Cha For Tea

In the earliest days of the boba tea craze, three Orange County cafes began catering to a growing crowd of addicts: Tapioca Express, Lollicup, and Cha For Tea, the latter launched here by Taiwanese brand Ten Ren Tea. Currently operating three locations – two in Irvine and one in Long Beach – Cha For Tea debuted at the University Center in 1999, right around the same time as LA County’s first Tapioca Express, and nearly a year before Lollicup, which means it’s almost certainly Orange County’s longest continuously operating boba shop. But if it wasn’t for that impressive history, we probably wouldn’t be writing about it today.

Cha For Tea isn’t like most local boba shops, focusing solely on tea and fruit drinks with literally zero coffee or cocoa choices – black, green, jasmine, chai, matcha, and Thai teas are the bases for most of the drinks, with ingredients such as almond milk, brown sugar, and a handful of fruit syrups used interchangeably across several dozen choices. Milk teas, fruit teas, classic teas, hot teas, and tea- and/or fruit-based slushies all go for relatively low prices: Cha’s most basic, medium-sized drinks go for only $3.75, with larger-sized cups priced at 50 cents more, peaking at $6.25 depending on ingredients. Boba, brown sugar boba, egg pudding, and lychee jelly are all add-ons, priced at 80 cents each, which means you’d have to somewhat overboard to spend much more than $7 per drink here; most other boba places charge at least as much for a medium-sized drink these days. There are also a handful of food items on offer: Taiwanese-style fried chicken, fries, sausages, and dumplings, generally $4.25 to $11.25.