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Matcha milk tea and Peach fruit tea from Yumchaa

Bubble tea started becoming trendy in the U.S. in the 2010s, and it’s remained popular ever since. Thankfully for me, it seems Omaha has wholeheartedly embraced bubble tea, with several different shops around the city specializing in the drink. I wanted to find out which tea places in Omaha lived up to the hype, so here’s what I found… 

Thirst Tea Cafe 

The first place I tried was Thirst Tea Cafe, which has locations in both Midtown Crossing and near 76th and Dodge. Thirst Tea has a broad assortment of teas on their menu, along with a couple of snacks like eggrolls and edamame. The prices of teas are pretty reasonable. It’s about $3.50 to $4.50 depending on the drink.  

My favorite drink from Thirst Tea is their coconut milk tea with tapioca boba. It’s super flavorful, and if you like coconut then you’ll love this. You can’t go wrong with ordering a milk tea here; they’re all super smooth with a nice amount of sweetness from the boba, which has the perfect chewy texture.  

Another drink I enjoyed is called the “Bruce Lee.”  It features a combination of blueberry and lychee teas with lychee jelly pieces at the bottom. This drink has both unique flavors and textures in it, and I would recommend it to someone who wants to try something more uncommon. The one drink I didn’t like here was the pineapple slush, which was so sweet I couldn’t even finish it.  But overall, Thirst Tea gets the stamp of approval. This place has good prices and delicious bubble teas, which make it the ideal spot to go with friends. 

The Tea Smith 

The Tea Smith has a homey feel, and the service was very helpful. The shop sells teas and treats from a large menu, and it also has a bunch of tea supplies for sale. It is a bit pricy; my drink was normal with nothing crazy and the total came out to $6.50, which is way too much.   

I had high hopes for The Tea Smith’s bubble teas, and I was kind of disappointed to be honest. I ordered the taro milk tea with boba. The actual tea was amazing.  Taro tastes like a sweet starch. The part I really didn’t like was the boba; tapioca boba should be a bit chewy, but these were just undercooked and very unpleasant to eat. If I went back, I would only order teas with no boba. 

Yumchaa 

The last place on my tea journey through Omaha was Yumchaa. The atmosphere here was very relaxing and the prices are fair. One aspect I appreciate about Yumchaa is how the customer can personalize their whole drink. At other tea places you can certainly change things around to get the perfect drink, but the menu here is designed to be customizable. It has a list of teas and toppings, and even has sweetness level and ice level options. 

The first drink I tried was the matcha milk tea with boba. I’ve always been a bit apprehensive to try anything with matcha because it’s often described as tasting like lawn clippings, but I think this drink converted me. The matcha has a real mellow tea flavor that does have a hint of grass, but it’s surprisingly good and the sweetness from the boba compliments it very well.  

The other drink I tasted was a peach fruit tea with blueberry popping boba and lychee jellies. This might have been my favorite out of everything. All the different flavors and strange textures from the toppings combined to make one interesting tea, which somehow managed not to be overly sweet.  

I’m definitely going back to Yumchaa; it’s a bit of a hidden gem. I liked everything about this place from the cute décor to the inventive teas.