sweetness (my usual), and it was just right! Not too sweet and not watered down. The interior of the shop DEFINITELY needs improvement. It looks like a tacky 70’s exercise video with disco balls hanging from the ceiling (uh, yes I did just say that) and BRIGHT fuschia walls surrounding all of the chairs and customers. Many Unilocalers have commented that they love the PLENTIFUL amount of seats and tables for people who don’t just want to buy the drink and walk out… but I don’t think I’d be able to sit inside the place without seeing stars after a few hours. HOWEVER, actually having furniture enough for a few people is a comforting change, considering that it’s in SF – the city of so much packed into such little space.
So, in all, I have no complaints with my lukewarm review, but no *tears running down my face happiness* to be felt with Cool Tea Bar. Maybe it’s because they’re very new and there’s still a few tweaks to be done with this place, but I won’t be coming back here when I have other options like Boba Guys or PurpleKow to choose from.