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Looking to beat the winter chill? You could have a nice cup of tea. Or a bucket of boba.
Once reserved for on-the-go summer sipping, boba has a new twist, thanks to a Silicon Valley boba shop that’s found a clever way to keep customers sipping all winter.
At the Milk Tea Lab in San Jose, you can customize a cauldron typically used for Chinese shabu shabu — the hot pot dish with broth, meat and veggies cooked in the center of the table — and instead fill it up with steaming, sweet milk tea and toppings. A $16 pot serves three and comes with three toppings. (Prefer a mini pot? Fremont’s 99% Tea House offers them for $7.)
Milk Tea Lab co-owner M.G. Ha started offering the communal teas in December and the boba hot pot popularity continues to grow. We caught up with Ha recently to find out how it works and the odd origins — hello, TikTok — of the winter trend.
Q: Why boba tea in a hot pot?
A: It was winter and business was very slow. So my partner and I were trying to think of what we could do to get more business. We thought, “Something hot.” Then I remembered the videos of milk tea hot pot I had seen recently on TikTok. I realized we’re a lab and thought, “Let’s have people customize their own.”
Q: What’s lab-like about the way you serve it?
A: Well, first you pick your tea. We offer black, oolong and organic jasmine. Then you choose three toppings. We make everything in-house, including our grass jelly, handmade boba, egg pudding and tofu pudding. We offer additional fruit syrups (3 for $4) — honey, lychee, strawberry, mango, peach and honeydew — in little vials to customize the flavor of your tea even further.
Q: What has the reaction been?
A: It’s crazy. We were empty before. Now, especially on weekend evenings, we have lines out the door. It helps that we’re open until midnight. We’ll keep it going until the weather warms up, probably through the spring.
Q: Any tips on perfecting the pot?
A: I recommend putting toppings in your own cup, not in the pot. Grass jelly or egg pudding or even boba will melt in the pot and change the texture of the tea. From there, just have fun. I really want customers to make it their own.
Q: Do you know the origins of the trend?
A: I think milk tea hot pot started around 2013 in Taiwan. But over there, they serve it in the same pot (as shabu shabu). I was born in Hong Kong and I can’t stand the idea.
Details: There are Milk Tea Lab locations in Alameda, Pleasant Hill, Concord and San Francisco, as well, but only the San Jose location — at 1601 Branham Lane — offers hot pot; https://milktealabs.com.
