Which is the best bubble tea brand in Taiwan? We put it to our Taiwan Travel Tips (TTT) Facebook group for a vote, and there were a few clear favourites plus a lot of other brilliant bubble tea (also known as boba tea) suggestions.
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From big brand bubble tea shops to some less well known boba places, the results were a great tool to guide us on which to try.
So let’s take a deep dive and drink in the best boba tea shops and bubble tea Taiwan chains, as voted for by locals and tourists.
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Why a bubble tea poll?
According to 2025 statistics, there are around 29,000 drink shops in Taiwan, of which around 16,000 are bubble tea shops – now that is a lot of boba!
Bubble tea is Taiwan’s national drink and it is said to have been devised in the 1980s by the Chun Shui Tang teahouse in Taichung (which you can still visit – read our Taichung guide here).
Given its popularity, we wanted to try as many good bubble teas whilst in Taiwan so decided to ask our 200,000 group members!
Incidentally, in case you are wondering, there isn’t really any difference between bubble tea and boba tea – boba is the name of the chewy tapioca pearls. Also, boba (波霸) was a 1980’s slang term for a large-breasted woman!
PS we also did a similar poll to find Taiwan’s favourite pineapple cake brand, as voted by the TTT group too – read the best pineapple cake results here >
How we found the best Taiwan boba tea
Obviously best is very ‘subjective’ as is taste – so whilst this isn’t a scientific survey, it is a general indicator of people’s favourite bubble tea brands and most of all, it is just a BIT OF FUN!
We asked our Taiwan Travel Tips Facebook group members over a couple of posts what their favourite bubble tea brands were – we started a basic poll with some popular names then allowed individuals to nominate their own personal favourites.
This all came about after we realised we quite liked bubble tea, especially the fact you can choose so many different flavors and the sweetness / sugar levels (as the original form is way too sweet for us).
Taiwan bubble tea poll
We ran the non-scientific survey in February 2026 whilst in Taiwan so we could try lots of the brands after the votes came. You can view the post for yourself below or click here >
Along the way, we learned a few interesting things including the fact that Hualien is the only city in Taiwan that doesn’t have a 50 Lan 嵐 (because the rumor / joke is that the founder had an ex-girlfriend from Hualien).
In the end, we had 34 DIFFERENT Taiwan tea shops and brands nominated – but there was a clear winner…
And the winning / best Taiwan bubble tea brand is
The winner of our Taiwanderers boba tea poll winner is….
Drum roll please – and what better way to display the results than a bubble tea brand pie-chart!?
50 Lan 嵐 was the winner with almost a third of the votes (32%) followed by Xing Fu Tan (9%) narrowly pushing the OG Chun Shui Tang into third place (8%).
Fourth place went to Oolong Tea Project (6%), followed by COMEBUY Tea (4%) – three others had 3% of the vote share each – Milksha, Coco and Ten Ren’s Tea.
Finally, True Dan and Woo Tea both had 2%.
We also had a lot of single votes for a wide variety of boba tea shops which we’ll include below in a separate section below.
The winner 50 Lan 嵐 was founded in Tainan in 1994 by brother and sister Ma Shao-wei and Ma Ya-fang, when they sold tea next to their mother’s fried chicken stall.
Their first proper tea shop opened in 1997 and there are now almost 700 x 50 Lan bubble tea stores across Taiwan.
Note – our group is made up of both locals and foreigners so the vote is a broad spectrum – but we also know 50 Lan has branches and sister brands overseas so this may explain why it is so well known and popular.
And a classic bubble milk tea at 50 Lan in Taiwan usually costs between NT$45 and NT$60 depending on your size so it is pretty affordable and one of the cheaper bubble tea options.
You might like – The cult of Taiwan’s caramel egg pudding or Guai Guai coconut puffs, Taiwan’s ‘good luck’ snack
All the bubble tea nominations:
- 50 LAN – 32% of the vote!
- Chun Shui Tang – 9%
- Xing Fu Tang – 8%
- Oolong Tea Project – 6%
- COMEBUY – 4%
- Ten Ren’s Tea – 3%
- CoCo – 3%
- Milksha – 3%
- Truedan – 2%
- Woo Tea – 2%
Plus many more that had a handful of votes (there are so many Taiwan bubble tea brands!!!)
- Cha Tang Hui
- HeChaLou
- Peak Tea
- Long Stay
- 3.15pm
- Chicha San Chen
- Unocha
- Daily Dae
- Qing Xin Fu Chuan
- Nap Tea
- Cha Time
- Daming
- ShangYu Lin
- LIKETEA
- KEBUKE
- Guiji
- MACU
- Le Phare
- Natural First
- A Nice Holiday
- Wanpo
Noticeable emissions include Unigreen, GU, snow cento and Tea & Magic Hand 茶之魔手 (which is super cheap and what one of our private drivers recommended).
You might like our Taiwanderers food and drink hub with lots of mouth watering articles >
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