Milk Tea & Pearl

A wonderful bubble tea store in Shoreditch in the box park right outside Shoreditch High Street station. They have a very unique selection of «world teas» in contrast to other mediocre bubble tea places which only offer green or black tea. The ladies who work here are, as many has stated before, lovely and friendly, and will help you get the drink you want.
Try the roast sencha and mates. They are unusual but delicious options which can’t be found in any other bubble tea stores.

I visited on a whim a couple of Saturday’s ago as I was in the area and I loved some of the more unique flavours that I’d not seen on other menus. As it was a freezing cold day I thought I’d try my first hot bubble tea. I decided to go for the Honeydew (melon) milk tea with passion fruit popping boba.
It was utterly delicious and totally different. Hot fruity milk isn’t something I’ve ever had before but I’m definitely a convert. The honeydew flavour was really unique but worked particularly well warm and was complimented by the tropical tasting passion fruit.
My son had the mixed berry tea with passion fruit boba which was equally delicious and very refreshing as it wasn’t overly sweet.
The store itself is compact but had a couple of small stool and tables to sit at and the staff were lovely, though they did run out of tapioca while we were there (not an issue for me as I can’t stand the stuff but they had to turn away a few potential customers).
I’d definitely go again if I’m in the area!

I’ve visited Milk Tea & Pearl twice. The first time I was unimpressed as my tapioca was undercooked. Today’s visit was much better! It’s a standard bubble tea but they do have some unusual flavours that you don’t see everywhere, like chocolate milk. An advantage — they don’t charge extra for card payments even under £5.

Delicious but so, so expensive.
Milk Tea & Pearl is tucked away on the top floor of the Boxpark. The décor is great, the space is small with outdoor seating, the tea and flavor selection are good, and the taste is good. I’m a self-​proclaimed boba addict, I’ve had bubble tea around the world, and I think the drinks here are good. I had the Assam milk tea with regular tapioca, which was tasty.
Just the price is so hard to accept. £3.5 is bonkers.

I have been here a couple times before they were on Groupon and they have always been consistently great. Some of my favorite combos include the following: English toffee milk tea with tapioca pearls, strawberry milk tea with lychee bubbles, and any plain tea with their jellies.
They also have a punch-​card, which is a bonus. Enjoy your bubble tea in the Boxpark communal seating area just outside their shop on a nice sunny day as they have some cool beats and nice vibes going on around there.

I love love love Milk Tea & Pearl.
Atmosphere — it’s on the top floor of Boxpark just next to the outdoor seating area, which is really nice. They have a few seats inside as well. The staff are very friendly and nice, and they are super fast at making tea. They are also happy to recommend flavors or toppings if you aren’t sure which to pick. They seem like they actually care about their customers’ opinions, I know they read their online reviews and take heed to those suggestions (like indoor seating) which a lot of places in London wouldn’t do. I only see them for five minutes when I go in to pick up tea but still it’s one of my favorite shops to go to and they are always nice.
Price — 3.50 a tea, overpriced but it would be hard to find cheaper bubble tea in London. I just suck it up because I know this is the norm, but I wish it were cheaper, and that they also offered larger sizes. There is a student discount for UAL students so look out for that if it applies to you. You can pay with a card.
Tea — SO GOOD! They don’t have the same range of flavors and toppings you’d find at a place like Chatime, but what they lack in range (probably due to size constraints at Boxpark) they make up for in quality. I’ve never had a drink there that I didn’t like. I drink a lot of bubble tea and tend to get adventurous with the flavors so sometimes I end up with really bad combos or sickly sweet tea. This never happens at Milk Tea & Pearl. I highly recommend the African Bush Tea, Grapefruit Green Tea, pretty much any of the oolong teas, taro milk tea, and the strawberry jelly topping. Everything is super fresh and has authentic flavors — like with the grapefruit green tea, you end up with bits of grapefruit pulp in your drink and true grapefruit flavor on top of the green tea. So much better than the powdery/​syrupy flavors from some tea shops. I find that the tapioca here is not as sweet as other places, but I actually prefer it. The texture is great.
My only complaint is that the jellies that are cut into strips are a bit hard to suck up into the straw. I love the cute star shaped jellies and those are much easier to drink.

Hands down the best boba & milk teas Ive had in London. They hit the spot just right: lightly sweetened, excellent proportion of fresh tea and milk, chewy tapioca, plus tea cocktails, YUM. While not unique in flavour and not the largest menu, the drinks are upgraded versions of those from chain stores like Chatime. I am a little sad they dont offer a bigger cup size and closes so early.

I love this small little establishment. I asked which tea would be best as I love to have a more fruity and sweet tea and they gave me a whole run down of the teas. So I opted for the cold Mango Matcha with Lychee jelly. It was sweet, refreshing and tasty. Will definitely be back if I’m back in the area again.
The ladies at the desk were really sweet and smiley which made the whole experience delightful.
P.s My friend went for an alcoholic one and he seemed pretty drunk by the end of it!

Very good milk tea with lots of flavour options for pearls and jellies. They have lots of outside seating as well, so that’s nice on a dry day.
Really enjoyed the tea we got here.

I am from New York and seriously It is so hard to find the one here.
I was looking for somewhere like Kungfu tea (NYC) in London. I have to say although this place isn’t like the one I was looking for I like their bubble tea a lot. I tried everywhere in London and so far this one is the best. Their tea is very fresh and tapioca is very plump and sweet but not too sweet. It wasn’t like the fake bubble tea mixing up with lots of artificial sugar, powder and full of tap water. They have lots of creative drinks as well. Also, I like their Shoreditch hipster decoration with asian touch (origami on the ceiling) :) VERY HIP!
Thanks guys for good bubble tea! :)

Of the two locations, this is my favourite. I am lucky in having one location close to my campus and the other close to my home!
Best enjoyed when the weather is nice and you can grab the tea and sit at the Boxpark bench tables outside. There is also some inside space, (they have now renovated and there are two tiny tables with a few stools — used to have one long bar table with some stools) but it’s better to sit here during the «off-​peak» times when there aren’t many customers otherwise it gets way too crammed inside.
They sometimes put too much ice and while they have a wide range of flavours, they are lacking a few flavours such as red bean and pudding that I know other bubble tea places offer. I think they are looking into adding more flavours soon though and were receptive when I suggested some new flavours.
That being said, I do appreciate all the options they currently offer, especially the yerba maté option which I had never seen in the North American bubble tea shops I’ve been to. It seems like Milk Tea & Pearl understand their tea bases and consider the different flavour profiles each tea base will produce. The girl making tea today was doing a fantastic job, our drinks were very delicious! They also serve the «standard» Taiwanese flavours; original milk tea, roasted oolong, jasmine green tea, etc.
Also a bonus, bubble tea cocktails! Haven’t had one, but I commend them on being innovative with bubble tea.
Overall, there is a good variety of tea to choose from. They make the tea well and I’ve never had a bad drink from here before. I would definitely recommend this place if you’re in Shoreditch looking for good bubble tea!

Great spot for the picky drinker — there are plenty of flavors, available hot/​cold, and several types of toppings to add beyond the standard tapioca. The tapioca tends to clump at the bottom, but the tea and boba flavor more than made up for the stickiness.
There’s no indoor seating, which may be a problem considering London’s affinity for rain… but there are plenty of picnic tables outside the shop on the rooftop, great for people-​watching on a sunny day.
It’s also perfect for the bubble tea obsessed — ask for a customer card, where you get a free bubble tea after a certain amount of purchases. For now, this gives me a good excuse to keep visiting!

Great flavoured tea in all shapes, colours and sizes. You can opt for alcoholic, milky or fruity, and so far I’ve not been disappointed.
I was lead here by a fellow Unilocaler who is absolutely obsessed and admitted visiting here more than twice in a day. Friendly staff and plenty of seating up in box park as well as lots of places to eat near by. Also they have happy hour from 5 – 6 daily with specials on selected drinks!

Yummmmm!!! I randomly walked in and randomly ordered something off the menu. I had no idea what I was ordering but it ended up to be exactly what I was looking for. The hot roast peach sencha tea with strawberry boba works perfectly. I was so skeptical when I asked my server which one she would recommend to go with peach, but I went with it.
I was impressed with the quantity of the portion. It was a good generous size for £3.50. The tea itself is so lovely and smooth. I could drink pots and pots of this delicious peach tea all day. The strawberry boba are amazing little bubbles of pure strawberry happiness that explode over your tongue with every mouthful. My drink didn’t last very long, it was too delicious to savour. It took every fibre of my being to not get another one to go. It was tough but I pulled through. I’ll be back very soon, I’m talking a matter of days. :)

Upper level of Boxpark Shoreditch — bubble tea! A lot of flavors, bubbles so you can customize your experience however you fancy.
Had a cold (note this does not mean iced!) black milk tea with boba. It is more adequately described as lukewarm, which even on a cooler day (it was not) is not very attractive. Agree with KB, ice machine is needed guys — let’s get with the cool milk teas straight into cold.
There is a nice patio/​sitting area shared with the bar next to it if it happens to be sunny and you’d like to enjoy.
Overall a great dragon black milk tea with boba — just needed that ice and it’s easily 4 stars.

I DO love a good bubble tea, and I was happy to have one move into the neighbourhood, at least for a little while, at the Boxpark. Average price is £3.50, which is reasonable for London.
Ultimately, however, this place requires a pro/​con list:
Pro: Good, fresh teas. Not all fake powders. Excellent selection of flavours and tea varieties. Offer hot and cold options. You can select your own sweetness level as well.
Cons: NO ICE??? The cold boba teas are chilled, but quickly become lukewarm before you can drink it all. Get an ice machine, please. I feel badly for the employees, even before the weather got really warm, it was always a million degrees inside this shop.
The lack of ice/​a really cold beverage really kills this for me.

I had the passion fruit tea with mango pearls, very nice on a hot day. This is a great place to get bubble tea in this neighborhood. I really like how they let you pick from a variety of pearls, bubbles, and jellies to put into your drink free of charge!