by Vivian Le, Arts and Entertainment Editor
Ding Tea Huntington Beach | Desserts, Teas | 16065 Golden West St. Huntington Beach, CA 92647 | @dingteahb
Recently, Phybie Le (’18), a student at the Orange County School of Arts (OCSA), has introduced an expansion to the international Ding Tea franchise in Huntington Beach, much of the new staff consisting of Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) students. The grand opening takes place on Sept. 2 from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. All customers will be given a buy one, get one free discount.
“I have been obsessed with boba for almost all my life and I always go get boba, whether it’s 3 in the afternoon or 9 at night. I have lived in Huntington beach for the past 12 years and a lot of our local boba shops are mostly in either Fountain Valley or Westminster. My mom and I wanted to expand it to other communities. Huntington Beach seemed to just make sense to us because there aren’t many boba shops nearby us,” said Le, the manager of the location.
Entering the store, you’re met with a modern, minimalistic decor with wooden accents common at Ding Tea establishments. The furniture consists of wooden benches and couches up front with board games lined up for lounging. The store was fairly small, especially because of the large crowd of people taking advantage of the half-off discount given.
The employees were visibly nervous at the soft opening because of the rush hour, however regardlessly they were all kind and notably hard-working. As mentioned earlier, many of them were FVHS’s own scholars.
“I was very impressed with how hard working and dedicated [FVHS students] are in their studies and how much time and effort they put in at school, work and at home. I am very proud of the team that we have assembled at Ding Tea HB. With the wide variety we offer and the customization of each drink to the customer’s preferred taste, there is so much to learn. But our team was quick to learn all the ingredients and methods and they all got the hang of it faster than I could believe. They are all very hardworking and focus to get the job done,” said Le.
The menu ranges between different flavors of milk tea, iced tea, yogurts, fruit juices, lattes, coffees and hot drinks. Popular items include the Signature Milk Tea, a blend of freshly brewed black tea and milk, and their wintermelon teas. Ding Tea has always been recognized for their Golden Boba; unfortunately, they had run out by the time I had arrived so I settled for Crystal Boba, which was an extra $0.75.
The first item I ordered had been the Taro Milk Tea, which had a beautiful shade of lilac, had been refreshing for the palate. Milk teas are priced at $3.05, a relatively normal price for boba in the area. The taro was not strong, which I found to be a plus because it didn’t overpower the milk tea base which I find happens often with taro milk tea drinks at other places.
Being that it was one of the most popular menu items, I also ordered the Wintermelon Tea, which I found to be extremely sweet. I would definitely take advantage of the store’s customizability next time I ordered and ask for less sugar, however, if sweet is a quality that is enjoyable to you, I would definitely recommend the Wintermelon Tea.
My favorite had to have been the Signature Milk Tea with Crystal Boba, which was able to retain a strong black tea taste that wasn’t overpowered by milk as many other boba restaurants do. It had the right amount of sweetness as well as the perfect beige color that is looked for in milk tea. The Crystal Boba was dense and jelly-like and didn’t resemble the texture of classical boba, however, I thought that it complimented the drink well.
Overall, visiting Ding Tea was a nice experience, and I would definitely recommend others to give it a try at the grand opening. It’s a great place to go to satisfy your boba craving.
“We just want everyone to know that we can’t wait to finally be open to everyone and that our team has been training extremely hard to be the best we can be. Please feel free to stop by anytime to visit our amazing team and get the best boba tea / fruit tea in town. We want our shop to be the place to be, so if you have any suggestions, please do not hesitate to bring them to my attention, you can email us at dingteabyphybie@gmail.com or direct message me on instagram @dingteahb,” said Le.
