The best bubble tea in Sydney

Bubble Nini is all about making bubble tea just a little bit special. Amongst the flower arrangements and pretty décor, you'll find small-batch pearls in all sorts of flavours: we're talking sakura blossom, peanut, taro, mango, strawberry and more, all made in-house. It's not your regular boba situation. Find Bubble Nini stores in Chippendale, Haymarket, Zetland and the CBD. 

Coco is a giant in the bubble tea scene – there are outlets dotted all over Sydney. Coco’s longevity has not been affected by the swathe of newcomers and it has a huge fan base. Being one of the old guard, Coco serves only the classics from the Taiwanese bubble tea canon, ranging from flavoured milk tea to yoghurts and smoothies. If you're a bubble tea rookie, this is a good place to start. The most popular order is the pearl milk tea. Every bubble teashop has this on the menu, but Coco’s version is the total package. There’s a strong aroma of black tea, a surge of sugar, and soft, chewy pearls. The quality is really consistent here, which is why people keep coming back.

There's a lot of bubble tea in Sydney, but here you'll find milky drinks done with a difference. International brand Xing Fu Tang lays claim to brown sugar boba pearls as its signature topping, and specialises in 'tiger milk tea', swirled in stripes of sugar and syrup. Aside from the Haymarket location, you'll also find an outlet of the international brand on George Street in Sydney's CBD.

There’s no two ways to put it, bubble tea is hands down addictive. But you don’t need us to tell you that because us Sydneysiders can’t seem to get enough of the sweet milky drink dotted with fun chewy balls, given the amount of bubble tea stores in the city. And one of the most reliable places in town to get your hands on a boba tea is Gong Cha, which has more than 150 stores all over the country, and a whopping 75 here in Sydney. You can’t go wrong with the royal pearl milk tea, and we loved the thirst-quenching lemon roasted melon tea with basil seeds, which was a cool treat on a hot day.

Unlike the bigger bubble tea chains, No Fail is an indie brand from Sydney, closely following the bobba trends in Asia. It’s conveniently located on a busy street near Chinatown, alongside several popular hot pot restaurants – it is the place for your post-dinner pick-me-up. The menu here covers fresh fruit tea, cheese fruit tea frappes, brulee milk tea, and bubble tea with cheese foam. What sets them apart is how well balanced their drinks are: keeping sugar and milk ratios in check so as to not veer into overly sweet territroy. Order the tasty cheese fruit tea frappe. They use real fruit pulp that they blend with crushed ice, and the slight saltiness from the creamy cheese foam leaves you with a lingering freshness. The frappe line varies with seasonal produce. Maybe you’ll get golden finger grape in autumn or white peach during summer. If you are big fan of cheese foam, their hidden menu item - a cup of pure cheese foam with Oreo topping – should be on your hit list.

Alley Lujiaoxiang built up its fame through their crowd-favourite brown sugar deerioca series, a variant of the brown sugar flavoured milk tea. Their handcrafted tapioca balls are called deerioca, in line with its deer-themed branding. They use their own sugar cane syrup recipe and a traditional boiling method to ensure the pearls are infused with a rich burned sugar flavour. For a luxurious treat, the matcha latte and brown sugar deerioca with fresh milk is a beautifully tri-layered beverage where the hot brown sugar pearls and icy matcha meet at a milky border. The interplay of bitter matcha, super sweet brown sugar pearls, smooth milk achieves flavour harmony and the chewy, squishy texture of the deerioca is the highlight of a visit to this shop. The Alley aces presentation – beverages are served with a marble-look or an array of coloured layers from different densities of milk, tea, juice and toppings for maximum Insta cred.

From the moment you step foot inside Tea Republic, you’ll be greeted by the enchanting aroma of freshly ground tea leaves. Using state-of-the-art machines, Tea Republic's skilled baristas are able to brew a concoction that transcends the ordinary cup of boba. Resume your tea adventure by choosing a tea base from their extensive menu, many of which you likely haven't seen before, including sticky rice, roasted almond kernel, da hong pao and more.

Yifang is another famous bubble tea/fruit tea chain from Taiwan with a reputation for quality produce, which is why their fresh fruit tea and brown sugar pearl milk tea are so popular. They claim to import the finest tea leaves and cane sugar to reproduce that authentic and traditional flavour for anyone missing Taiwan’s original drinks. Their signature fruit tea is intensely fresh and sweet, involving a large cup of cold brewed tea infused with real pieces of watermelon, passion fruit and orange. They add pineapple jam as a flavour enhancer, made from a 100-year-old recipe from the founder’s family (you can add it as a twist to any drink in the fruit tea range).

Beautea is a simple place where genuine tea lovers flock for the beauty of a fresh brew. You come here to maximize the mellow flavours of the green, black and oolong bases. They use nothing but fresh milk for a smooth, long finish and people gradually fall in love with their lighter take on bubble tea. The front-runner is the peach oolong teaccino. The oolong has been carefully brewed for a delicate aroma and a slightly bitter flavour, which pairs with the fruitiness of fresh peach. Topping choices are very limited here as they only offer pearls, grass jelly and taro balls, but the appeal is in the details, like the fact that their handmade sweet potato balls are soaked in coconut sugar syrup, adding a creamty, tropical twist to the chewy pearls.