On the afternoon of April 17th, I visited this store which is one of the few Taiwanese bubble tea shops on the Island of Hawaii. Although the owner was not there, his partner explained to me that the tea and equipment all come from Taichung, Taiwan. The tea is delicious, the atmosphere is great, and the people are friendly. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting the Island of Hawaii.
Service
Take out
Meal type
Other
Price per person
$10–20
Food: 5
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 5
I always look for good boba when traveling and my kids love it. This is one of the best we’ve found in the US in several years. Personally I prefer classic boba, but the shop has tons of flavors and add-ons to suit any preference. We greatly enjoyed the monster boba and jasmine green tea. my 6 year old suggested. My 6 yo rated Ding Tea “five hundred and fifty stars” but google will only let us give 5.
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Other
Price per person
$1–10
Food: 5
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 5
My wife got the Monster boba and it was the bomb! It made us happy just going inside. My daughter, who doesn't really like boba that much kept asking to take tiny sips! 😂 The person at the counter was so nice and friendly, and the hardest thing was deciding what to pick! I definitely recommend this place any time you pass through Hilo. 👍
Every time I’m in Hilo, I stop at Ding Tea. Sooooo many options! And it seems they add more. Their teas are hands down the best. I love the lilikoi fruit tea with popping boba and the hazelnut milk tea with golden boba! You can adjust the sweetness to your taste. Wish they’d open one on our side of Big Island 😉
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 5
UPDATE 12/8/22:
After the owner’s kind message I decided to stop in again. I asked for their best fruit tea, and got a lychee black tea w/pearls. The pearls were white this time(?) but well prepared and pleasantly sweet! Solid lychee flavor and a good black tea base. I have to say, I’m much more satisfied this time around, and I’ve raised my review to 4 stars accordingly! I do think the tea itself could be stronger and a bit less saturated with the flavor of the syrups, but it was much better this time!
—original review:
The atmosphere is lovely, but the passion fruit green tea left much to be desired. The pearls were over-cooked, kind of mushy and flavorless…the jasmine tea itself was alright, but the passion fruit flavor tasted kind of synthetic. It wasn’t bad, you know, but I’ve had hundreds of bubble teas at this point in my life, and I wouldn’t choose Ding Tea over Teaspresso unless I was looking for a cafe-style place to do some work and sip some tea~
Overall, Ding Tea has lovely staff and a pleasant interior, but their bubble tea itself could use some improvement. I may come back and give another kind of tea a shot in the future, and I will edit my review accordingly~
Service
Take out
Meal type
Other
Price per person
$1–10
My cousins in California said Ding Tea is the best boba joint so I decided to try the one here. I have no complaints. Tasty boba tea. Nice little cafe with lots of art for taking pictures just like the other locations.
I got a mango milk tea with golden boba. It was disgusting, it tasted like a fridge, no mango flavor at all just tasted not fresh and stale. The interior was kinda cute but lots of storage boxes and very stuffy, no ac
Worst bubble “tea” I’ve ever tried - and I’ve tried it in Taiwan, California and all over. The tea here is trash, it’s as if they went to DollarTree and got the discounted leaves. All the tea is extremely bitter. I told the owner and he literally said “have you ever had tea before, it’s all extremely bitter”. Didn’t even offer to remake the disgusting drink. Absolute garbage. Such a poor representation of Taiwanese cuisine and run by owners who don’t care about quality. Such a shame.
Food: 1
Service: 1
Atmosphere: 1
