Rooster Tea House

With two locations in Orange County – one in Costa Mesa, another in Yorba Linda – Rooster Tea House is one of several small chains that we loved on our first visits but have found difficult to revisit as often as we’d like due to issues other than food or drink quality. In Rooster’s case, its noon opening time and location in a plaza with really poor (nearly LA plaza-level problematic) parking are to blame.

To be clear, we were thrilled by their drinks. From the classic Pina Colada to modern novelties such as Strawberry Matcha Milk Tea and Dragonfruit Butterfly Pea Tea, the drinks glow with color and burst with flavor. On a second visit, we ordered a perfectly blended and just slightly too sweet Dragonfruit Slush that tasted a little like watermelon, and a Lychee Fruit Tea that was spot on in flavor, with jelly bars at the bottom. We also revisited the Dragonfruit Butterfly Pea Tea, which is a rainbow-colored advertisement for the power of butterfly pea additives.