I really like their Match Green Milk Tea and Popcorn Chicken here. You can choose how much sugar you want them to put in your drink, so that's a great option. If you plan come here regularly, be sure to grab a stamp card! read more

Decent drinks. The boba has good consistency. Enough flavors and variety on their menu. Clean space. I think the selling point here can be Purple Kow's large portions. Drinks come in a size that seems like a mini bucket. read more

I really like this place! I don't know if I was super thirsty that day, but I really enjoyed my purple kow green milk tea. The price here is reasonable about $3ish or more depending on what you get. The service was quick and I noticed there was seating upstairs which is kind of cool, but I took my drink to-go. read more

Love the drinks, so creamy, and delicious! I love that I can change my sugar level. The drinks are amazing! Great service, way better than sheer tea honestly! read more

Omg I did not expect to get so much milk tea for what I paid for. The problem I had was that they didn't have coconut jelly which I absolutely LOVE but the lychee jelly was still pretty good. Would totally go back if I'm near Cal! read more

Their iced drinks are pretty good and for the price, the chubby cups are a great deal! I also enjoy their matcha drinks, but I do believe their most known for their iced drinks. They are on the sweeter side, but luckily can be adjusted in sweetness. I think 80% sweetness is perfect! read more

Not bad & not that good. Remarkably large, though! Also, I liked the fact that 'sweetness 50%' option is not too sugary. read more

Purple Kow - Desserts Near Me - Berkeley, California

Easily the lousiest bubble tea place I've visited. The people behind the counter seem perpetually confused, which results in a lot of wasted time and incorrect orders. Worse still, when you eventually get your drink (which may or may not bear any resemblance to what you ordered) isn't nearly as good as what you'll find at most other bubble tea places. read more

We ordered a mango slush and mango green tea boba. The sizing was a little bit odd because of the shape of the cups, and the small is pretty big. The boba balls are smaller sized but fresh and yummy. The slush tasted more like fresh mangos and we high recommend! read more

I normally get the Taro Bubble Tea at these boba places, but they didn't have it here for some reason. The last time I was at their SF location, I had the Taro Tea there, so I'm not sure why they didn't have it at their Berkeley location. I ended up getting the Match Milk Tea. I forgot to specify the amount of sugar I wanted.m, so I thought it'd be too sweet, but I lucked out. My tea had just a hint of sweetness which was perfect for me. I had to toss my last boba drink from a different place coz it was too sweet. I got the regular size and it was way too much drink for me. I really wish they had a mini. The line was not out the door when I got here on a Saturday afternoon, but soon after I got there, the line got long. Just got lucky I guess. They do have tables on the ground floor and upstairs and those tables were occupied. It's nice to have a place to sit nonetheless. I hope they have my Taro next time! read more

Three stars in terms of Boba tea flavors and their popcorn chicken. However, due to the staff, i've docked another star to make it a two-star establishment. Two star means only come here when you really have to. For example, when you just came from the city after a long day and you're starving and stressed about having to study ASAP, by all means, grab a drink and food from this place. Otherwise, it's not enjoyable to be here with terrible customer service. read more

Heard about Purple Kow thru friends and wanted to try out. Purple Kow is right next to Top Dog on Center Ave and was so tempted to buy a hot dog but refrained. I like how you can choose your sweetness level so I choose 50% and got the black milk tea w/boba. The cup sizes here are huge. Usually I can drink all my milk tea from one sitting but was not able to this time. Flavor was pretty good but noticed I hardly had any ice in my cup. I like how this place has a sitting area up the stairs which is pretty cool. Next time I'll need to be more daring and try other flavors. read more

Purple Kow - Desserts Near Me - Berkeley, California

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So disappointing! Their Roasted Oolong Milk Tea is way too watery. On my first visit, I tried it with 25% sweetness, which barely tasted like anything. So this time, I ordered the drink half sweet, which really didn't help. The tea is not very milky, and tastes very diluted. Though the roasted flavour comes through, the overall drink just tastes watered down. However, I actually quite like their pudding here. It's sweeter than what you'd get at most other boba shops, so you may want to adjust your drink sweetness level if you're adding pudding. Portion sizes are quite large - way too much for one person, and even possibly too much for two. Hard pass. read more

What I drank: honey black tea with coffee jelly Visit date: November 9, 2014 First time? Yes. When I heard about Purple Kow I mostly wanted to experience milk tea in those tubby cups (they are so cute!). Purple Kow is good, but definitely way too sweet. Yes, you can adjust the sweetness level, but the worker told me that the honey tea was not adjustable because they don't add sugar to it (but honey is sweet...). Also, how would I know what to adjust it to if it was my first time? Anywho, I diluted my beverage when I got home and boom - drinkable! Aside from the sweetness, I wasn't blown away with the flavor so I probably wouldn't go back unless a friend wanted to meet up there. The shop itself is modern, clean, and spacious. Also, there are lots of tea flavors and boba/jelly options to choose from. read more

I really only came here because I heard it was a staple in SF and OG place to use the chubby cups. I ordered the Purple Kow Milk Tea with boba (aka black milk tea.) Not sure if they had just made new boba or something, but the tea was luke warm and the only thing it make it cold was the ice in it. The tea itself was a bit watered down tasting and literally tasted like tea + milk, nothing wrong with that but not what I was expecting. I did enjoy the boba though, they were a bit tinier than other places and they tasted fresh (and they give you a lot if that's something that you like.) But it's also kind of dumb they charge you an extra $0.50 if you want no ice when no other place does this. Overall, this place is okay if I'm really craving some milk tea, but I don't think I would come back unless it was the only option when I want it. read more

Purple Kow is one of my favorite boba places in Berkeley, having tried all the ones worth trying (Ucha is the other favorite). Their D series milk drink are my favorite, and are perfect for someone who loves plenty of creamy rich sweetness. But be warned they're much sweeter than their regular milk tea, so you might want to compensate with the sugar level. I'm also pleased that they introduced the spicy soy sauce noodle, which is a great complement to a sugary creamy drink. The mozzarella sticks were too oily for me to go with an already rich drink. There's a bathroom but you need to ask for a key at the counter. Wait times can get a bit long sometimes. read more

THOSE WITH SWEET TEETH: (sweet thoothes?) you'll LOVE this place. The Purple Kow iced drink with even 50% sugar (boba & pudding) was amazing. Tasted like a dessert in a drink. A cake in a drink. I really like that you can control the level of sugar. (100%, 80%, 50%, etc. etc.) So very detailed. I got the matcha iced milk tea and it was great as well. Very strong green tea flavor. The size, however, was too big for me. Although I have a huge sweet thooth, I couldn't stomach the entire thing. I didn't see different size choices... so not 5 stars. read more

Berkeley Food Crawl Stop #9: Almond Black Tea with Boba- $3.75 Our last stop in downtown Berkeley, this was the perfect place to stop for a drink. Food: What I loved about this place is that they do NOT USE POWDER!!! They use real tea leaves but on the down side, they really really water down the drinks. The boba are cooked to perfection though. You can also customize the amount of sugar you put in for 20%-100% sugar. Service: Extremely slow service. Only one cashier and one person making drinks. Even though the person was pumping out the drinks pretty fast, they've made the process very bureaucratic by demanding to see the receipt # before handing you the drink you order 0.2 seconds ago. Trust your customers :) The cashier will also inadvertently let the ready-to-go drinks pile up before stepping away from the cash register to hand them to the anxiously waiting customers. They should just put all the drinks out on the counter as they are prepared. Starbucks does it, so can you! Ambience: The space is shared with Top Dog next door and the line is usually pretty long. THey are just a lot of options and many ways to customize your drink. -Hungry Hungry Pongy read more

Great, consistent boba with a plethora of taste options and teas. This place has some mad hype, so I was a little skeptical when it first opened. Had a drink from this place, and they definitely live up to their reputation. My favorites so far: roasted oolong with tapioca, and the fresh milk with custard. The sweetness and texture is great. It can be a little intimidating, knowing that you can customize almost every part of the drink. Don't let that scare you; order what you know you'll like, and you'll leave liking it even more. read more

As far as the actual boba balls go, this place has the best ones I've ever tasted in the Bay Area, hands down. The perfect amount of Q-ness (yes, that's the actual term as far as I'm concerned) is off the charts. I love the fruity drinks with chunks of real fruit inside, it's a real treat for a lactose-intolerant boba-lover like myself :) :( I also love that you can customize the sweetness (I usually go for the micro-sweet). Ugh. Adding this place to my must-hit Berkeley list. Right under Cheeseboard. read more

Waited in line for at least 35 minutes, even with only 10-15 people in front of me. Not even worth it because the drink I got tasted less than mediocre and was lukewarm.... Ordered the matcha green tea and does not taste anything like matcha. You're way better off going to asha or share tea! Not what I want to be drinking in 90 degree weather right now. Super disappointed! Will not be returning... read more

Just OKAY boba, really not worth any wait. I came here around lunch time with no issues. However I came back in the late afternoon with a ton of friends and everything was a fail. 1) They told my friend they don't take paypal as a form of payment, however I had just paid with paypal hours ago. 2) One of my friend's drinks had absolutely no ice. Seriously it was room temperature. 3) One of my other friends didn't even get his order. He was number 91 and they were at 99, and we're pretty sure they forgot about his order. He had to remind them, and they didn't even know what he ordered. If you're going to have to wait, at least get some quality boba. I say go to ShareTea instead. read more

Definitely large for the price - those cups are huge. I tried the regular milk black tea with 50% sugar and pudding. I thought I had mixed it well but it wasn't sweet at all until the very bottom and then I started taste the sugar. Since it wasn't sweet, it was also kind of bland. I did like the pudding though and they put a lot of in it. I'd be willing to come back - I don't have that much of a sweet tooth but I might go up a little in sugar next time and maybe try something different... read more

I love this place. I always get the regular boba milk tea less sweet less ice. It's a huge drink. I can only speak to the regular as I have never gotten any of the other drinks. If I lived in Berkeley I would probably split my time between here and UCha (except some trips to Gong Cha). Service: The service is a little spotty from my limited interaction. I got a to go bag (you pay for it). A couple minutes later the person behind the register called out my drinks, slid them over, and then went back to taking orders. I get it that you have a line and you need to take their orders, but it was annoying to have to remind her that I got a to go bag after I paid for one. Doesn't affect how good the drink is or my rating though read more

I've tried Purple Kow twice in Berkeley. It's one of the more convenient locations for milk tea, very accessible from Downtown Berkeley BART. I tried their regular milk tea or the yakult green milk tea, both at 25% sweetness (because I had heard Purple Kow tends to make their drinks sweet). Sadly, both were still much sweeter than I had wanted. Their cups are very large. read more

I love Bobba Tea, and typically I enjoy purple kow. However this has been a negative experience. I understand that it's frustrating when a customer requests a remake of a tea. However it is not acceptable to talk about said customer in another language. I speak Spanish, though I may look like I don't. Poor customer service, unprofessional and uncoordinated. If you work in customer service don't lose your cool. It happens. People make mistakes and often times you have to fix it EVEN if you know they're wrong. If my tea wasn't what I was expecting and I ask for something better I shouldn't be belittles because of it. read more

First time trying this place since they don't have this in San Diego where I'm from but I always see pics on my friends' Instagram -_-. Place was crowded on a Holiday afternoon so I expected it to be good. Saw the big cups and I'm sold! I ordered the ice milk drink with caramel, pudding, and boba with 80% sugar (note the levels are 100%, 80%, 50%, 25% sugar). Taste: YUMMMMMMMM. so I loved my drink but there was only 1 problem: 80% felt like 110% in other places...my friend who is less fond of sweets than me tried the 50% and said it felt really sweet as well. Conclusion: order whatever you like but keep order at least 25% less sugar than what you usually get. Next time, I'm ordering the same drink but with 50% sweetness. read more

I love this place! I usually get the D3 which is the Caramel and egg pudding drink, literally tastes like a tiramisu drink. For the sugar levels I'd recommend 50%, because 100% will give you a huge rush and to be honest you don't really taste all the flavors with the toppings. But I recommend this place if you're interested in something sweet. read more

Purple Kow - Desserts Near Me - Berkeley, California

Out of all the places I've tried for boba tea this is at the bottom of my rankings. Large cups for a decent price do not equal a great deal if the quality is "meh". I ordered a caramel milk tea with black tea and soy milk. I liked the option to have black or green tea and fresh or soy milk, so cool points for customization. The drink wasn't super sweet which I feared it might be after reading user reviews about this place. There was barely any tea or caramel flavor, tasted like soy milk and boba. I figured since so many people walk around Downtown B-Town with Purple Kow cups it had to be good. Maybe next time I'll ask for a recommendation or customer favorite. read more

The chili noodle and the popcorn chicken,Thank goodness I got there early because a bunch of students nearby just crowed the places

Purple Kow is my favorite boba spot! Cute decor, great drinks, & friendly staff. I usually order the caramel milk tea with boba and pudding. MmMm! I try to get here before the lunch time rush around noon before it gets hard to find street parking. read more

Purple Kow - Caramel milk tea with boba.. My addiction - Desserts Near Me - Berkeley, California

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This place is so cute! Had a delicious classic bubble tea, loved the different size cups. I would definitely come back and try more things on their menu. read more

Purple Kow - Classic B1 bubble tea. - Desserts Near Me - Berkeley, California

A lot less crowded compared to the SF place, early closing time, I wonder why don't they shift their business hours. We came in around noon, and it wasn't busy at all, I doubt if this place ever gets a queue out of the shop.. A few tables up stairs, modern design. read more

I actually started to like this place. D3 is my order that never fails. Their drinks are on the slightly sweet side so I usually go for 80% sweetness. The line tends to be long at times but it moves fairly quickly so do not worry too much when you see a long line. Overall decent drink shop that is popping up all around the bay. Hit one up to try it out. read more

Maybe it was just what I got? But Purple Kow has not lived up to its hype for me yet. Got the matcha milk tea with boba, hot. Maybe it was because it was hot? but, the boba was not the right texture at all. Also, the drink tasted really milky...which is not my favorite. Will have to try something else next time. Popcorn chicken was a generous portion, which was great, but it's not fried with the delicious basil that i'm so accustomed too, what? blasphemy. It's decent for sure, but there is definitely better in berkeley. Big perk of this place is that they have a lot of seating, so it looks like a great place to study, and they have tons of flavors, so I'll probably be back to try something else, that hopefully wows me. read more

On the pricey side but at least the quality isn't shabby. I think if they would lower prices by even 50 cents, they'd do better. Not all college students can afford a $4-5 drink too often. I've ordered the fruit tea things and there's always a severe LACK OF FRUIT in it. Literally, maybe 10 little pieces of diced mango (not exaggerating!) I understand that's probably how the owners want their staff to make drinks (read: thrift and cheap) but COME ON. if I'm paying near $5 for your fancy drink, I expect it to at least come close to looking like how it does in the lovely pictures menu. Kthx. read more

Not sure what the hype is. The milk teas are so watery and the boba is not chewy at all. Way too many other options in the area for me to go back. read more

At first, I was really happy that Berkeley was finally getting purple kow because I read up yelp review for the SF location. But... (here it comes) this place never really lived up to the hype. I would just tell you to save your $4+ and go to Share Tea on Bancroft or other places. Purple kow's boba is on the softer side and I'm not a fan of it. The milk tea part of most of the drinks is slightly better than overage because it's not powdery or anything like that. Purple Kow errs on the side of sweet and I mean SWEET. I can definitely resonate with the rest of the comments that say it's too sweet to a fault. The drink that caused me to dislike this place was the mango green tea with the actual small mango chunks. Those things are really disgusting. I got a bunch of really grainy mango chunks that caused the entire drink to be chunky. The green tea itself was really bitter itself so the drink was offensive on multiple fronts. Any ways, stay away from that and you'll generally be okay here. I recommend the oolong milk tea. read more

It was hot, 90°, I wanted something to cool down, and sharetea had at least 20 people in line, so I decided to give Purple Know a second try after two years ago when I didn't have such a great experience at the SF store. I ordered the Purple Kow milk tea with black tea and boba. What I can say is, I don't think there will be a third. I aimed for the black milk tea because I expect it to be stronger than the others. Boy was that not true. The tea had a weak flavor and it left a bitter aftertaste on the tongue. Like my previous experience, it was more milky than tea. The location isn't bad if you're willing to settle though. They have an upper level for lounging. The service wasn't too slow here either which is a plus after the experience at the SF store. As I have mentioned before, there will not be a third time, even if my group all decides to stop by here. I'll take the extra trek over to sharetea. read more

Stopped here for some boba fix after pizza from drinks and pizza at Sliver a few feet down. I've always been to the SF location, so it was pretty cool to come back to my alma mater and get Purple Kow. I didn't order anything tonight, but my friends did! One of my friends ordered the Oolong Tea with Boba and another one ordered the Oolong Milk Tea with Boba. Both were very delicious, but I have to say my favorite is the one without milk, haha. The service was very fast--probably because it was a Sunday night. read more