Ten Ren Tea of Milpitas is located in the same shopping center as Lion Supermarket off of N. Milipitas Blvd. It's in the same shopping center as Thousand Tasty, but it's towards the other side of the shopping area.
It's not exactly the lone boba place here either, as there's several other boba spots in this shopping center, and in the shopping center across the street, so it certainly has plenty of competition abound.
Ten Ren is a pretty well known tea store chain, which also happens to sell boba because it's a fairly obvious combination to also sell boba when you're in the tea business.
The store is basically split up into two sections as you enter the store. On the left side front counter, the primary focus is the tea side. Of course, there's also tea and other things towards the back half of the store, but the main interactions for the tea stuff will be towards the front left counter, which is also where you will pay for your drinks at the register.
On the right side of the store when you enter, that's where the boba side is. They have a fairly extensive tea menu that's filled with milk teas, fruit teas, and other drinks also. Again, since Ten Ren is a tea shop by trade, it's no surprise that you will be able to find plenty of drink options here to help meet your boba needs.
The prices here are also quite comparable. For example, you have Tapioca Express just a few stores down, and other Vietnamese boba places on the other side, but Tea Ren is still on the cheaper side wedged between these two spots. Even compared to the boba places across the street, they are still cheaper than those places too. So if you're looking for comparability, this place is great for it. Also, the large cup size is a decent size, one of those taller slender cups, but it's tall enough to be considered a large. Some of the other places here with the large size aren't even this big, so good value at Tea Ren.
Staff here are good. Friendly enough, albeit, not always terribly talkative at times, but my interactions with them were limited today. I did used to drop by this Tea Ren many years back for boba, but didn't really feel any memorable moments occurred back then, so at least it's made somewhat more of an impression this time. No issues.
Got a couple of drinks to try out today: milk green tea w/boba, white peach green tea with jelly.
The milk green tea was okay. I got it with regular sugar level, low ice, and boba. The drink is a bit bland for my taste. The tea was also just okay, not a very strong tea in it. But regular sugar level definitely feels a bit underwhelming. The boba was okay too, not bad at all, but not super Q. But the large sized for this price is worth it regardless.
The white peach green tea was also alright. Same problem again, bland even though it was regular sugar levels. The jelly was fine, good portions of it. It's a bit more like juice peachy, rather than the typical fruit essence mix. But just not enough sugar in this drink either. While it wasn't terrible, just a bit underwhelming.
All in all, a solid boba spot. Good prices, decent portion sizes, and comparable for the area. The drink flavors are a bit on the less sugary side, which may be good for some, but as for me it's certainly not nearly as sweet enough as it could be. Staff were friendly enough, no issues. In the area and want to try a different boba spot than all of the others around? Give Tea Ren a try for good value, and decent drink quality, but may not fully appease your sweet tooth fully. Probably more like 3.5 stars than 3, but I'll try again next time to see how the sweetness is with the drinks. read more