Bay Area boba, and an updated Top Boba list

San Jose, Calif. - I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that one of my favorite boba spots in the Northern Hemisphere, Verde (the Cupertino location) is closing because their lease has not been renewed. The good news is that their Mountain View location, which I wrote about in detail in the early years of this blog, is still open.

Farewell, Verde. You've been delicious. :(

Some other good news: I've been out of the Bay Area boba loop for awhile now, and found out during a recent trip back that there are a couple new boba hotspots: Tpumps and Cafe LaTTea, both in Cupertino. I didn't get a chance to try either during my too-short trip, but they're definitely on my to-do list for Christmas. I also need to try Boba Guys in SF, which apparently serves boba in mason jars, the receptacle of choice for the hipster generation. They are not the first to do so, though -- back in 2009, I had a memorable coconut milk boba out of a mason jar at Cafe Spot in good ole Alhambra.

Coming soon: an updated list of my top boba places, which I have not revisited since 2008. Actually, very little has changed since then except that Half & Half has been added so...here it is:

Cat's Top Boba (global), in no particular order:
1. Lollicup - Guilin, China
2. Verde - Mountain View, Calif.
3. Waku-Waku Teahouse - Windsor, Ontario
4. Half & Half - multiple locations in Southern Calif., including Rowland Heights and San Gabriel

Cat's second-tier top boba, ie I'd happily hit up these places in the absence of Top Boba places:
1. Little Bean - Rowland Heights, Calif.
2. Guppy Teahouse - multiple locations in Southern Calif.