Bober Tea & Mochi Dough

Bober Tea & Mochi Dough is building a franchise model on a (cute) gimmick: bundling stuffed animals with extra-tall drinks and charging premiums for both. But in our view, that gimmick undermines the chain’s legitimately good drinks and mochi donuts.

We visited the Irvine location, which was located in an interesting and evolving Pan-Asian plaza on the edges of Irvine and Newport Beach, and found what could have been a plain, industrial box space decorated with Instagram-ready flowers, backdrops, and seating – undeniably cute.

Large touchscreen displays handled the entire ordering process, noting that one can – bizarrely – order a drink cup with a compartment for a randomly selected stuffed animal, or another toy, at an added $3 to $6 premium. Doing so will reduce the area available for your drink. Additional customizations such as gold flakes can also be added. Thankfully, many drinks can be had for more typical prices ($6 to $7) without the toy extras.

We enjoyed the fresh, intense flavors of the beverages we tried, and especially appreciated their super-fresh boba. That said, they were very sweet by default – even a fresh pineapple tea, which was either boosted with syrup or had a lot of fruit juice mixed in – so we’d recommend dialing the sweetness level down to avoid issues. Cheese foams, brown sugar, egg custard, and cream clouds are available for around $1 each.