Cool Tea Bar

Whenever I’m in SF Chinatown, I head over to CTB because it’s nearby and the service doesn’t take too long. My «home» CTB is the one in Sac, but if I’m in SF, this is my go-​to boba place!
I love their roasted milk tea with grass jelly. It is my favorite! The grass jelly is smooth and delicious and the beverage is just as tasty. Also, the size of their cups is great. They’re large and definitely worth the price.
The atmosphere is pretty nice, but whenever I go, nobody ever seems to be seated inside. Oh well. The service is good and the employees are nice, so I would really recommend stopping by CTB for a drink!

I love their roasted milk tea with grass jelly. It is my favorite! The grass jelly is smooth and delicious and the beverage is just as tasty.

As my San Francisco trip continues on 12/​15/​2015, I decided to take a short break at this place called, «Cool Tea Bar.» This Cool Tea Bar located at the Chinatown neighborhood delivers some great drinks anytime, anywhere. For the past several months this 2015 year, I’ve been to Sacramento and Elk Grove locations many times, so this is my first visit for this original Cool Tea Bar location here. As I entered, the atmosphere is quite and simply comforting here. The concept is quite a mess here although it did maintained the space here, so I can sit at any tables I want.
The baristas at Pacific Avenue’s Cool Tea Bar are doing an alright job for making the customers a fine service. No cons at all.
I ordered a CTB’s signature #1 item, the Grass Jelly Roasted Milk Tea, and so far, it tasted not bad as I slurped it. Very delicious.
Parking at this Cool Tea Bar can be challenging. You can park it at the nearest surface street parking if it’s possible. Otherwise, you can ride a bike, walk, or use public transportation easier without the hassles.
In the end, Pacific Avenue’s Cool Tea Bar is the finest location right here in San Francisco’s Chinatown, so you can grab your favorite drinks in no time! Perfect for friends gatherings. A worthy visit! My rating: 4 solid stars.

Came here after dinner one night and it wasn’t packed at all. Although, she took forever to take my order. She was putting in my order extremely slow and I wasn’t sure if she was a new worker or not.
I ordered a hot milk tea and it tasted like it was burnt. It was an extremely weird taste and it didn’t taste like a typical milk tea. The boba was pretty bland as well.
I wont be coming back.

There are lots of reasons to go here:
— spacious interior
— good price point
— customizable ice /​sugar levels
But at the end of the day, I didn’t think I was drinking great tea – just didn’t think the ingredients tasted high-​quality.

I ordered the kumquat green tea with aloe and I was satisfied with my order and the overall taste. I may have been slightly biased from not having had boba in a long time but I was happy with what I got.
Like most places I go to, I recommend to order less sweetness (50% or 70%) and less ice for fruit tea drinks.

Late night boba trips to Cool Tea Bar! When my craving gets the best of me at an hour I shouldn’t be drinking boba during, I know I can count on Cool Tea Bar for that hot milk tea with boba :)
I’ve always had a great experience here. The boba is nice and chewy, the milk tea is always sweetened just the way I like it, and it’s inexpensive!

Lady in front of me ordered 120% sugar, god bless her tiny asian heart.
Got a 50% sugar, 50% ice for a 32oz large drink. Don’t know why I drank any other fluids that day, this kept me hydrated for the next few weeks. ⁵⁄₅ would spend $ 5 here again.

There isn’t anything super special about Cool Tea Bar – the drinks they offer is very standard, but the quality of the tea is great!
I tried the Mango Green Tea with boba and the regular Milk Tea with boba and pudding – both were really delicious. I definitely recommend ordering your drink with 50% sugar (or even 30%) because the drinks here are definitely on the sweeter side.

I came here with my sister. She got the kumquat green tea and I got the mango green tea with lychee jelly. Both were really good. The sizes of the teas are super big, especially if you get the large. You can adjust the sugar and ice levels. My sister got 30% sugar and it was a good level of sweetness. I got 0%, because the lychee jelly sweetened it. I would definitely come back!

I was trying to go to another boba place in Chinatown but ended up here instead.
I have been meaning to try this place for awhile though so not a big deal really.
They have a pretty large selection of drinks to chosen from but I ended up getting their most popular drink. The milk tea with grass jelly.
The drink was sweet creamy and had alot of grass Jelly in it. The grass jelly was sweet as well. I would probably come by here again if I were in the area.

Cool Tea Bar is in quite the unassuming location, and I definitely would have missed it had I not been looking for it. You basically order by going up to a walk in window, but there is a seating area inside. That kind of confused me, because I was thinking it was a to-​go place… but yeah, plenty of seating, plus free wi-​fi as you wait.
They had a lot of drinks going on, but I just chose the #1 best seller, Roasted Milk Tea with Grass Jelly, and my bf went with Mango Green Tea. Although we were the only people there, it took a little longer than normal for them to give us our drinks, so I would hate to see the wait when it’s busy. Our drinks were huge! That is definitely not a regular size, but I’m not going to complain ;).
* Roasted Milk Tea w/​Grass Jelly (R $ 4.00) — so different from normal milk tea… it has a heavier, creamier flavor to it that is nicely offset by the light sweetness of the Grass Jelly. I got normal sweetness, which was fine for me.
* Mango Green Tea (R $ 3.50) — refreshing and fruity, and the sweetness level was also on point. My bf liked this one better than mine, but then again he told me that my drink tasted like seaweed, so I don’t think his opinion can be trusted. Buuut I did like this drink as well, and it is on the top seller list for a reason.
I didn’t get boba in mine, but the green tea had some. They were delightfully chewy, and I approve. A must if you’re passing through Chinatown!
Drinks: 5, Service: 4, Environment: 3, Price: 5

Cool Tea bar est le pendant un peu plus ghetto de son alternative ShareTea. Le point de vente s’apparente plus à un trou dans le mur qu’autre chose. Non pas que Sharetea soit bien mieux, mais souvent mieux situé.
Alors quel intérêt? D’abord le prix est moins cher pour une différence de qualité nulle. Le service est aussi très rapide. La seule différence étant les points de vente. Cool Tea Bar étant situé dans des quartiers plus populaire — cela expliquant probablement la différence de prix.
Une large variété de thés sont servis, pour ma part je né fus pas déçu par mon classique thé fruité. En outré, à l’instar des concurrents, il est aussi possible de choisir le niveau de sucre ajouté. Bref, un bon spot pour étancher sa soif lors d’une visite de Chinatown.

I always get milk tea so I was planning on trying something new but ended up getting the milk tea here since it is so tasty. It is $ 3.50 for a regular size (but the regular size is definitely a large at other places so you can imagine how big the drinks are here!)
The #1 is the roasted milk tea with grass jelly, was very good for a hot sunny day! You can ask for less sugar from 0% to 125%! I asked for 50% sugar and that was definitely sweet enough for me, especially with the sweet grass jelly in the drink!
My only grime is that it takes forever to get drinks as there is always a line and at most 1 or 2 people making drinks for the huge line. But it is definitely worth the wait for the dranks.

Maybe the Matcha smoothie was a bad choice at 11:00 PM on a weeknight. I mean it was tasty, but I don’t even regularly drink tea or coffee.
But I really liked my drink here. Great flavor, and a nice atmosphere.
I understand that this is supposed to be a standard Taiwanese snack bar, but there was only seating in the arcade when I was there. I think the inside part was closed.
I’d say this place was pretty good. I haven’t hunted down every tea bar in Chinatown or anything, but I could definitely put this up there as one of the better places around.

Next to Boba Guys, Cool Tea Bar is another absolute favorite of mine. I stumbled upon Cool Tea Bar while roaming Chinatown and honestly had very low expectations given its storefront. However, the service is great (they even let you sample the teas before getting a full size!) and the drinks are even better. I’ve gotten their hot jasmine milk tea and iced mango green tea with lychee jelly with 50% sugar and both were still delicious. They use real tea and not powder, which means decreasing the sugar levels is totally feasible (which I love).
I’m a huge fan! :)

I got the matcha smoothie and it took like a solid 30-​min to make. Probably because there are only 2 people running operations. I’d give it 3.5 stars really. 4 is a bit generous of me.
I really like how you can indicate the sugar level. 0%, 30%, 50%, 70%, regular, extra (120%). I should have gotten 50%, 30% is pretty bland.

Kind of expensive for boba… But Chinatown has rarely any good boba places to be honest.
The Jasmine Milk tea is perfection, brewed so you can taste the tea but not too bitter. Sweet enough but not too sweet.
The Peach Green tea is soooo good. I definitely recommend it if you like teas.
The boba here is always perfect, not too mushy or hard. Just perfect.
Downside is the prices are a little steep…

Usually I don’t put ballzzz in my mouth but if I do, I do it at Cool Tea Bar.
Great selection of styles and tastes. Customizable sugar level. Chewy and soft boba pearls. And most importantly, very tasty drinks.
Service is fast and friendly. This place is hidden in a mall, you have to make your way from Pacific into this tall building and walk right in there. Open late, and low prices. Where else in the city do you get your boba fix on a Sunday night for $ 3.25?

This place is way over-​hyped.
I ordered the grass jelly roasted milk tea and there was nothing amazing about it. It was really sweet for 75% sweetness and the «roasted» just tastes burnt.
They have many other options and topping, as well as a list of specials/​popular drinks. Customer service was quick and it is located in the corner of a shopping plaza.

Giant. Boba. Milk. Tea.
4 words that are music to my tastbuds. And my ears :)
Have you *had* their GIANT Roasted Milk Tea with Grass Jelly?
How about their Oolong Milk Tea with Boba?
No? What are you waiting for?! They’re open until 12 a.m. every night.
Every night!
Head down to Chinatown and grab yourself a big, tasty, refreshing drink of cool tea!
Did you see my photo of the drinks? You can definitely see the size difference between «regular» and «large.»
Amirite?: D
The later at night you go there, the easier it is to find parking. Plus, I love the quizzical looks of other patrons when I show up after 11 p.m. jonesing for my milk tea fix :)
Props to the owner (he’s so young!) for opening up these shops across the Bay Area and for taking the time to sit down and chat with us – and even let us sample the Oolong Tea.
Closer than the South Bay, it’s worth the drive from the Dub C to SF for me for this milk tea.