Emma's Boba & More in Ripley offers lemonade, tea, dirty sodas, hot dogs, hoagies and wraps. First, I looked over the drinks to see what piqued my interest. "Shark Bait" was the winner: blue raspberry, strawberry and strawberry boba. It reminded me of a bomb pop, with the blue and red. It tasted like one too! Sweet with a tiny bit of sour. Approved. For lunch, I ordered a hot dog: Cowgirl - homemade chili, nacho cheese and crushed Fritos. Not easy to eat, but the hot dog was like a version of a Frito pie. The chili, the cheese, the crunch - a pretty satisfying bite. Grade: B

Happy Little Teas is a cozy bubble tea cafe known for its wide variety of tea drinks (including milk teas, fruit teas, and smoothies) and fun toppings like chewy boba and jellies. Tiger Boba (often called tiger milk tea or tiger bubble tea) is my fav style of boba drink, and it's especially popular for its rich flavor and distinctive stripey look. This one featured brown sugar and creme brulee, which delivered a rich caramel sweetness with a smooth, indulgent finish. Grade: A

Shake Your Boba is a bubble tea/boba shop located at 36 River Walk Mall in South Charleston.



They serve a variety of boba tea drinks — milk teas, fruit teas — and also some fun extras like bubble waffles.



I ordered a brown sugar boba milk tea, which was sweet and creamy with soft, chewy boba.



The bubble waffle is lightly golden and slightly soft, almost like a cross between a waffle and a soft pastry. The strawberries layer on a sweet-tart freshness that keeps every bite lively.



Grade: A

Boba Tea & TCG in Oak Hill is a unique shop that combines bubble tea with trading card games like Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, and Disney Lorcana. Bright displays of trading cards and collectibles set the tone for the big, open gathering space. Walking past all of this, I approached the Boba counter and perused the menu of fruity and milky tea options, plus tapioca or popping boba. The West Virginia Sunset is a blend of lemonade and sweet tea with peach and lemon popping boba. I do not enjoy sweet tea, but my boba-rista said that she doesn't either, but enjoys this drink when it's heavier on the lemonade side. So, she made mine how she likes hers. And it was delightful. Sweet, a little tart, and all delicious. I took it uo go, but if the setting was a bit more cozy, I would have enjoyed it there. Grade: B

The Boba Bus is a new food truck based in the Huntington area, but recently set up in Charleston, and I had to give them a try.



Boba/bubble tea, lemonade, and create-your-own drinks are all on the menu. You can pick a base from black tea, green tea, or milk tea. You can add peach, raspberry, mango, strawberry or passionfruit flavors. And, you can opt for tapioca balls or popping boba.



I kept it simple with a strawberry milk tea with tapioca balls. It was refreshing, and I love how generous they are with the tapioca. That extra chew makes it all the better for me.

Grade: A

Here's something I bet you've not seen before: a shipping & mailing company/bubble tea cafe. Boba in the front, bubble mailers in the back.



Fusion Tea features adorable, giant squishies when you walk in. Plus keychains, pens and more featuring boba.



Then, to the side, there is a menu featuring fruit teas, milk teas, lemonade, yogurt, ice blended, slushies, iced coffee and more. Plus even a few sweet treats.



I ordered the Happy Family Milk Tea with boba, clear boba, rainbow jelly, and red bean. Yes, sweetened red bean.



First off, I love all the different textures. I can see this one being a hard one to swallow for picky eaters because of the jellies and the beans, but that's what makes me enjoy it. It's sweet, but more complex than just straight sugar. It's interesting.



Grade: A

"Rewind ... is a where ice cream meets cereal to create cereal infused ice cream. During our childhood, we would spend most of our Saturday mornings watching Saturday morning cartoons and eating cereal for breakfast. As we grew older, our time in front of the TV steadily declined and so too did our consumption of cereal... Our guests are able to drill their favorite childhood cereals such as Fruity Pebbles, Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Oreos mixed together with super premium 16% butter fat ice cream and topped off with graham cracker crumbs, gummy bears, chocolate or caramel drizzle and teddy grahams among others!" according to their website.

I ordered Rewind to be delivered when I was staying in Arizona with a friend. I ordered a vanilla milkshake with cookie dough, Oreos, and marshmallow. I almost wish I would've done a chocolate base, just out of curiosity. But the milkshake I made was pretty delicious. There's always that point when the cookie pieces are a little bit too big and they kind of get mushy but they were fairly small so it all just blended well together. A pretty good milkshake overall - no complaints.

Grade: B

I'm pretty sure at some point I've tried bubble tea and/or ice cream at the Morgantown mall, but I couldn't see an official review. So, let's get to it. 



XiCha Bubble Tea & Hershey's Ice Cream is located in the food court beside Wong's Wok. The two must be connected in some way because they seem to share workers and a POS machine. There is a variety of ice cream, but I went for a strawberry milk tea with some mango popping boba. It was really quite good. I'm not a fan of tea, but the milk tea takes away the flavor of tea. Instead, it was like a strawberry milk with some little pops of juicy citrus. What's your favorite combo here?

Grade: A

Bubblefish is a new bubble tea and poke bowl restaurant in downtown Morgantown.

What are those, you may be asking.



"Bubble tea is a Taiwanese tea-based drink. Recipes contain tea of some kind, flavors of milk, and sugar. Toppings, known as "pearls", such as chewy tapioca balls, popping boba, fruit jelly, grass jelly, agar jelly, alovera jelly, sago and puddings are often added." Wikipedia



"Poke is diced raw fish served either as an appetizer or as a main course and is one of the main dishes of Native Hawaiian cuisine. It is often served over rice with soy sauce, green onions, and sesame oil. Others include furikake (mix of dried fish, sesame seeds, and dried seaweed), chopped dried or fresh chili pepper, limu (seaweed), fish eggs, wasabi, and Maui onions." Wikipedia
 

I ordered brown sugar milk tea with boba (which the folks working said was the most popular). And, yes, it does taste like tea, with sugar, and tons of delicious tapioca boba at the bottom. And it comes in the cutest cup with a little heart on top.

 

And I made my own poke bowl: sushi rice, crab, shrimp, edamame, corn, pineapple, teriyaki sauce, yum yum sauce, masago eggs, nori, tempura crisps and avocado. Feel free to copy this combination because it was delish.



Grade: A