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3491 19th St
San Francisco, CA 94110
USA

415-967-2622

We grew up drinking milk tea and to this day are still obsessed about it. We started Boba Guys as a way to share the milk tea we remember from our childhood (only this time with fresh ingredients; none of the powdered stuff).

We use only the finest ingredients: Straus Family Creamery organic milk accompanied with homebrewed heirloom organic tea from Five Mountains. Our syrup and almond jelly is homemade and we use Grade A balls. (We just like saying that. )

Boba Guys Blog

Bin Chen

We were the first to do it at our old popup shop and now we’re bringing it back at our new Berkeley popup…reintroducing Alcoholic Boba!

Boba Guys Berkeley Popup
2502 Telegraph Ave, Berkeley (Telegraph & Dwight)
Friday & Saturday: 5pm to 10pm

Bin Chen

Boba Guys is growing and looking to hire! We are looking to add one more part-time barista to our team. It could be you!

About Us:
We are a food startup that began as a popup shop, grew to our own cafe in the Mission District of San Francisco, and we are expanding even further this year!

What We Stand For:
We’ve built and continue to cultivate a close-knit team and culture that embodies the three things we stand for: Quality, Transparency, and Giving a Damn. To read more about our mission, click here.

What you’ll need to rock in this role:
The work you’ll be doing is fast-paced, fun and team-oriented so a strong work ethic and playing nice with others is required. We also have some of the best, most loyal customers in the world so an upbeat attitude is a must; you’re the face of our company! Cafe experienced preferred but not required.

If this sounds like your cup of tea (sorry we couldn’t resist), head over to our jobs page and follow the instructions to apply.

http://www.bobaguys.com/jobs/

Bin Chen

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Here at Boba Guys we stand for quality. Food is our craft. We use small batch methods when possible and work with the finest ingredients. We strive for the best and work towards it every day.

If you ever have a problem with your drink or want it adjusted, let us know! We are happy to oblige and we’ll even make you a new one if you’d like. That’s our promise to you.

Bin Chen

We’ll be closed from the 23rd-25th to spend time with our family and loved ones. 

Our holiday hours from Dec 26th -31st:
12pm-5pm

Happy holidays from all of us here at Boba Guys!

Bin Chen

Back in 2011 we were just two rice cookers and a milk crate, serving tea out the side of a ramen restaurant. Even though we’ve learned a lot since then and we have a real shop now, we haven’t forgotten our beginner’s spirit.

We are happy to announce that we’re doing another popup, just like the old days! This time it’s in Berkeley, inside Happy Valley Restaurant (Telegraph & Dwight).

Bin Chen

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Ichi-go Ichi-e: one chance, one encounter.

The phrase harks directly from Chado—the Zen way of tea. It means when we sit down for tea, alone or with another, all we have is this one, this single chance meeting. It has never existed before. It will never exist again. So let’s be fully present to it. Drinking tea in this manner improves our awareness and leads to more mindfulness in every facet of life.

We are currently offering our own Boba Guys Blend of looseleaf black tea, exclusively at our Mission shop. This is the same great black tea blend that we brew for our original milk tea in our own store, but now you can brew it at home! Just add milk.

Bin Chen

Along with the first rainfall in what seemed like months, this past Tuesday, San Francisco also welcomed Chef René Redzepi to town. The founder and head chef of Noma, the current number two on The World’s 50 Best Restaurant list, came to the Castro Theater to present his newest work. The book, A Work in Progress, actually is more of a visually stunning collection of three works; one part cookbook, one part coffee-table collection and one part personal journal. The journal aspect was the heart of Tuesday evenings talk highlighting personal narratives of failure, fear and most importantly creativity. 

Lars Ulrich of Metallica introduced the night by discussing how he tried to answer Redzepi’s question “What is creativity?”. Ulrich’s essay “Unafraid,” which is the introduction to the book series, answered just this. Regardless of the medium, creativity comes from overcoming fear; from being unafraid. Redzepi took the stage shortly after and in between a tidal wave of unexpected profanity, he shared select intimate stories from a surprisingly low point in his life. 

From this pit, he shed light on some moments where creativity somehow flourished. “Trash Cooking” was an exercise in using ingredients that would normally just be thrown out during the winter in Copenhagen. Example? Lamb’s brain. The chefs spent days learning about this forgotten part: figuring out what it was made of, how it functioned and how it was used in other cultures. After many failed ideas and attempts, like having the skull be the vessel of plating and frying it in thin slices like bacon, Noma tried a ‘brain spread.’ The brain was pureed, ridding it of any textural turnoffs, and served with grilled pieces of bread. After much work, the brain ultimately became a “Trash Cooking” success. 

“If we’re not failing, it means we’re not pushing hard enough." 

To balance failure, perfection, and innovation is an obsessive process. Redezepi said, "Success is a marvelous thing, but it can also be dangerous and limiting…We’d always put all our efforts in people and creativity not commodities.”

Having fun, giving a damn, and working hard everyday seems to be the key to keeping creativity and innovation alive. While it’s bold to compare ourselves to any of Rene Redzepi’s work, the themes and philosophies highlighted in A Work in Progress are what we, at Boba Guys, are trying to strive for in our own small scale evolution. A constant evolution of ultimately learning how to be unafraid. 

Bin Chen

We have a new website! It’s the same url: http://bobaguys.com but we’ve completely revamped it so there’s more about us and our mission. And now it works on mobile (as demonstrated by the stock photo above)! Bookmark our new website as we’ll be updating a lot more frequently with content, helpful tips, and a look into building a food company from the ground up.