The Tea on Midtown Boba

Tampa’s new urban district welcomes a tea shop with a variety of drinks to choose from.

The front view of Midtown Boba, one of the many new shops to open up in Midtown Tampa.

Juno Le, Editor-in-Chief
January 31, 2022

No matter how cold, it’s always the perfect weather for tea. Good thing Tampa’s welcomed a new tea shop: Midtown Boba.

Midtown Boba offers a wide selection of fruit teas, milk teas and other blended drinks. All additional toppings are 75 cents. The boba shop opened up on Dec. 1 in Midtown Tampa and has already raised a good amount of customers.

Midtown Boba shares space with Ryde It, an indoor cycling amphitheater. It’s a bit odd to be honest and I was super confused walking in. I also had to deal with the embarrassment of placing my order to the Ryde It employees, who then had to direct me to the left side of the shop where you’re supposed to place your order. Maybe don’t stick the menu directly behind the Ryde It check-in.

The shop itself feels cramped on the inside. There weren’t any open seats when I was there, but even if there were, I’m not sure how I’d feel about enjoying boba with friends in the same place where sweaty adults are walking in and out of their cycling class.

I had the opportunity to try out three of their drinks: Thai milk tea, matcha milk tea and a passion fruit tea.

A cup of Midtown Boba’s Thai tea with chewy boba, their logo embossed on the side. (Photo Juno Le)

Thai Milk Tea

The first order I tried out was their Thai Milk Tea with a regular chewy boba add-in. The Thai milk tea itself cost $6 and the chewy boba was an additional 75 cents.

I have a bit of a Thai tea addiction, so this drink joined the empty cup club. It’s nothing out of the ordinary, tastes almost the same as my usual order at Kung Fu Tea, though doesn’t really match my homemade version. Perhaps it was the amount of ice they put in, but I have to admit my drink came out a bit diluted. My favorite thing about Thai tea is that unexplainable punch of flavor and well, I just didn’t get that with this.

I definitely recommend paying the extra 75 cents for boba. The drink would’ve been terribly boring without it. The boba’s nothing special either and felt kind of stiff, but I’ll let it pass since it distracted me from the blandness of the drink itself.

It’s not terrible, but I’m not entirely sure if I would go out of my way to spend almost $7 on it unless I was going out for boba with friends again and we just happened to be there.

Matcha Milk Tea

The second-order I had was their Matcha Milk Tea, also with a regular chewy boba add-in. The matcha milk tea cost $7 on its own, as expected since matcha drinks typically run pricier, and an additional 75 cents for the chewy boba like before.

I’m usually not a huge fan of matcha milk teas and tend to prefer drinking matcha on its own. But this one might’ve been the only time I’ve enjoyed it with milk. It tasted great, with a satisfactory amount of sweetness. It’s refreshing to have, even on a “cold” Florida day.

My main take from this though is that if I were to ever order it again, I probably wouldn’t get any boba with it. It was an odd combination and perhaps it should’ve been ordered with one of the other toppings on the menu, but I would’ve enjoyed it a lot more with the boba.

Still, for a matcha drink, I think the $8 was worth it and is definitely worth a try.

Passion Fruit Citrus Tea

The final order in this review is their Passion Fruit Citrus Tea with an addition of lychee jelly, which was recommended by the cashier.

Fruit drinks aren’t usually my cup of tea, but I’ll make the exception for this one. Just like the matcha milk tea, it was a refreshing drink to have even on a chillier day. Passion fruit was just made to be paired with other citrus flavors and this tea is proof. Also, the addition of sticking an entire slice of lemon in there was cute. The yellow themeis an adorable touch and perfect for a quick story post on your Instagram.

I’m so glad I listened to the cashier when he said the lychee jelly is the best pairing for the passion fruit. It balances out the slight tartness from the citrus and adds that extra chewiness to your drink to make it a little more interesting and enjoyable. Congratulations Midtown Boba, you’ve ended my prejudice against fruit drinks.

Besides the bizarre clash with the cycling half of the building, I enjoyed my trip to Midtown Boba. It’s not the best tea I’ve ever had, but it has the potential to compete with other Bay area boba places. The shop is a nice stop for getting tea with friends, but you’ll have to take into consideration that you might not be sitting inside.