Tea houses and boba shops in Brooklyn Park, MN

GoCha Teahouse

The most tea-focused shop in Brooklyn Park and the one people name first. The menu is organised by drink family, with milk teas, cheese foam teas, fresh fruit detox teas, creme brulee drinks and Vietnamese coffee each getting their own section, and regulars single out the signature milk tea with pearls and the fruit jasmine teas. Reviewers describe it as sunny, family-friendly and easy to park at, and say the tapioca is consistently soft and not too sweet. A wall of more than ten claw machines has turned it into a hangout as much as a drink stop, though some customers think playing them is overpriced.

Tii Cup

A family-run Taiwanese drink and snack bar on Brooklyn Boulevard that has since grown into a small chain with stores in Minnesota and Arizona. The room is bright green and white with K-pop videos on the TVs, and the menu runs well past drinks into bubble waffles, shaved snow and street food, so it is the one shop here you can make a whole snack stop out of. Its own site names the Golden Milk Tea and the Thai tea with boba as the signature drinks. Seating is tight so most people take out, and some long-time customers say service has slowed and the boba is chewier than it used to be.

Oh My Swee-Tea!

The newest of the city's dedicated boba bars, tucked into a strip on Xenia Avenue in the far north of Brooklyn Park. Photographs of the room show a plant-lined wall, pale wood tables and a proper sit-down space, which makes it one of the few tea shops here you would linger in rather than take out from. The drink list leans towards fruit-forward green teas finished with jelly or cheese foam: its own ordering page marks Coco Lychee and Oh My Milk Tea as the most liked, and its menu flags the black Peach Lychee tea as a best seller. Bubble waffles are the only food. Yelp lists it open 11am to 9pm seven days a week.

Sweet Percent

A Chinese bakery on Brooklyn Boulevard that pours boba alongside its bread counter, so a drink here comes with a tray of coconut heart buns, pineapple buns, red bean bread and cream cheese loaves. Customers describe the boba as well made and generously sized for the price, made in a couple of minutes, with the brown sugar version pitched at the right sweetness; the avocado pomelo sago smoothie gets its own following. The seating area is small, and reviewers mention the shop has been planning to expand it. It is the earliest-closing of the shops here apart from Soga, and it is shut on Tuesdays.

Mi-Sant Banh Mi Co.

A second-generation Vietnamese American banh mi shop in the Edinburgh Centre strip, opened as a tribute to the founders' parents, who baked for a living. Bread and croissants are made fresh daily, and the drinks board is a full tea menu rather than an afterthought: royal, Thai, taro and coffee milk teas, iced fruit teas, shakes and slush coolers, with tapioca, jellies and popping boba as toppings. It is the best-rated shop on this list and the busiest, and the strawberry matcha latte and slushy bubble tea come up as often as the sandwiches. Note that it is the only one closed on Sundays.

Mochinut Brooklyn Park

A franchise of the mochi-donut chain, sharing the Edinburgh Centre strip with Kim Anh, and one of only two places in Brooklyn Park where the tea counter comes with a hot food menu: Korean corn dogs, karaage and Vietnamese rice plates and che desserts sit beside the drinks. The milk teas are built around the shop's own flavours, including ube, matcha, brown sugar and Thai tea. Reviewers like the room, which is small, clean and smells of frying donuts, but they mention long waits at busy times and think two donuts for seven dollars is steep. Parking on site is limited. Closed Tuesdays.

Kim Anh Pastry & Deli

A Vietnamese pastry shop and deli a few doors along the Edinburgh Centre strip from Mochinut, and the place to go if you want tea the Vietnamese way rather than a Taiwanese-style boba. Its drink menu is built on iced and hot ca phe sua da, black French coffee, sugar cane juice, tamarind and a signature Thai tea, with a long list of bubble teas in taro, lychee, durian and jackfruit and your choice of black, crystal, popping or tri-colour boba. The counter also does banh mi, noodle soups and donuts, it takes reservations and caters, and reviewers keep coming back to how generous the owner is. It stays open latest on Fridays and Saturdays, and is shut on Tuesdays.

Soga Mochi Donut

A counter inside an Asian grocery on Brooklyn Boulevard that fries its mochi donuts to order, with a short bubble tea list at one flat price beside them. The drinks are all fruit and yogurt teas rather than milk teas, so this is the stop for something lighter, and the donuts are the reason most people come: reviewers call them the best in Minnesota and single out the pistachio and cookies and cream. Ordering is through a kiosk, service can be slow when only one person is on, and it is the earliest to close of any shop here. Closed Wednesdays.