Thursday, March 10, 2011

Boba Tea House in Loma Linda, CA

Foodie Baby

It was hot, so we got stuff to drink. There was a couch and a magazine with red cars in it. I didn't sit for long though. My drink was cold. We drank them at Great-Grandma's house and I played the piano.

Mommy

OK, this place is mostly for the parents, but I love it.
I have been a die-hard boba tea fan ever since I discovered a boba place within walking distance of Cal State Fullerton (where I majored in photocommunications. Go Titans!)
After some sleuthing, I found Boba Tea House on Mountain View Avenue (right by Papa Johns in the Stater Bros complex) and was in heaven. They had my favorite, a taro milk tea (purple and sweet and milky-tasting) and once I punched my giant straw into the plastic top and sucked up sweet purple liquid and boba (tapioca ball), I was in heaven.
Bubble tea is served in plastic cups with a thin plastic lid stuck on like saran wrap on picnic food. You stick the straw through the plastic. It makes the drinks easily transportable (providing you haven't had a sip yet) and hard to spill.
Finally, we get to the part about the kids. Did you think I had forgotten the children? No, we cannot forget them. Especially if they are with you all day long and go where you go.
Everywhere, including grocery stores, where they fight the meanie-ness that is having to sit in the grocery cart.
It was blazingly hot on Wednesday Since I had to go to Staters anyway Foodie Baby and I hoofed it over to treat my grandmother, who had someone drill through a water pipe in her home and was having a bad week because of it.
Yes, I carried a bag of three drinks to the car while keeping a very hyper Foodie Baby from running into traffic, he having decided being carried was not an option that day. The lids? Spillproof.
Happiness.
I'm sorry, I digress.
The menu at Bona Tea House is a rainbow variety of fun. You can order items from taro, coconut, and red bean to green tea, peach, and strawberry (I don't know what red bean tastes like).
The drinks are around $3, depending if you get boba or not.
I was told in a phone call the milk teas and slushes are made with a non-dairy base, and also include tea, ice, flavoring or boba as ordered. The milk teas are served over ice, as are the iced teas. They also have hot teas, yogurt smoothies, 'snows' and  mocha 'blasts'.
Since the straws are so big, what I did for Foodie Baby (who at 16 months had problems sucking up the liquid through such a big straw) was pouring out his jackfruit slush (he did share part of it) into a sippy cup I had in the car. It was the perfect solution, and Foodie Baby could cool off at his own pace without leaks.
If you are OK with your little ones having a super-duper-neat treat and aren't afraid of non-dairy products, I would suggest a sweet milk tea for them or a slush. If you are unfamiliar with flavors like jackfruit or lychee ask, Foodie Baby loved the jackfruit, which is sweet.
Two problems with the drinks, other than any someone would have with ingredients, are the straws and the bobas themselves.
The large straws are hard for a little one like Foodie Baby to get a lot of liquid. Either bring your own straw or pour it into a sippy cup.
Secondly, the boba themselves could be a choking hazard, so leave them out of the little one's drinks until they are old enough to be able to stop sucking and chew on the balls.
Boba, if you have a little one, could be a place to meet a friend while the babies slept in car seats (if you go on the right Wednesday morning, you can go to the breastfeeding support group Loma Linda offers, look at llu.edu for the information through the children's hospital and Birth and Beyond classes) or take a well-behaved child to sit on the cool red couch or look at neat cars in magazines (Foodie Baby saw red. Literally. Some sporty red car and was a very good boy looking at pictures for two minutes.)
Or you could be like me- a quick in and out after running an errand and a delicious treat to savor in the car.

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