Ma Tea House

I had no clue this place was at fox valley mall as I don’t usually frequent this mall. I originally was looking for the nearby jamba juice but noticed they closed it. So, after doing a quick Unilocal search I saw Ma Tea House was nearby.
There were many pictures of different teas and frapps to choose from. Having never been here before I figured the safest bet would be a coconut milk frappuccino. It was refreshing and light. I wasn’t sure what yo make of the tapioca since I’ve never had it. The drink was good, no really strong flavors.
There was one employee working and he was very polite. My drink took just a few minutes and I was on my way. I will for sure be back to try more drinks. I don’t have anything to compare this place to so thats why they’re not getting a 5 star. Otherwise, my visit was a good one. Glad I searched Unilocal

This location is about a 20 minute drive for me when I’m in the area, but I would gladly do it for the service and the quality of bubble tea. They’re friendly and the tapioca is perfect. Milk tea is also always consistent in taste and quality. LOVE IT.

This bubble tea place is tucked away in the mall so it was a bit hard to find. I did track it down with my brother and opted for a lavender milk tea with coconut jellies (I think they were out of bubbles). It was okay. Nice strong lavender taste but a little too much sugar (even though I asked for less), but it’s nice that you can grab a bubble tea during a shopping trip here!

Affordable juices and milk teas. Customer service is great; employees are nice and friendly

I like that this place named itself a Tea House and actually served tea. Line was on the long side, must be good right? Turn around was fast, I was very impressed. Ordered a Jasmine green tea over ice, it was okay. Jasmine tea is very fragrant and I was expecting the flora notes. My tea was on the sweet side, silky smooth, but missing the taste of the tea. I will most likely try it a few more times, perhaps my recent visit was just a fluke.

I was not very happy with this place. The smoothie melted very fast, and the employees were using their bare hands (no gloves) to put straws into everyone’s orders. I had to request I put my own straw in my cup (I don’t completely take it out of the plastic so as to not touch the straw with unwashed hands). The flavor was ok though.

Probably the best place to get any type of drink! Great taste and great service! Always love the coffee and tapioca, tried the coconut and tapioca it was very good!

I ordered a regular sized Tapioca Milk Tea and a Red Bean Paste Bao, I was not disappointed. The owner was making the tapioca when I gave my order and I told her that I would wait for the tapioca to be done, this was before 11AM. There are padded benches across from the tea house so I waited there. This was the first time I have had tapioca milk tea, I almost inhaled a tapioca pearl that I had missed catching to chew up. The tea is not as sweet as Thai tea, which is good, but has a similar taste. I was happy that the tapioca pearls were not sweet also. She also had a good assortment of drinks from smoothies to herbal teas and baos (mandarin pork, BBQ pork, steak, kung pao chicken) I like the fact that this business is not located in the food court but by Carson’s. The owner is friendly and polite. I wish this business was closer to my home.

My boba tea options are limited now, having recently moved back out to the western suburbs. So the options were either Ma Tea House down in Aurora or venture up to the northwestern suburbs (and its accompanying traffic congestion). My wife and I opted to give Ma Tea a shot with high hopes due to Unilocal and, quite frankly, left a little disappointed.
The menu looked great, with plenty of tapioca and jelly options to pair with the various tea and smoothie combinations. We ordered the mango pineapple smoothie with regular tapioca. The tapioca had a great consistency but we both agreed that it left a strange, lingering aftertaste. We were also a little underwhelmed by the smoothie itself which tasted more like a 7 – 11 slushie. After about 10 minutes of sipping on the smoothies, we both sheepishly admitted that neither of us really enjoyed it too much. The search for a good boba place in the western suburbs continues…
I might give Ma Tea another go with either their lychee boba or jelly, but will definitely stay away from their regular tapioca.

It’s easy to find and decently priced. I got the Taro Milk Tea, which came out to be about $ 4. I didn’t get any tapioca because I wasn’t feeling up to it that day, but regardless, the milk tea was very good. It didn’t have a weird aftertaste, which I find in some taro milk teas around the Chicagoland area, so that was very nice. The regular size was perfect for me. :)

Best milk tea I’ve had in a while! Get the tapioca balls– yum yum! Glad to have found a good bubble tea spot in the area. Hope to try some of their other flavors soon.

Yummy smoothie teas and coffee drinks. I love the tapioca pearls or what they call bubble drinks. My son and husband love the strawberry n banana smoothies with tapioca pearls. I love their coffee bubble drink

They are out of tapioca about half the time, but that’s because it’s made by hand by the wonderful woman who owns the store. She’s very kind and I always enjoy talking to her. Last time she was out she had me try the jello like stuff for free that I can’t remember the name of.
This is my favorite milk tea place in the suburbs.

Visiting Illinois and was craving some milk tea but, of course it is difficult to find an actual place that serves milk tea. I got lucky and found this hidden gem in the second level of the mall. Very good service, very good prices and their milk tea is up to par! I love it. I highly recommend for all! Too bad there isn’t one where I live!

Come early if you want boba (tapioca). Showed up around 8:30 pm and they were out. But I guess that’s also a sign of a good boba place. Tried the taro milk tea, while it was very smooth and creamy, the flavor wasn’t as fragrant as some other locations. The mango smoothie flavor was ok.
I may give this place another shot if in the neighborhood.

Located on the ground-​floor entrance to Carson Pirie Scott, Ma Tea House is a little place I’ve come to quite a bit – sometimes I’ve returned less than an hour later – and it’s become one of my favorite things about this mall. I think it says something that I’ve gone into the mall just to get a stupid drink from this place only to be back on the road ten minutes later. I’ve been waiting a while to write this review because I really wanted to have the opportunity to try a good assortment of their offerings, and because I take tea WAY too seriously, far more seriously than I take Unilocal; now that I think about it, I take very little as seriously as I take tea.
Not to get into the whole background of it, but I very rarely get tea anywhere, though sometimes I will chance it if I’m at an asian establishment :) More than a decade ago I tried more european/​indian style teas and I think they’re disgusting. Sorry, that’s just my taste. I like delicate teas that are not too strong or overly brewed, and I like them unadorned – no sugar, lemon, honey, or whatever else people think is a good idea to stick into tea. I won’t mention much about that other tea place that has disgraced this mall for too long except that you should come to Ma Tea House and avoid that other place if you want a decent cup of tea. But I can’t tell you how many times I came to this place before I even tried one of their tea drinks; at first it was just the fruit smoothies.
The fruit smoothies are good, but call me crazy, I actually prefer the ones at jamba juice (I catch a LOT of hell for that). If jamba juice offered tapioca pearls I don’t think I ever would have come here. That said, the smoothies are – as I already mentioned – pretty good, with interesting fruit choices I don’t think they have at jamba juice. I don’t know what came over me – actually it was Unilocal – but one day I decided to try a ‘bubble’ ‘milk’ tea, something so completely counter to my tastes. I’m freakin obsessed now with those damn milk teas.
They offer an assortment of tea and tea drinks, including several ‘health’ drinks – which I have never tried but plan to because they look really good – but right now I’m obsessed with the Jasmine green milk tea with tapioca pearls, and it makes me very happy to say that they use really good jasmine and green teas in their product. Honestly, I think the drinks alone make this place worthy of five stars, but, when I consider the very friendly service and the fact that it’s the only place like this around, five stars is a no-​brainer.

Growing up a regular patron at Fox Valley Mall, I was completely surprised that the suburban mall that I grew up in was able to support not one, but TWO bubble tea joints. The other being (in my opinion) a more mainstream bastardization form of the drink. So I’m not sure if it was because I kept my expectations incredibly low or if the milk tea at Ma Tea House was that great, but my experience here was fantastic.
The menu was more typical of a traditional milk tea house you would find in Asia, with many different types of teas and flavors and jellies/​tapioca/​etc. Typically one would mix and match to find what combination fits their tastes better. Since this was my first time trying this spot, I went with the classic milk tea with tapioca.
The milk tea was not cheap, I believe I ended up spending $ 5 – 6 for a large with tapioca, but it was well worth the fare. Initially, I was worried that the tea would be too sweet for my tastes (since I neglected to tell them to put less sugar) but it actually was fine. The milk was smooth and delightfully complimented the tea nicely, but the major surprise was the consistency of the tapioca. They were nice and chewy while not being overly sweet. Basically exactly what I was hoping for, which is pretty rare considering I think only ONE place gets it right in Chinatown, Chicago… and for this random place in the mall to rival that is like finding water in the desert.
My 5 stars is giving not because it’s the best milk tea I’ve ever had, but more because I’m shocked at how my old neighborhood is able to support such an authentic place in the mall… My milk tea experience was really good and I’m glad I have a spot to look forward to when I come back to visit home.

It’s hard to find good milk tea in the suburbs. Heck, any milk tea, regardless of quality is a rarity in my neck of the woods.
Now, the Fox Valley Mall has never been renowned for it’s diverse and extensive selection of food or beverage joints. So I felt like Ma was a welcome and overdue addition to the pedestrian and genetic food court scene that has grown to plague malls the country across. No longer am I a slave to Starbucks! Well, I am, just not when I’m driving 30 miles for a hoody.
Anyway, the selection is not as broad and all encompassing as I’m accustomed to, which was actually perfect, because I wasn’t feeling particularly decisive on the evening I’m referencing. So I went with what every white guy orders when visiting a place lime this: taro milk tea! (Baseless generalizations ftw!)
I think that the tea here is quite good, and I’m a little bummed that I might have opted for flavoring where none was necessary. I’m unsure if the taro was a powder mixture or not, but it certainly wasn’t the fresh taro taste. It wasn’t bad. Just a bit sweet. Next time I’ll ask if they can adjust that.
I’ll likely come back here again to try something less sweet, but it was an overall positive experience, and I would definitely recommend it to thirsty patrons with coffee fatigue.

I was happy to see a real bubble tea place in the mall, with traditional flavors like taro!
Unfortunately I was like the first customer of the day so the boba weren’t ready… but I still enjoyed my drink pearl-​free, and it’s fun to watch the robotic cocktail shaker briskly mix your drink.
The lady working there seemed very nice but was having a minor meltdown about change (breaking a $ 20) and the fact that the register wasn’t working right (she had to do math on a pad). So that was the only minor snag in the transaction. But the selection of products is great, and it’s easy for grab-​and-​go (note to self: park at Carsons, shop, then grab a drink when leaving as a special treat for the ride home!)

Finally! A bubble tea place in Fox Valley Mall.
(mid level by carsons)
Gone are the days of power shopping with an Orange Julius or pretzels and lemonade in hand while dodging hoards of teenagers and suburban shopping pros. Now I can relax and sip on herbal teas (or fruit juice/​smoothies) while roaming the mall. I’m not a huge fan of boba actually (it doesn’t make me less Asian!!), but I really like the rainbow jelly (because I’m a child) and drinking plain milk tea is like bathing in nostalgia. Prices are on par with other places so no complaints there.
They also serve waffles, both sweet and savory. I wasn’t brave– or hungry– enough to try it last time I was at the mall.