New York City / Boba
Best Boba & Bubble Tea
in NYC
$5.99 to $9 for the same drink. Every price here came off the shop’s own ordering menu.
No shop in this category runs a happy hour — the only lever is which shop you walk into, and that is worth $3 a cup.
- 16 verified shops
- 10 with a real price
- from $5.99
- to $9.00
The best boba in NYC is in Flushing, and the price proves it: Herb Nook Lab at $5.99, Auntea Jenny at $6.19 and TEAPULSE at $6.25, against $9 for a plain boba milk tea at Xing Fu Tang in the East Village. The clearest illustration is one company charging itself two different prices: TEAPULSE sells the same jasmine milk tea for $6.25 in Flushing and $6.95 on Doyers Street — a seventy-cent Manhattan tax, published on its own two ordering pages. So this guide leads with the cheapest verified cups and prints a price wherever the shop publishes one, which ten of sixteen do. One correction worth making up front: Boba Guys has closed both its New York shops — its own site now lists California only — and several guides still recommend it.
The short version
- CheapestHerb Nook Lab at $5.99, then Auntea Jenny at $6.19 — both in Flushing.
- The Manhattan taxTEAPULSE charges $6.25 in Flushing and $6.95 on Doyers St for the identical drink.
- Most expensiveXing Fu Tang at $9.00 — fifty percent more than Flushing, for the window show.
- Free upgradeMoge Tee charges the same $6.95 for a cheese foam tea as for a plain milk tea.
- Closed for goodBoba Guys has shut both NYC shops. Its own site now lists California only.
At a glance
The published price for a standard milk tea. Tap a number on the map to place it.
| Shop | Milk tea price | Days | Hours | $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Herb Nook Lab | Milk tea $5.99 | Daily | Main St hours | $$$ |
| Auntea Jenny | Boba milk tea $6.19; tea $3.99 | Daily | Prince St hours | $$$ |
| TEAPULSE (Flushing) | Light milk teas $6.25 medium | Daily | 10:30am–10/11pm | $$$ |
| Laankee | Bubble milk tea $6.75; HK style $5.50 | Daily | 10am–8:45pm | $$$ |
| Cuppa Tea | HK milk tea $6.75, hot or iced | Daily | 10am–10:30pm | $$$ |
| TEAPULSE (Doyers St) | Light milk teas $6.95; pure tea $4.95 | Daily | Doyers St hours | $$$ |
| Chicha San Chen | King’s Pearl Milk Tea; brown sugar Volcano | Daily | Bayard St hours | $$$ |
| Moge Tee (Chinatown) | Bubble milk tea $6.95; cheese foam $6.95 | Daily | Canal St hours | $$$ |
| Yaya Tea Garden | Taro, Thai and black milk teas; onigiri | Daily | 10:30am–8pm | $$$ |
| ViVi Bubble Tea | Coffee jelly bubble milk tea | Daily | Bayard St hours | $$$ |
| Teazzi Tea Shop | House Special Milk Tea with boba and oats | Daily | 11am–10pm | $$$ |
| Moge Tee (Sunset Park) | Bubble milk tea $6.95 | Daily | 59th St hours | $$$ |
| HEYTEA | Cheese foam fruit teas | Daily | from 7:30am (Flushing) | $$$ |
| Molly Tea | Snowy Jasmine; single-origin bases | Daily | Mott St hours | $$$ |
| Kung Fu Tea | KF Milk Tea $7.49 | Daily | 11am–8:10pm | $$$ |
| Xing Fu Tang | Boba milk tea $9.00 | Daily | 2nd Ave hours | $$$ |
Map: where these 16 spots are
Prince and Main Streets in Flushing hold the value; Chinatown holds the overseas chains and charges for the address.
Pins are numbered to match the table above – tap any pin for the detail and directions.
The cheapest verified cups
All five are in Flushing, and that is not a coincidence. More Queens eating in our Flushing happy hours guide.
Herb Nook Lab
The cheapest verified milk tea in New York: Red Apple and Green Apple Jasmine Green Milk Tea, both $5.99. The concept is fruit and floral rather than pearls — seasonal fruit squeezed to order over a named tea base — and the summer watermelon series runs $7.49 across the board, including a coconut watermelon with crystal boba. The unexpected part: they pour SEY Coffee, a serious Brooklyn roaster, alongside the tea — espresso $5.50, latte $7. The honest caveat: this is not a boba shop. If you want a thick brown-sugar pearl milk tea, order it somewhere else on the block, and there are plenty.
pos.chowbus.com · See our Flushing happy hours
Auntea Jenny
Brown Sugar Boba, Taro Boba and Premium Matcha Boba Fresh Milk Tea are all $6.19 — the cheapest boba milk teas verified anywhere in this guide — and the house Signature Red Glutinous Rice Fresh Milk Tea is cheaper still at $5.59. The value order, though, is the tea itself: Premium Jasmine, Orchid Tie Guan Yin and White Peach Oolong are $3.99, the lowest tea price we found in the city. Tea lattes are $4.99. The honest caveat: this is a large mainland-China chain, not a Flushing original. The value is real; the novelty is not.
pos.chowbus.com · See our Flushing happy hours
TEAPULSE (Flushing)
The single most useful price comparison on this page, and it is the same company both times. Osmanthus, Jasmine and Amber Ceylon light milk teas are $6.25 for a medium here — and $6.95 for the identical drink at TEAPULSE’s own Doyers Street shop in Manhattan. That is a 70-cent Manhattan tax, published on their own two ordering pages. Snow Top versions with a salted cheese cap are $7.25; pure brewed teas $4.95. Open to 10pm on weeknights and 11pm at weekends, one of the later closers on the Prince Street block. The honest caveat: online ordering showed as temporarily unavailable when we checked — call ahead for pickup.
pos.chowbus.com · See our Flushing happy hours
Laankee
Order the silk stocking, not the boba. The Hong Kong-style milk tea — strained through a cloth filter until it is impossibly smooth — is $5.50 for a 360ml cup, iced or hot, and $6 in the glass bottle, which is the version to get and to keep. Bubble milk tea is $6.75. The light milk tea line runs $5.75 to $6: jasmine, peach oolong, yashi oolong, orchid, jin guanyin. Brûlée bubble milk tea tops out at $7.25. The honest caveat: it closes at 8:45pm daily, earlier than most of Main Street, so this is not your late option.
pos.chowbus.com · See our Flushing happy hours
Cuppa Tea
The whole pearl line is one flat price: Amber Pearl, Caramel Pearl and Jasmine Pearl Milk Green are all $6.75, as is the Signature HK Milk Tea — and unusually, the same price hot or iced, where most shops quietly surcharge one. The coffee milk tea, yuenyeung, is also $6.75. One thing the menu tells you and you should listen to: Amber Pearl Fresh Milk is ice-only, so do not order it hot. The honest caveat: Hong Kong style means strong, tannic and made with evaporated milk. It is not the sweet Taiwanese milk tea most people are picturing, and people are regularly surprised by it.
pos.chowbus.com · See our Flushing happy hours
Chinatown and the Lower East Side
Where the overseas chains have landed, and what the address costs you. See best Chinatown restaurants.
TEAPULSE (Doyers St)
Jasmine, Orchid Blanc and Amber Ceylon light milk teas are $6.95, Brown Sugar Boba the same, and the Snow Top versions — the same teas under a salted cheese cap — are $7.95. Cheese Cloud Boba is $7.25. The value order here is the tea without the milk: pure Fine Jasmine, Amber Ceylon and Orchid Blanc are $4.95, and cheese-capped pure teas $5.95. The honest caveat, and it is the page’s running theme: the identical jasmine milk tea is $6.25 at their own Flushing shop. You are paying seventy cents for one of the most photogenic streets in Manhattan, which is a fair trade or an annoying one depending on your mood.
pos.chowbus.com · See our best Chinatown restaurants
Chicha San Chen
The technical outlier on this page: rather than holding brewed tea in urns like almost everyone else, Chicha San Chen brews each cup to order on so-called teespresso machines, and builds the menu around named single-origin teas — Dong Ding oolong, honey osmanthus oolong, cassia black. They offer free tastings at the counter, which nobody else does and which is the reason to go once even if you do not buy. The brown sugar Volcano takes optional dalgona coffee or 24K gold leaf. The honest caveat: delivery apps list the bubble milk tea at $12.68 — that is a platform markup, not the counter price. Order in person.
fantuanorder.com · See our best Chinatown restaurants
Moge Tee (Chinatown)
The pricing quirk worth exploiting: every cheese foam tea here — Mountain Green, Four Season Oolong, Rose Oolong, Hawaiian — is $6.95, exactly the same as a plain bubble milk tea. At most shops the cheese cap is a dollar-plus upgrade. Crème brûlée, Oreo, red bean and rose milk teas all sit at $6.95 too. The outlier is Brown Sugar Bubble Milk at $9.25; taro and mango are $7.95. The honest caveat: those prices come off the brand’s Flushing ordering menu, so a Manhattan branch may run slightly higher — check the board. Sixteen-plus New York storefronts, so this is convenience rather than pilgrimage.
mogeteeusa.com · See our Lower East Side happy hours
Yaya Tea Garden
The New York-grown answer to a page full of overseas chains: ten shops built here, from Chrystie Street to Bensonhurst, Astoria and Long Island City. What makes it different is the kitchen — onigiri and Japanese-style rice items made to order alongside the drinks, which turns a tea run into lunch. The milk teas are taro, Thai and black, plus a house signature called Boyfriend, and the Blue Blood fruit tea is the one people photograph. The honest caveat: Yaya publishes no prices on its own site or menu page, so you cannot price-check before you walk in, and the Chrystie Street shop has no indoor seating.
yayatea.com · See our Lower East Side happy hours
ViVi Bubble Tea
Ten Manhattan shops on its own locations page and twenty-plus across the city, with the deepest customisation menu in this guide — toppings, sugar level and ice level on essentially every drink, plus rotating seasonal specials rather than a fixed board. The coffee jelly bubble milk tea is the order. The honest verdict, and it is the reason this sits low in the section: this is a franchise system and quality swings noticeably store to store. The Bayard Street and Union Square shops are the two worth naming — treat “ViVi” as a brand rather than a recommendation, and pick the branch deliberately.
vivibubbletea.com · See our best cheap eats in NYC
Flushing and Sunset Park, beyond the obvious
The shops worth walking past a chain for. Pair with best Chinese restaurants in NYC.
Teazzi Tea Shop
The reason to walk past three chains to get here: the menu leans on mochi and glutinous toppings in a way nobody around it does — Velvet Oolong Milk Tea comes with sesame mochi, peanut mochi, or both — and the Tofu Pudding Deep Roast Oat Milk Tea and Black Sesame Special Milk Tea simply do not exist at the shops on either side. Three NYC branches: Flushing, Long Island City and Elmhurst, with the LIC shop running the longest hours at 11am to 10pm daily. The honest caveat: delivery apps list the House Special at $9 — that is a marked-up delivery price, not what you pay at the counter.
teazzi.com · See our Flushing happy hours
Moge Tee (Sunset Park)
Sunset Park’s 8th Avenue is the Brooklyn counterweight to Flushing and Manhattan Chinatown for almost every kind of food, but it has far fewer dedicated tea shops — so a chain branch ends up doing the heavy lifting. Bubble milk tea is $6.95 and the cheese foam teas are the same price, with brown sugar at $9.25. The honest verdict, stated plainly: this is a convenience pick, not a destination. If you are already on 8th Avenue eating, it is the right stop. It is not a reason to take the D or the N to Sunset Park on its own, and we would rather say that than pretend otherwise.
Cheese foam and fruit tea
Where the milk tea is not the point. See also best matcha in NYC.
HEYTEA
The global mega-chain, and the thing to understand is that plain milk tea is not what it is for. The cheese-topped fruit drinks are the category: Jasmine Strawberries & Cream, King Jasmine Guava, Cloud Mango, Crisp Grape Boom. Longjing Cheese Milk Tea is the crossover if you want a real tea base under the cap, and the Kale Boost and Coconut Mango Boom are not a gimmick — the vegetable-forward drinks are a genuine part of the menu here. The Flushing shop opens at 7:30am, hours earlier than anything else in this guide. The honest caveat: it is also the most expensive way to buy tea in Chinatown, before any app markup.
heytea.com · See our best Chinatown restaurants
Molly Tea
Built on named single-origin bases — Premium Jasmine, White Champaca, White Champaca Oolong — rather than the generic black or green most shops pour, which is a real difference you can taste rather than a marketing line. The “Snowy” line is the cheese foam line, and Snowy Jasmine is what the brand is known for. Seasonal fruit drinks rotate hard; in August the board carried green mango lemon iced tea and pistachio-tea builds. The honest caveat: it is a fast-expanding overseas chain that only reached the US in 2024, in a neighbourhood full of them. The tea bases are genuinely better than average; it is not a Chinatown institution and does not claim to be.
fantuanorder.com · See our best Chinatown restaurants
The chains, ranked honestly
Two worth knowing, and what you are actually paying for. More in best coffee in NYC.
Kung Fu Tea
The house KF Milk Tea is $7.49, with mango and passion fruit green teas the same and Jasmine Snow Bud and Osmanthus Oolong at $7.89. It is US-founded and headquartered in Queens with hundreds of locations, so the Chinatown shops are franchises rather than flagships, and ordering runs through the brand’s own app and rewards programme. The honest verdict: $7.49 for a plain milk tea puts it above shops in Flushing charging $6.19 to $6.75 for a better drink. You are paying for the storefront count and the app, not the tea. The Chrystie Street shop also keeps short hours, closing at 8:10pm.
kungfutea.com · See our best cheap eats in NYC
Xing Fu Tang
The theatre is real: the pearls are stir-fried and simmered in brown sugar in the front window, which is why there is usually someone filming it. It is also the most expensive classic milk tea verified anywhere in this guide at $9.00, with taro, strawberry, matcha, Thai, Oreo and dalgona coffee versions at $9.59 and black sesame at $10.20. The honest verdict: nine dollars is roughly fifty percent more than Flushing charges, and you are paying for the window show and an East Village address. Worth doing once for the spectacle; not the shop you go back to weekly.
order.online · See our East Village happy hours
NYC boba: FAQ
How much does bubble tea cost in NYC?
Between $5.99 and $9 for a standard milk tea, based on shops’ own ordering menus in August 2026. The floor is Herb Nook Lab in Flushing at $5.99, then Auntea Jenny at $6.19 and TEAPULSE Flushing at $6.25. The ceiling is Xing Fu Tang in the East Village at $9.00, with Kung Fu Tea at $7.49. Straight brewed tea without milk is far cheaper – $3.99 at Auntea Jenny and $4.95 at TEAPULSE.
Is boba cheaper in Flushing than Manhattan?
Yes, and one company proves it against itself. TEAPULSE charges $6.25 for a medium jasmine light milk tea at its Flushing shop on Prince Street and $6.95 for the identical drink at its Doyers Street shop in Chinatown. Across the guide, the five cheapest verified cups are all in Flushing and the two most expensive are both in Manhattan.
Is Boba Guys still open in NYC?
No. Boba Guys has closed both its New York stores – the Nolita shop at 35 Spring Street and the Soho shop at 145 Greene Street are both marked closed on the company’s own New York page, and its locations page now lists California only. Several major guides still recommend it, so this is worth knowing before you make the trip.
Do NYC boba shops have happy hours or student discounts?
None that we could verify. Across sixteen shops, not one published a happy hour, a student discount or confirmable loyalty terms. Kung Fu Tea runs an app-based rewards programme but does not publish its terms. The only real saving available in this category is choosing which shop you walk into, which is worth up to three dollars a cup.
Why do delivery apps show much higher boba prices?
Because they are marked up, sometimes severely. Chicha San Chen’s bubble milk tea lists at $12.68 on a delivery platform against a much lower counter price, HEYTEA runs $8.49 to $10.49 on apps, and Teazzi’s House Special shows $9. Every price on this page was taken from a shop’s own in-store ordering menu rather than a third-party app for exactly this reason.
Last updated: August 2026. Prices and hours change – confirm with the venue before you go. Spot something out of date? Let us know.
