Restaurant news: New boba tea shop now open in Port Orange

Port Orange is looking a little sweeter for boba tea lovers since Hi! Boba Tea opened Monday after months of preparation documented on the eatery’s social media pages.

The new shop, which sits within the plaza at the southeast corner of Clyde Morris Boulevard and Madeline Avenue, neighbors the Asian House, Hibachi Express and popular Jet’s Pizza, among other local Port Orange favorites, and offers a generous menu of bubble tea, smoothies, lemonades and desserts.

While larger surrounding cities like Jacksonville and Orlando are home to dozens of authentic boba shops, according to shop manager Ken Liu, the Daytona area hosts only a select few, making Port Orange a “big market” for the traditional treat and an ideal destination to open shop.

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"It's been a while (in the making)" Liu said. "We're very excited."

The new eatery’s menu offers a multitude of options — heaven for those familiar with the Taiwanese treat, rather overwhelming for those less versed in the world of boba tea.

So, let’s break it down.

What is in boba tea?

Boba tea, commonly referred to as bubble tea, is a dessert-like drink that originated in Taiwan in the latter half of the 1980s. The textured drink's origin is tied to two separate tea houses — Chun Shui Tang in Taichung and Hanlin Tea Room in Tainan, according to National Geographic — that ultimately brought the treat to life by combining chilled tea with soft tapioca balls for a drink you simultaneously sip and chew.

Bubble tea at its simplest form has only a handful of components, combining iced black tea, milk, tapioca balls and often some form of sweetener, mixed together and sipped through a large straw proportionate to the size of the tapioca pearls dancing around at the bottom of your glass.

Since its creation over four decades ago, the unique beverage has skyrocketed in popularity, with the U.S. alone hosting more than 3,000 bubble tea shops as of a late 2023 report by Global Edge.

Types of bubble tea

While boba tea has thousands of variations, the most common types of bubble tea you’ll find is milk tea —combining iced black tea with a milk or non-dairy alternative, tapioca pearls and often a fruity, sweet or earthy flavoring of your choice.

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While tapioca boba is the most common, topping options are seemingly unlimited, with other choices on the menu including grass jelly — a mild, herbal jelly topping made from the Chinese Mesona plant; and crystal boba — translucent, soft pearls typically made from the Konjac plant, native to Eastern Asia; as well as popping boba, rainbow jelly and pudding, among others.

What does Hi! Boba Tea offer?

Hi! Boba’s lengthy menu includes a plethora of milk tea (with tapioca boba) options that come in a large ($6.25) or extra-large size ($7.95), and range from brown sugar, jasmine, mango and vanilla milk tea to cookie cream, strawberry, chocolate and honeydew milk tea.

Non-dairy milk alternatives are also available, including coconut, soy and almond milk.

The eatery offers a variety of large smoothies ($5.75) and milk-flavored smoothies ($5.95), including the mango and pineapple, piña colada, matcha, and strawberry smoothies; as well as fresh fruit teas with crystal boba; several "signature drinks" — like the strawberry bubble milk; and various flavored lemonades.

Hi! Boba Tea's menu boasts an additional array of large cheese teas, combining freshly-brewed Oolong tea, ice and cheese foam — a frothy, whipped topping commonly made from cream cheese, milk, heavy cream and salt — with tea flavors including white peach, lychee and white grape.

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The new shop also showcases a small dessert menu, mainly comprised of various ice jelly bowls. According to Daily Meal, the beloved, ice-cold dessert, dating back over 100 years, originates from China and has long-served as a summer-time staple, exciting and refreshing your taste buds with a unique array of flavors, textures and toppings.

The chilled, layered treat often combines an essentially tasteless, clear jelly created from the Nicandra physolades plant, with a layer of ice, various fruits, juices and other toppings, as noted by Eater New York. At Hi! Boba Tea, customers can choose from options like the brown sugar, grapefruit passion, super fruit or — my recent pick — strawberry mango ice jelly bowls ($7.75).

The popular dessert is as uniquely textured as its name suggests, with the slip of smooth jelly, crunch of shaved ice and soft fruit bits working in tandem to create a mildly-sweet, cooling mid-day snack.

Hi! Boba Tea is located at 3813 Clyde Morris Blvd., Unit 108, Port Orange and is open 11 a.m. – 9 p.m. Monday – Sunday. The eatery also offers online ordering. For information, call 386-265-0103 or visit hibobateadaytona.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Hi Boba Tea bubble tea shop opens in Port Orange