In Williamstown, you can find four businesses that sell boba — a traditional Taiwanese drink made from tapioca pearls and tea. Although Goodrich Coffee Bar and Blue Mango were the primary sellers of the specialty drink for a while, two new players have recently entered the market: Tea and Boba Lounge and Spoon Café.
Two boba aficionados set out to determine which business offers the best boba in town. We visited each of these businesses to evaluate their boba by several measures, including cost, speed, accessibility, and range of flavors.
Goodrich Coffee Bar
Our first stop was Goodrich, which hosts Boba Night every Tuesday from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. This week, Goodrich’s Boba Night was in collaboration with the Black Student Union. The drink menu offered Zobo/Sobolo/Sorrel Tea (Hibiscus-flavored), Morir Soñando (made of orange juice, evaporated milk, and vanilla), Milo (a malted chocolate beverage), and Malta Ak Let (made of Malta Goya and evaporated milk), all of which carry cultural significance across the Caribbean and Africa.
We opted for the hibiscus tea, which consisted of ginger syrup, lemon and pineapple juices, and spices. Our drink was served within a couple of minutes. The tea had a beautiful red-orange gradient, and the boba pearls filled a very generous fourth of the cup.
The tea had the perfect sweetness and an addictive flavor. The lemon and pineapple juices added pleasant hints of fruitiness that were not too overpowering. Similarly, the spices were subtle and added a slight warmth. We would guess that cinnamon and ginger were used in the blend.
The boba’s texture was a bit disappointing — it was quite mushy and overcooked — but its flavor had a tasty, moderate sweetness. As longtime Goodrich-goers, we know there are nights when the boba is overcooked, nights when it’s undercooked, and nights when it has been cooked to perfection, so we have ruled that Goodrich boba varies in quality each week.
In the end, Goodrich and its weekly Boba Night deserve applause, both for being a fully student-run operation and for cranking out so many cups of boba with unique flavors each week that you couldn’t get anywhere else in Williamstown. It also doesn’t hurt the pockets, since a cup of boba can be purchased with a meal swipe or Eph points. If you want to drink boba, socialize, study, or all of the above, Goodrich’s Boba Night encompasses it all.
Tea and Boba Lounge
The Tea and Boba Lounge, which opened this month, offers a wide selection of teas and sweet treats, and customers can pick from an array of the “favorites” — recommended go-to boba offerings — or try their hand at designing their own boba concoction through their build-your-own option.
We decided to try one “favorite” and one “build-your-own,” both of which arrived a prompt five minutes after ordering. For the “favorite,” we tried the “Thai No Dye” ($6.25), which features Assam black tea, brown sugar syrup, brown sugar boba, and sweetened condensed milk. As fans of Thai tea, a black tea-based drink originating from Thailand, we were excited to see their interpretation of the classic drink.
Upon first glance, the “Thai No Dye” did not have the iconic orange color typically associated with Thai tea — perhaps, as the name implies, it lacked the “dye.” After the first sip, the tea itself tasted watered-down, diluting its flavor and making it less strong than we personally prefer. Compared to other Thai teas we’ve consumed, this drink was certainly less milky.
For our “build-your-own” drink, we selected a Sakura rose milk base with strawberry purée and brown sugar boba and rainbow jelly as the add-ins, totaling to $7.25. We asked for the sweetness level to be adjusted from 100 to 75 percent, which is done by reducing the amount of fruit purée or flavored syrup added to the drink. We appreciated the option to customize the sweetness level, an option only available at half of the Town’s establishments we surveyed.
The drink was a gorgeous milky pink color. The milk tea started off with a strong fruity flavor and slowly mellowed out into a floral aftertaste. The sweetness level was perfect for us. The brown sugar boba and rainbow jelly were also slightly sweet in a way that complimented the flavor of the tea.
We have no complaints about the texture of the jelly, but the boba was inconsistent in its chewiness. Some of the pearls were bouncy and held their shape, while others were chewy but split apart due to their overcooked exterior. The brown sugar flavor was present, which complemented the comparatively less-sweet taste of the tea. However, the pearl-to-tea ratio was slightly disappointing. Three-quarters through the drink, we were basically out of pearls.
Overall, Tea and Boba Lounge is the only place in Williamstown whose central focus is on, as the name suggests, “tea and boba.” As such, they offer the widest variety of flavors, and the option to create your own drink is an exciting opportunity. We also recognize that they have only recently joined our community and are still fine-tuning their offerings. For newcomers, we would recommend trying to build your own drink and explore their more niche flavors — you might discover an unconventional but delicious combination!
Blue Mango
For most of our time at the College, Blue Mango was the only establishment on Spring Street to offer boba regularly throughout the week. As first-years and sophomores, if we were craving boba on a night that Goodrich didn’t offer it, you would likely find us there. However, the competition has since stiffened — will Blue Mango’s boba hold up?
Blue Mango offers five classic flavors: taro, mango, Thai tea, coffee, and green tea, each priced at $5.00. Recently, they introduced specialty drinks: a strawberry latte ($6.25) and a strawberry matcha latte ($6.25), both of which offer the addition of boba (which raises the price to $7.00). We chose one classic, Thai tea, and one specialty, strawberry matcha latte. The drinks arrived after two minutes.
The first drink we ordered was the Thai tea, which had that signature milky orange color. The tea was a bit sweet but not sickeningly so. The viscosity of the drink was perfect. The boba was chewy, bouncy, sweet, and came in a generous serving. Overall, the Thai tea boba is a solid flavor that we highly recommend from Blue Mango’s signature menu.
Strawberry matcha is a pairing that we’ve previously enjoyed from other places, so we were hopeful about Blue Mango’s version. However, the matcha was a bit powdery for our liking. The strawberry flavor came in the form of a syrup at the bottom of the cup on top of the boba. For us, the strawberry flavor was a tad too sweet. If you particularly like the strawberry matcha combination, this drink would be appealing, but for the newbie, it may not be what you’re looking for.
The real star of both drinks was the boba. It was perfectly soft with a good bite. Blue Mango is also generous with their boba — compared to the Tea and Boba Lounge, their pearl-to-tea ratio was much higher.
Blue Mango continues to satisfy our boba cravings. With a high pearl-to-tea ratio and a solid line-up of flavors, it’s an establishment that comes top-of-mind when looking for the drink. And at $5.00 for the classic flavors, they offer the cheapest boba on Spring Street.
Spoon Café
Historically, Spoon Café has not been known for selling boba, but rather for its frozen yogurt. In its February reopening this year, Spoon introduced a boba line-up featuring milk tea, taro, matcha, strawberry, mango, and coffee flavors.
Something to note, however, is that Spoon’s interpretation of the drink does not feature tapioca pearls; instead, they offer “crystal boba,” a jelly-like add-on made from konjac. We tried two flavors: taro and strawberry, each priced at $6.25. The drinks were hand blended, so they took longer to arrive — around seven minutes.
We both enjoyed the taro boba, which had a pretty purple hue to it. The sweet, nutty flavor of taro and the drink’s milkiness particularly stood out to us. Overall, it had just the right amount of sweetness and taro flavor. It wasn’t watery and had a good amount of crystal boba.
The strawberry boba drink began separating in the cup shortly after we received it. The drink itself was a little too sweet for our preference. There wasn’t a strong tea flavor nor was there a milky element to it. Perhaps with more milk it could have had a creamier texture that may have better complemented the crystal boba.
Our opinions on the crystal boba were divided. Although one of us really enjoyed the firm jelly-like texture and subtle sweetness of the crystal boba, the other felt that the jelly was too firm and did not compare well to classic tapioca pearls. You may have to try it for yourself to decide.
Spoon’s boba was solid — but nothing too exciting. Although they have a good selection of flavors, the lack of tapioca pearls does make it difficult to compare to other businesses. We would recommend getting the taro flavor, though.
Final Thoughts
After taste-testing boba from these different establishments, no clear winner emerged.
At the top of the podium, Goodrich Coffee Bar and Blue Mango are tied. While Goodrich develops unique menus that showcase culturally diverse flavors and only cost a swipe or Eph points, the consistency of their boba is variable and their opening hours are limited. On the other hand, Blue Mango is open every day of the week with an affordable menu, reliable boba, and quick service. Nevertheless, the fixed menu is limited, and you have to spend cash for your drink.
Spoon Café and Tea and Boba Lounge are tied for second. While Spoon offers solid flavors, the crystal boba instead of tapioca pearls could throw off students used to the latter. Tea and Boba Lounge offers creative flavors and the opportunity to build your own drink, but this variety allows for more hit-or-miss combinations, as we experienced. Overall, both shops were comparable in price (except for additional add-ins at Tea and Boba Lounge) and provide customers with a space to converse, hang out, and catch up on work.
Out of all the drinks we tested, our favorites were the hibiscus tea from Goodrich’s Boba Night, the taro tea from Spoon, and the Thai tea from Blue Mango. We hope that this review has clarified the strengths and weaknesses of each establishment so that you can embark on your own boba-tasting journey, discover the perfect boba drink for yourself, and perhaps award one out of the four locations with the first-place trophy.
