A boba-filled vacation

My recent trip to LA made me long for simpler times, when I lived in California and could roll out of bed and find good boba anywhere. These days, I roll out of bed...into the boba-less abyss known as DC. Here, efforts to find even passable boba are fruitless. Here, many people don't even know what boba is. Uncivilized.

Anyway, back to happier thoughts. My friend took me to CoCo, which I'd never been to before. It's in the Sawtelle neighborhood of LA, which is one of my favorite places to eat because it has almost all of the things I love: ramen, sushi, izakaya, shaved ice, banh mi and, of course, boba. I could easily spend a week there and be happy eating something different and delicious every meal, then have shaved ice or boba for dessert. Or boba for breakfast. Or as an appetizer...or a nightcap...

Part of CoCo's extensive menu

CoCo is good. It's a pretty standard quality boba place that you'd find in LA and the Bay Area. They have the normal tapioca, plus the pudding and grass jelly options for most drinks. I myself am a boba purist and stick to the bare-bones black milk tea with tapioca for two reasons: 1) Milk tea (either black or green tea) is still my favorite boba base. I've always loved the flavor of a good milk tea, and I prefer it over smoothie-based boba, where the liquid is so icy that it makes the tapioca harden. 2) I think it's important to stay consistent and try the same thing at every boba place, if I am to review it fairly. CoCo's black milk tea with boba is solid -- good tea flavor and good chewy (if a bit soft) tapioca. I really enjoyed it. Plus, it was the first time in six months that I'd had good boba (the last time was when I went home for Christmas and had Verde, one of my favorite boba places in North America), so it was extra tasty.

The real boba high point of my trip, though, was Half & Half, my favorite boba in Southern California. I usually get the iced milk with honey boba, their specialty (this is one of the few exceptions to my milk tea rule, which is really more of a philosophy), but this time I splurged and added pudding too. I was on vacation, after all. Then I went to the park and read, and later that night had great sushi. All in all, it was a fabulous day in which boba was just one of several highlights.

Half & Half, my favorite boba in Southern California -- and one of my top 3 in the Northern Hemisphere