🐝 Meet Vera: Glendale’s Ultimate Boba Bee! 🍯

March 9, 2025 admin

If there’s one thing Vera knows best, it’s boba. She’s the queen bee of Glendale’s boba scene, buzzing from shop to shop, sipping, rating, and sharing her sweet finds with her Instagram hive.

Whether it’s a classic milk tea, a trendy fruit infusion, or a chewy boba pearl that melts in your mouth, Vera’s taste buds have tried it all.

We’re excited to sit down with Vera and get the inside scoop (or should we say sip?) on the best boba spots in Glendale and what makes a perfect cup.

What sparked your love for boba, and how did you become Glendale's go-to boba expert?

I have a devious sweet tooth… specifically a craving for things cold and sweet.

I had a fruit tea with popping boba for the first time in Armenia about 15 years ago and fell in love with how sweet and fresh it was.

I figured out it was called boba and then tried tapioca pearl boba in LA a few years later.

Turns out, it wasn’t the same thing. I started trying different drinks to see what would match that drink I loved as a child wandering the colorful streets of Armenia, and realized I wanted to review the drinks I tried along this journey.

The journey started in LA, but now I’ve reviewed drinks from London, Winnipeg, Paris, and more!

If you could only drink one boba flavor for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?

Vanilla is my safe and go-to flavor. You can’t mess up vanilla. Vanilla ice cream, vanilla candles, vanilla lotion, vanilla cookies… I love everything vanilla.

I’d pick vanilla for a smoothie. But if the drink in question is a fruit tea, I’d pick lychee.

Lychee is reliable and replicable, and with enough sugar, will always taste like the jelly cups I grew up eating.

What's the wildest boba flavor you've ever tried? Did it slay or was it a nay?

What was wild for me (but not inherently “wild”) as someone who didn’t like red beans was the red bean drink from It’s Boba Time.

The beans were too hard, and the drink tasted like a sweet version of a savory stew my mother would make. It was too off-putting. I hated it. That was quite a few years ago, so I do want to give it another shot soon.

I don’t think Avocado is a wild flavor either, but I guess you wouldn’t expect that in a sweet drink… yet the Avocado smoothie from Tiffany’s Coffee happens to be one of my favorites. That one is definitely a slay.

When you rate a boba shop, what are the key things you look for? (Taste, texture, ambiance?)

Different drinks may garner different ratings for any given boba shop. I usually rate based on:

1. How good I think the drink tastes (subjectively). I do make it known that I love milk and I love sugar… so my subjective ratings tend to be biased as such.

2. How true the flavor is– is it actually what it claims to be?

3. How good the tapioca pearls are. My favorite boba balls tend to be sweet, slightly warm, juicy, and chewy.

What's one hidden gem in Glendale that most people don't know about but should?

Tiffany’s Coffee on Pacific is a small Vietnamese coffee shop that serves some of the best boba I’ve ever had.

Although they use powder bases in their smoothies, they also add actual chunks of the fruits.

Their flavors are usually pretty accurate, and their boba balls are nice and chewy.

Are you team honey boba or crystal boba? And does ice level really matter?

I am team honey boba. I like how sweet and juicy it is, especially when cooked well.

And yes, ice level matters (for more than just taking up space in your cup). If I’m getting a milk-based drink, it’s because I’m craving milk.

Too much ice would take away from that creamy richness.

What's the perfect boba-to-milk-tea ratio for the ultimate sip?

I like 20% boba, 80% drink. 25% to 75% also works if you’re in the mood for some chewing.

If you could invent a brand-new boba drink, what would it be called and what would be in it?

I’d make a Knafeh flavored drink. It would be milk based, and it would have blended kadayif. It would have a cheese foam and crushed pistachios.

That would be named Alf Lela We Lela (“A thousand and one nights” in Arabic).

Alternatively, a cucumber flavored smoothie (an idea from cucumber ice cream I’ve had at Saffron & Rose). I’d name it The Grinch.

If you had to describe your personality as a boba drink, what would you be?

I’d probably be a fruit tea with a bunch of add-ons– lychee jelly, popping boba, fruit bits…

You can make fruit tea work with pretty much all flavors, and you can make it sweet or bitter.

There’s definitely a lot going on with the toppings, but usually you end up enjoying them.

What's the funniest or weirdest boba experience you've ever had?

When I was in Paris, I found a boba shop that had over 20 flavors of popping boba.

So, in addition to my drink order, I also got a cup full of the popping boba flavors I’d never had before.

Making this order in French was definitely interesting, and to the guy helping me out… thank you for your patience. I sat outside the shop and dug into that with my mother.

Also, not funny or weird, but pretty cool–I met the Stokes twins at the It’s Boba Time at the Glendale Marketplace back in high school!

If you could go on a boba date with any celebrity, who would it be and what drink would you order?

I’d go with the Grinch and I’d get a matcha latte. Sure, that’s not boba, but I think the Grinch is more of a “drink impulsively while you talk” type of person, so I can’t be risking it with the tapioca pearls.

I feel like deep down the Grinch just wants to do some complaining while sipping on a silly little drink, and a matcha latte is perfect for the occasion.

Plus, it’s green, so even if he knocks it off the table with an angry exclamation, he’d have nothing to worry about.

Where can our hive of readers find you on social media to keep up with your sweet fashion journey? 🍯✨

Join me on IG @vera.writes.again for more local and international reviews, as well as guest features!

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