Kung Fu Tea now open in the Delmar Loop
The popular chain’s first St. Louis franchise offers highly customizable boba tea.
Photo by Iain Shaw
Kung Fu Tea opened its first St. Louis location on September 29, with lines nearly stretching to Delmar Boulevard and a celebration featuring live music and traditional Chinese lion dances. The chain already has stores across the United States and international locations in Canada, Vietnam, and Australia.
Photo by Iain Shaw
A couple of colorful customers
The restaurant is located in a former Smoothie King location, as the Riverfront Times first reported. The brand goes heavy on martial arts references, but “kung fu tea” also refers to the brewing skills used in a traditional Chinese tea ceremony. Kung Fu Tea’s drinks have little in common with that ancient practice, but the founders made it their mission to stay true to the authentic flavors of boba tea as it was conceived in Taiwan in the 1980s.
Photo by Iain Shaw
To Kung Fu Tea, authenticity means brewing fresh batches of tea every three hours using only tea leaves grown on the mountains of Taiwan. Similarly, a new batch of tapioca boba is cooked every two hours to replenish supplies.
There’s space inside for around 10 small tables lining the shop’s windows and a few tables outside. A large, anime-style mural covers the walls at one end of the space adds.
Photo by Iain Shaw
It’s not unusual for boba tea shops to offer a wide range of flavors and add-ons (50 cents each), such as herbal jellies, popping boba in flavors like coffee and mango, red beans, and sweet and milky jelly-like “pudding.” Kung Fu Tea, however, gives customers additional power to tinker. Most drinks can be made hot or cold, but you can also choose how much ice you'd like. Customers can also scale back on sweetness by adjusting the “sugar level” at a number of pre-set points between 0 and “120” percent. Some of the drinks use non-dairy milk, so be sure to ask what’s available if you don’t drink dairy. Prices range from $3.50 to $6.50, depending on the flavor and whether you order a medium or large drink.
Photo by Iain Shaw
The twists on standard milk tea are a good place to start. We like the honey oolong milk tea, dressed up with boba and pineapple-flavored nata jelly (made from coconut pulp). Other flavors include winter melon milk green tea and rosehip milk tea. The frozen slush drinks are an interesting mix, with such flavors as taro, red bean, pina colada, and Oreo.
Photo by Iain Shaw
Milk Strikes are made with lactose-free mil and boba, and topped with red beans. Flavors include chai, sesame matcha, and ginger. If you want something less milky, the Punch drinks combine different teas—black, green, oolong—with different fruits and include fruit drinks, such as strawberry lemonade. Seasonal specials like pumpkin oolong milk tea offer an alternative to pumpkin-spiced tedium.
The Kung Fu Tea app allows customers to place orders in advance. The app also lets you take advantage of the loyalty program, which can earn a free drink on the third visit; gain “social rewards” by sharing photos to Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter; and earn points to progress up the kung fu-style rankings toward becoming a black belt tea master.
