TLeaf Teapresso

I was excited to try this place out since my friend told me that this place was good but I was sadly disappointed. I ordered a rose milk tea and it tasted very bitter. They didn’t even ask me the sweetness level I wanted. My friend also ordered an earl grey milk tea with boba. It was way more disgusting than the rose milk tea. It had an unidentifiable taste. The boba tasted like it had been washed in soap.
Anyhow I will not return to this place again. Go to Tpumps if you’re in the area for milk tea. (Not sponsored to promote Tpumps LOL just really like that place :))

I ordered the Iced Milk drink with egg pudding with some caramel sauce on the bottom. There was no honey boba available when we went! The cashier told me it was an hour wait, which was really disappointing; especially on a Saturday at 4pm. The best part about the drink was the egg pudding, which doesn’t say too much since it’s the add-​on. I probably will go back to this place to try the different teas though. It is similar to Tea Society, so it’d be a good comparison. For now, a list of pros and cons below and an average rating.
Pros:
Different types of teas that they’ll freshly brew upon order
Friendly Staff
Toppings are good (egg pudding)
Cons:
Iced Milk drink was OK — similar to a Frappuccino
No Honey Boba

Oh Unilocalers! You can’t be serious to be giving this awesome place just 3.5 stars are you???
You have to try the Grape Oolong tea, with default milk, 50% sweet with honey boba pearls… And you get a cup-​a-​noodle sized piece of heaven.
I like my pearls al dente, and this place has it down, and the teas are brewed fresh to order. You can definitely taste the difference here ;)
Looking forward to my next visit!

Food: ⁸⁄₁₀
Service: ⁷⁄₁₀
Decorations: ⁶⁄₁₀
My favorite drink is raspberry lychee black tea. I love the fact that they have lychee black tea as an option!
I usually get jelly instead of pearls, but their jelly is a little weird and off tasting in my opinion. It’s cold compared to the rest of the drink and has a weird texture, as if it was a chunk of cheese. Nevertheless, their tea is still good and the jelly doesn’t make a big enough difference to affect the taste!
I give props for their decorations, because they can’t make much with the small space they have. There’s a huge landscape picture on one wall (as shown in picture) and not much other than a few tables and lounge chairs.
The service is decent, about normal, not too nice and not too mean.

My friend and I were starving after waiting in line for 2 hours for Tako-​Yaki, which was at the Japanese market nearby. So we decided to get drinks.
I’m giving the one star based on taste. I got Iced Thai Milk tea with honey black pearls. My mouth was immediately greeted with a bitter watery taste– I don’t know about you, but I don’t think Thai milk tea is supposed to taste like water… only bitter! The only part I liked about it was the boba, it was chewy and sweet, which made my drink taste a lot better. My friend tried my drink and her first reaction to it (without me telling her how I felt about it) was: «this is basically water!» To anyone wondering if I even mixed it, yes I did mix it. It still tasted like water. I was very dissatisfied. The size of the cup would only be useful if the drink actually tasted good.
I came from Oakland and I wanted to try some good milk tea, I didn’t go all the way from Oakland to San Jose to drink what is basically water! Not to mention, really bad water! I walked a few more stores down to Tea Station and got a Tapioca Green Milk Tea. I think. The cashier had an accent and I was too irritated with my previous drink to clarify what she thought I ordered, but I didn’t mind trying out a surprise. The drink was $ 3.50. I waited 10 minutes for my number to be called and found the drink to be a little better than my previous one. It was really sweet, which I like, but it had a bitter aftertaste, could have been rose?
My friend got a drink at Tea Leaf Teapresso with me earlier and I tried hers. (I forgot what she got though. Something with lychee). Her drink also had a bitter aftertaste that tasted like roses.
It was a weird, untasteful experience, I give you that. My friend and I were really anticipating this place. Oh well.

I LOVE coming here for my teas! The flavors are strong, boba is soft and chewy. Sweetness always comes out at the level I request.
If you do make your own combination — its at your own taste bud risk. Sometimes I’ve requested really strange flavors — drinkable — but just be aware its your order not their suggestion.
Takes card. Busy parking lot.

After dinner, we decided to get something cold to drink. I think it was around 8:30 in the evening and when we walked in, there was no one there. My wife ordered ice green tea milk with mango jelly. The drink tasted like green tea and it was a mild flavor, not to sweet. The mango jelly was good. I ordered ice milk with honey black pearl and egg pudding. I was hesitant to with the egg pudding, but I was like, why not, let see how it taste with the egg pudding. I thought it was going to be sweet, but it was not so sweet. The egg pudding was not bad too. Make sure to have the right amount, because if your 2 cents short, they will still ask you for the 2 cents. For that, I take away 2 stars.

TLeaf is nestled in a corner of the shopping center, so keep your eyes peeled! I stopped by a busy weekend afternoon.
The menu was refreshingly simple, especially compared to the huge varieties offered at many new boba joints. I went with oolong tea, regular milk, aloe vera, and 30% sweetness.
The drink came out perfectly, and it was definitely different than the overly sweet and/​or tasteless at most shops. The freshly brewed tea stood out, and the aloe vera was fresh!
Service was average.

This place has gone downhill. Too watery, and no tea taste anymore.
Although the staff are now more friendly, I think the management should have some sort of dress code. Their female staff wear super short outfits, and flip flops. Not what I want to see. and not something you should wear at work. Just saying.
It was too good to be true. Sad to say but i’m breaking up with them.
On to find my next favorite milk tea place!

The oolong tea with a regular amount of honey was hard to taste the oolong because the honey was really sweet. Maybe I should’ve asked for it to be less sweetened next time. The tea wasn’t as hot as I would like.
The iced matcha latte was good. The egg pudding was delicious. If I could go on a liquid diet, this is how I would do it.
The service is good and the atmosphere inside is nice and calming. However, it’s hard to want to stay in to relax when there’s so much fun to explore next door at Mitsuwa.

I came here with some friends when one of them was visiting from southern California, and I have to say TLeaf Teapresso has been one of my least favorite milk tea shops to date. I like the décor, the cups, and the general feel of this shop tucked away in the corner of a bustling plaza, but the drinks were incredibly disappointing.
Firstly, the service was lackluster, with the young female server at the front adopting a «could care less» attitude in response to questions and requests for suggestions. I thought the menu was a little confusing, as they used the mechanism seen at Tpumps for step-​by-​step customizability of drinks.
Dark roast oolong with pearls, topped with cream:
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I’d read that the dark roast oolong was the drink to get here, and I did think that this tea had a good, robust flavor. The tea was milky after the cream was mixed in, but the cream itself was very bland. After mixing, the drink somehow tasted really watered down. The pearls were also a little too hard, and they somehow made the tea taste more bitter after eating.
Honeydew green tea, unsweetened:
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I thought this was the best drink of the three, as the tea was naturally sweet from the honeydew and the green tea combination was very refreshing.
Osmanthus oolong with grass jelly:
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I might have a slight obsession with osmanthus, but I have yet to find a place that makes osmanthus oolong tea as well as T4 does. TLeaf was one of the more disappointing versions, with the tea tasting extremely watered down and the osmanthus lending a half-​bitter, half-​dusty taste (if you’re a frequent drinker of floral teas, you’ll know what I mean by «dusty»). I do agree that the osmanthus oolong was just brewed via tea leaves, but it’s not a drink I would recommend. The grass jelly was also less slippery than optimal in my opinion, and it did nothing to smooth over the dull tea.
All things considered, I probably won’t be back to TLeaf Teapresso.

Living in the Bay for so long, there are always always ALWAYS about what seems like a billion new boba/​tea places that open every year LOl and half of them probably shut down… I hope Tleaf isnt one of them. Great location because after going shopping in the plaza or slurping down a huge bowl of ramen, you could really use something sweet and refreshing.
I’ve been here quite a few times already. The ambience is like … an asian coffee shop LOL. think like a Verde set up to get drinks, but no restaurant-​like set up. Instead, there are nice plush couches/​chairs and a huge painting of a cityscape on the wall. Anyways, usually a guy named Ryan helps me out with my drinks, but i think he got another position or something because hes not cashier anymore. But he’s always been really nice and patient with my order. I never know what to get because theres always soooo many options. My favorites so far has been the matcha latte and the earl grey with egg pudding.
Usually theres a bunch of young teenagers, like any boba place and parking always sucks balls because its the mitsuwa plaza LOL. but i always have time to come back!
TIP: wear your costume and come in on the Oct 31^st and you get 31% off your drink!

Interesting concept of fusing tea and espresso. The ability to completely create your own drink with a highly customizable menu is a bonus. Definitely a more «hip» version of your typical boba place and worth a try if you are around the Mitsuwa marketplace.
Our personal experience was only so-​so though. We got a Iced Matcha Latte w/​milk and honey boba. It turned out to be extremely sweet, even though we already asked for half sugar. This place is supposed to be brewing all their teas fresh though I’m not sure if they did that with the matcha. I get matcha flavors everywhere and I couldn’t taste anything special about the ones here. I was also excited for their honey boba (having had good experiences with honey boba at other stores) but they were just kind of dense and hard. I would recommend others to check this place out but I probably wouldn’t come back here myself.

I’m excited to come back here to use my BOGO card (starts after 8÷15÷14)!!
This place is right next to the crazy busy Kahoo Ramen, so if you’re looking to eat some ramen, pop on by to TLeaf to get a boba while you wait! TLeaf still seems fairly new with limited seating (only enough for 4 parties), but lots of open space. The main wall has a beautiful stencil of the heart of Taiwan in Taipei City! As a proud ABT girl, I gotta say that it’s good to know that the owner or at least the vibes of TLeaf is authentic and truly Taiwanese :)
Now…I have always gotten milk tea or pre-​mixed milk+tea in my pmt/​boba drinks… but my first visit to TLeaf was a revolutionary change to that cycle! I decided to get black tea with milk foam and honey boba. AND BOY WAS MY LIFE CHANGED. I am one of those foodies that have always found milk tea/​boba to be too sweet even with my request for «no sugar” – and I think I have found my solution! By ordering the tea separate from the milk (in the form of foam), you can mix the drink yourself and get a MUCH less sweet milk tea altogether.
Long story short, just get the damn milk foam and taste the awesomeness that is much less sweet and still delicious in fresh tea and cloudy foam!

I don’t know what it was the first time but it taste so much better now. The lychee black milk tea is really good and I definitely suggest it! I got it less sweet and it has the perfect balance. Also the lychee flavor was present. My friend got the matcha milk tea and just like before it had a more tea flavor than sweet great tea ice cream. The taro milk tea light sweet is also good. Kinda carmelly.
Also I’m definitely coming back during August 8 – 15 because it’s by one get free!

I tried the iced Peach Oolong Milk Tea with boba, and surprisingly, the peach flavor had quite a kick in it! I was expecting something more subtle, but it was still delicious nonetheless. The shop itself was very clean and has chic decorations. I especially love the cityscape mural!
Overall verdict:
— Strong tea flavor
— Good boba texture
— Large size for a decent price
This place has earned my stamp of approval.

Seriously there has been a huge increase in boba places around cupertino area lately. What about Palo Alto area guys? huh? There are asians there too ya know!
LOL #struggles.
anyways. I came here one day after Mizu and I like how their menu has steps haha. very helpful. And they have so many different teas!
Grape tea??? my friend got this and it was actually pretty good loll.
I usually get some sort of mango green tea crema or peach. I tried that with the green tea foam once and it was all right. I would just stick with the regular.

TL;DR? One of the most customizable boba shops I’ve been to by far. You control every aspect of your drink and TLeaf makes it easy to go down the list! Less drink options than TapEx or Quickly’s but they have the essentials down. Mainly tea drinks with coffee and non-​caff offered. 1 Star for Service, 1 Star for Ambiance, 1 Star for everything else.
Service, Ambiance: A
Location, Prices: B
Drink Quality (Iced Oolong Milk Tea with Pearls, Less Sweet): C
TLeaf Teapresso Method:
STEP 1: Choose your DRINK TYPE: hot, iced, blended (Iced)
STEP 2: Choose your TEA (I chose Oolong. Premiums additional $.25)
STEP 3: Choose your MILK: Milk, Milk Foam, Matcha Milk Foam (Chose Milk. Additional $.50 for foam options)
STEP 4: Choose TOPPINGS (Chose Honey Black Pearls. They offer Agar Pearls and Panda Pearls. Agar Pearls is Gong Cha’s equivalent of White Pearls. Panda Pearls is half Honey Black Pearls/​Agar Pearls, so cool!)
STEP 5: Choose your FLAVOR (None)
TLeaf is a clean, cute, quaint café with a few tables around and a beautiful photo wallpaper of an urban city (from what I gathered on Unilocal,Taipei Taiwan perhaps?). The music is not obnoxiously loud and the service is quick as there are not hordes of people inside constantly (thank God). Hard to find so look for Kahoo Ramen or Elegant Curls hair salon.
The particular drink I had (oolong milk tea, less sweet) tasted bad. I am not sure if it is because I asked for less sweet, but it basically tasted like strong oolong tea and milk poured into it. There was no sweetness to it whatsoever and it was pretty bland. On top of tasting bland, the tea and milk did not mix well, and I could distinctly taste the tea vs. milk. Pearls were chewy and soft but not honey sweet at all! Yikes… Would I go out of my way to come here by myself? No and TLeaf can easily be a 4 Stars boba shop in my eyes but the drink was just too bland and distasteful. Next time, TLeaf!

One of the worst milk teas I’ve had.
– The Milk Tea –
I had the standard Black Milk Tea with Grass Jelly and Pearls
($ 4.02 for milk tea with grass jelly and pearls)
The pearl balls taste very amateur. Try buying a pack from Ranch 99 and boil it with sugar and it tastes and feels just like it. They are so small that it’s difficult sucking them up with your straw. They leave a bad sugary after taste too.
The Black Milk Tea was way too watery.
– The Service –
When I got to the cash register, the worker was staring off. I was wondering what she’s doing and just stared at her. She was adjusting the back of either her bra or her clothes. After that, she went over to her co-​worker and asked something about her back. Then she was looking over her back with the reflection on the coffee maker. Maybe could do this after taking the order.
– In Conclusion –
With all the choices in the bay area, there is no reason to go to this tea shop. The milk tea is bad, the location is bad, the service is nothing special, and the parking is bad.
Once Tea Station opens next door, this place will NOT last a year.

4 stars for now, I’m sure that once they work out the kinks they’ll deserve a solid 5 stars.
Another new boba joint that’s recently sprung up. Since their opening I’ve already been here 4 times. What keeps me coming back? It’s their menu! They have Genmaicha (green tea w/​roasted rice) & Hojicha (roasted green tea); not a lot of places in SJ have these teas. Also, they offer agar pearls and maccha foam!
So why not the 5 stars? Their brewing has been inconsistent. Sometimes it’s perfect, other times the tea is watered down. During my last visit my Genmaicha was brewed perfectly! I hope this continues.
Besides the inconsistent brewing they’ve also messed up my order. One time I ordered maccha foam and received milk foam instead. I was in a hurry so I didn’t bother to have it fixed. There was only 1 customer before me.
Try the agar pearls! I had it for the 1^st time at TLeaf and really like it. The texture is hard to describe. It’s slightly crunchy in a good way. Just ask for a sample if you’re unsure. During my last visit they didn’t have the agar pearls, I hope they get re-​stocked soon.
TLeaf is slightly hidden in the corner near Kahoo Ramen and Hana.
TIP — Cash only (for now). Ask for a stamp card.