Chatime – Tea House & Lounge

Customer service is great! I love it how the employee know their teas and if you don’t know they are very helpful! It’s like they read your mind!!! I love it there and I will definitely keep going back, everything is great to their teas and other drinks to the store and the employees!!!

I am loving it!
The tapioca pearls (boba) are fantastic and the coconut jelly adds a nice sweetness with just the right crunch to a drink. My experience there was very good. I did not really know what I was doing and the man asked me if I wanted my drink to be milky, caffeinated, fruity, smoothie, etc. He helped me find just what I wanted. The ambiance of the place was very nice, it gave off a very happy and whimsical feel with it’s wall art. One comment I do have though is that I asked for my drink 30% sweetened. It was a little too sweet for me but the flavors were there. I had the Mango Juice with ice (without ice is extra) and Coconut Jelly. It was a very nice rich yet refreshing mango flavor. The boba is quite chewy, my daughter got some in a apple fruit juice thing.
Overall I think this place is great.

They best Boba in town. This is Taiwanese franchise so u get the real deal. Their traditional teas are not powder which is a plus, plus! They also offer options such as sugar levels and unique toppings such as jelly.

I seriously dislike when I have this strong chalky, artificial, or thick syrup taste when drinking boba. I love chatime because I can get slightly less sweetener and the drinks do not have real milk. I like the matcha flavor (I don’t recommend the raw red bean in there) and the milk tea. They even have a rewards system. Go and get some awesome boba! There are always a lot of Chinese students there too and they are open late as well.

I’m not from Tucson, and to be honest I had pretty low expectations for a boba joint in a city that appears to have low diversity (referring to Asians). But this place is amazing. The tea itself is legit. Along with the milk. I got a regular chatime milk tea (30% sweetness) and it was THE best original milk tea I have had. I’m incredibly surprised it beats all of the milk tea spots I’ve tried in Los Angeles. The milk tea at chatime really has the tea flavor that you can tell is high quality. The people behind the counter said they use loose leaf tea to make it which is demonstrated through the delicious flavor.
I highly recommend this place for their milk tea as I can’t comment on anything else, but I’ll definitely be coming here often when I visit Tucson.
OPEN EARLIER PLEASE

Good bubble tea and friendly, helpful service.

I ordered a Thai tea with boba. Generally, I feel boba places can be overpriced, especially given that the flavoring for this drink was a powder mixed with water. Some of the other drinks may have been fresh, but I wasn’t sure. I was interested in the dessert case, but there was just one item packaged and it had no label, so I had no idea what it was. There wasn’t a menu of dessert items, just tea. I would have stayed to hang out but the A/​C wasn’t on. I am willing to try it again when I’m really craving boba, as it’s good enough given there aren’t many choices around.

A group of friends and I went here on a rather hot Saturday afternoon in early March craving some good boba milk tea. Coming from SoCal where boba is very common, I did not particularly have the highest expectations for quality drinks, but I ordered their Roasted Milk Tea to try it out anyway. It ended up being about as sweet as I expected, and the quality impressed me overall. I also tried a little bit of my friends’ Chocolate Mousse, Pearl Milk Tea, Green Tea, and Honey Roasted Milk Tea, all of which weren’t too bad as well. It was hard to tell the difference in sugar levels despite me getting the regular amount of sugar and the others getting 0%-50% less sugar.
What I liked most about this place is that they have board games and card games available for customers to play, including a large deck of poker cards, a large Jenga set, monopoly, life, etc. I also appreciated their wall decoration layout throughout the place, which consisted of a painted tree with numerous branches and flowers filled with pictures of customers and a hand written message by them. Naturally, our group of 9 had our picture taken, and now we’re up on the wall hopefully for a long time!
If I come here again, I want to try their Red Bean Milk Tea or Chocolate Milk Tea as they looked quite interesting.

I’ve come from Cali where boba is very common there. However I was thinking this place would have had the same feel. After being told this place branched off from California, I was disappointed.
I’m more of a natural person. I enjoy real flavor, real fruits, and of course the perfect boba. I notice that some flavors were used by real fruits but others were just powder which I could definitely taste the different. Especially the taro flavor, being one of my favorites.
But, if you’re not too concern about natural vs powder flavor then this place could be good for you. They ask what level you would like you sweetness and any additional add-​ons you would like. I always get boba but sometimes the grass jelly is pretty good too! I’d recommend you try.
This is also a good place to catch up, talk, play board, card games and even do homework. I know it’s always busy with students from the U of A and being told from them it’s a nice area to just hang out, that’s a pretty good sign.
Maybe I’m just too picky, but I think it could be better.
«See it, taste it, Unilocal it»

Since nai cha is my comfort food, I had to visit Chatime more than once during my trip!
The tea itself is really good! The Winter Melon Dew Tea was fantastic. The milk tea (specifically jasmine) was a little too milky for my taste. I loved the grass jelly, but the pearls (boba/​tapioca) were slightly stale. I would pass on them. Overall, worth it.
Service is spotty; it depends on who’s working. If young lady is working by herself, things tend to be slow because she has to run the counter and register. If one of the three owners is working (the Asian man was the only one I met), things are a lot faster. The first time I went, the owner let my family and me try samples of the tea which was great! The second trip took 30 min for us to order and receive our drinks.
The store is spacious, cute, clean, and perfect for bringing work or study material!
**Member/​Stamp card is amazing! You only have to buy 6 for 7^th free in comparison to other shops general 9 for 10^th free!

Great boba, lots of customization (sugar, ice, ect), tons of different flavors. I was really impressed by this Tucson boba shop. I’m a boba snob and this place lives up to my standards. It’s a bit on the pricey side but for a good cup of boba, I’m willing to sacrifice. They hand you a sample of their seasonal tea at the moment which was wintermelon for the «holidays». I had the roasted milk tea which was a nice change of pace. Just a subtle hint of roasting.
Go! It’s a perfect afternoon pick me up!

Wow, just wow. This place is awesome. My first time trying boba tea in Tucson and it was definitely a hit! I’m used to boba tea from Atlanta and California, so I kind of have high hopes for these drinks and Chatime definitely hit the bar.
I ordered the Taro pudding milk tea & mu husband ordered the Thai milk tea with rainbow jelly and both were spectacular! The Taro is a little different than most, since they use actual root, it has a little bit of a pulp texture to it. The girl at the register kindly informed me of this ahead of time incase I wouldn’t like it and was willing to make me another if I still wanted to try it out, which was awesome of her, but I like to take my chances and try new things.
What’s better than the actual root compared to artificial powder though? NOTHING! It was great! It kind of made me feel like I was drinking something fresher (though I kept my sugar level normal). Haha, yes. That’s right, you can also adjust the sugar levels in your drinks to your liking! Regardless, they came out perfectly. The thai milk tea was a little milkier than most, but it just added to the flavor and wasn’t too rich, so I also loved that as well.
I would definitely recommend trying these two if you haven’t.
I’ll be back for more, I guarantee.

I tried giving them feedback before I left, saying that the tea want strong enough in my honey roasted milk tea with egg pudding. They wouldn’t let me leave until they got the order right.
Customer service: ⁶⁄₅
And I love that you can tell them to customize it the way you want it, as a barista would in a coffee shop. I’ll definitely be back.
And yes, I think that the egg pudding here tastes better than Bing’s.

Chatime is not only the best boba place in town, it is literally my favorite thing that has happened to Tucson in the past couple years. LOVE the milk teas here. My favorite drinks are the taro, oolong, matcha, & mango black milk tea, but you seriously cannot go wrong. The taro milk tea kind of has a pulpy/​gritty texture but the flavor is nice.
I also love their customizable sugar levels and egg pudding. Personally 30% sugar is my go to and gives most drinks a refreshing, mild sweetness. The egg pudding is heavenly soft and adds a nice texture and sweet flavor. Boba is chewy and soft. They used to be kind of inconsistent with what they had in stock but I’ll pass that off to growing pains because I’ve never had any issues recently.
Just make sure you bring cash because there’s a $ 0.15 charge if you use a card for a purchase under $ 5. And get a punch card for every 7^th regular-​sized drink free (they will charge you for some change if you make your free drink a large).
Basically, I love you chatime and thank you for being the place I go to treat myself with a delicious milk tea when I’ve had a bad day.
EDIT: they changed their punch card policy so now it is not as good. You have to give your number to make an account and every dollar spent = 1 point earned. 45 points is a free small drink and 60 points is a free large drink. So basically I have to purchase 12 – 15 regular sized drinks to get a free drink. :(

Uhm, super awesome bubble tea place! Really, calling it a bubble tea café doesn’t do it justice because they serve so much more. It was a bit overwhelming when I first walked in because there are just so many combinations you can get. But they have something for any mood you may be in, from creamy to fruity to chocolaty to tea-​y? Once you decide on a drink, you then have the option of boba, grass jelly, pudding, coconut jelly, rainbow jelly, coffee jelly, or red beans as toppings (for $ 0.50 each). Also, for all you lactose intolerant (or vegan) folks, the «milk» is not milk, but rather, non-​dairy creamer. I really couldn’t tell until I was told. Perhaps my favorite feature is the ability to customize the sweetness (0%, 30%, 50%, 80%, regular sweetness)! I always hate when a drink is too sweet. Things are often far too sweet for me because my threshold for sweetness doesn’t match that of the general population. Now if my drink is too sweet, I can only hate on myself.
I finally decided, with help from the barista, on the brown rice green milk tea with half bubbles and half pudding at 50% sugar. It was everything I was hoping for and tasted exactly as I had imagined! It was delightfully creamy with a hint of toasted nuttiness from the brown rice which nicely balance the green tea. The sweetness was on point. The pudding and pearls were lightly sweetened and added a fun variety of textures. Unfortunately, the boba was a wee bit under –you know, with that overly chewy/​hard inner core. Kinda a no-​no for a boba place, but I’ll overlook it this time.
The lounge area is nice and chill. It was super quiet while I was there, except for the country music that was blasting… but seems like a good place to hang out and chill with friends.
Overall, awesome bubble teas (plus juices, smoothies, mousses, coffees and more) with many complex flavors and cool customizable features (especially the sweetness level!!). Be sure to check in on Unilocal for a discount and get a punch card to earn a free drink!

The best place for boba in Tucson! The taste is very authentic and they have more than just boba toppings to choose from. My favorite topping is the house-​made egg pudding.
You can get almost any drink hot which is great for fall, even though fall falls barely below 80 °F in Tucson.
You can also adjust sweetness level so your drink is unique to your tastes. I would definitely recommend this place to anyone looking for a place to hang out and get tea. It can get a little loud so I don’t recommend doing homework here without headphones.

I agree with the reviewers that have said that Chatime is the best spot in Tucson for boba, although there isn’t all that much competition in that area.
There is a wide variety of teas and add-​ins to choose from. I like that you can customize your level of sweetness. The boba has always tasted fresh and been the correct, chewy consistency when I have gone in.
Be sure to check in for a free add-​in. Stamp cards are also offered, buy 6 and get a drink for free!
A clean and inviting space, Chatime offers free wifi and there have always been multiple people either studying or working on their laptops when I have gone in. I also noticed some board games tucked away in a corner, which would make this a great hangout spot.
I do wish Chatime opened earlier, but that is my sole complaint (and why I am going with 4 stars rather than 5). A true gem in the desert, boba fans in Tucson should definitely give Chatime a try if they haven’t already!

Check in for free topping!
They have a stamp card which is good if you come here often. Supposedly this is the best boba place around and I thought it was pretty good! The décor is cute and inviting & I think I saw a painting of a tree branch on one of their walls which was lovely.
Price is decent. I had the mango grapefruit juice with regular black boba. I always ask for ½ sweetness and it was perfect.

Chatime is my boba fix when I’m in Tucson. I was pretty impressed with the high quality of the different drinks, hot and cold. They have a great selections of mixed boba drinks, teas, snacks, and desserts. According to Chatime, the teas are brewed fresh in store with natural ingredients and no added preservatives.
It’s always a plus when you can customizable the sweetness in your drink. Normally, most boba places add so much sugar and syrup in their drinks. It really overpowers the taste.
The décor is relaxing and with free WIFI. I think it’s always filled with UofA students. It can be difficult finding a place to sit.
The Matcha Red Bean Milk Tea is normally my go-​to drink heading back to Phoenix. This drink is worth all the calories! Excellent balance of red beans and matcha.
Note, don’t forget to ask for a stamp loyalty card. Trust me, that stamp card fills up quickly. I just wish someone would open a CHATIME franchise in Phoenix too.

My fiancée and I are kinda obsessed with this place. We have visited the past two weekends; when we went for the first time, we had to go again the next day.
I have not had a lot of boba tea but so far this is the best I have tasted. Unilocalers mention they use real tea, and not the powdered stuff. Though I cannot confirm this, I can confirm that the taste of the teas here are far superior to other boba teas and they do taste more natural. The roasted milk tea and matcha tea are so delicious! The sakura sencha is also good. I love that Chatime has whole red beans to add to drinks: they taste especially good with the matcha.
I also like their desserts. Though I’m sure people will complain about the portions, I think they are perfectly sized, especially considering that more than likely one will be accompanying the dessert with a sugary tea. I also like how the desserts are not overly sweet like most American desserts.
On top of all the wins, the place is super adorable. Soo much love for this place!