Pengo Drink Station

We can’t definitively count either the total number of boba tea shops in Orange County or even the ones we’ve visited – each count has increased faster than we can document them, and Pengo Drink Station is an unusual example: Nearly five years passed from our first (positive) Pengo Drink Station experience in spring 2021 to the most recent one in winter 2026, a period in which we’d occasionally think of stopping back in only to be lured away by something else nearby. That almost happened again with its Laguna Hills neighbor Karak House Coffee, but we stayed on focus, and thankfully re-discovered why we’d previously enjoyed Pengo.

Now three locations strong with additional shops in Lake Forest and Mission Viejo, Pengo’s experiences and menus vary somewhat between locations. All of the locations have been serving fruit, milk, and plain teas, “Pengo Drink” fruit syrup-flavored sodas, plus smoothies, slushes, and milkshakes for $6.25 to $8.50 a cup before $1 add-ons (boba, jelly, popping boba, matcha cream); several hot or iced coffee, chocolate, and chai latte options are also available for $6.50 each. At various points, the shops added $6 to $8 snacks such as sandwiches, fries, fried chicken, and croffle croissant waffles, as well. Taking this two steps further, the Laguna Hills store is co-branded with Fluffy Bear, and offers soft serve ice cream ($6 and up), fruit snow, and milk tea snow desserts ($12.50 each), as well as a collection of redemption machines filled with stuffed animals, notably not including the chain’s namesake penguin mascot from what we could see.