17 hours ago
Review: I tried the buzzy new 'Starbucks of tea' that just opened in Century City and it didn't live up to the hype
When I see influencers of every stripe and specialty posting about a buzzy new L.A. opening, I tend to take a wait-and-see approach before going—if I bother to even visit at all. Which is why, despite loving tea (and preferring it over coffee), I waited nearly two months before trying the brand-new Chagee Tea House at Westfield Century City, a brand founded in Yunnan, China, one of the world's most important tea-producing regions.
In April, the fast-growing Chinese company, which has over 6,400 locations around the globe, made its debut on the Nasdaq and is reportedly worth approximately $6 billion. Given that valuation, some folks in the media have billed Chagee (pronounced 'CHAH-jee') the ' Starbucks of tea." After trying the drinks firsthand earlier this month, I wholeheartedly agree with that metaphor—Chagee serves the same exact kind of premium mediocrity as the multinational Seattle-based coffee chain.
While I wouldn't say the drinks are terrible, per se, there are much better milk tea options in the San Gabriel Valley, including a handful of independently run boba shops and tea houses you probably already know and love. Nevertheless, it's easy to see why the masses love Chagee. The aspirational, Dior-esque branding and high-touch customer experience carries the patina of luxury, even if the semi-automated brewing leaves much to be desired in the taste department. In many ways, the brand reminds me of the recent Zoomer obsession with 'old money style'—all of the class signifiers, none of the actual class.
To find Chagee, you'll need to navigate to the top floor of Westfield Century City. The store is located a few short steps away from Knotted, an equally buzzy (and equally premium mediocre) South Korean dessert café, and right next to the Container Store. Coincidentally, I needed to pick up an online order from the latter, which meant several large, unwieldy wooden shoe racks tagged along with me during my weekday afternoon visit to Chagee.
Inside, the all-wood interiors and paper lanterns overhead created a warm, inviting atmosphere, though the overall sleekness of the place and the gust of air conditioning still reminded me I was in a mall-anchored corporate business entity. From the moment I walked in the door, it was readily apparent that Chagee places a higher emphasis on customer service than most tea or coffee shops. The day of my visit, an employee hovered near the front to open the door for guests.
A second employee was also stationed at the back of the then-short line, shortening wait times for guests; the store only has enough counter space for one cashier. The bulk of the counter space is taken up by AI-powered teaspresso machines, shielded behind glass, which allegedly improve brew consistency. Unlike most Chinese and Taiwanese tea shops, Chagee doesn't offer boba or other drink toppings, although the brand does allow customers to adjust the ice and sugar levels or swap the standard whole milk for nondairy options. There's also a small selection of pastries for sale, including tea-flavored cruffins, croissants and other baked goods, sourced from Farmshop in Brentwood.
Through Chagee's PR, I received a QR code to sample five different drinks, which I was able to order through a manager. To experience Chagee in its corporate-intended fashion, I ordered all of my drinks unmodified, starting with the BOYA Tea Latte, Chagee's signature jasmine milk tea, and one of the chain's top sellers. I also tried an iced roasted black tea latte, an iced peach oolong tea latte, an iced roasted black pure tea and an iced jasmine green lemon tea. The manager informed me that my drinks would take about 10 to 15 minutes, so I decided to head to the Container Store and return once I'd finished picking up my online order.
Once I returned, the store had filled up with even more shoppers, tourists and local office workers picking up large orders. Almost every seat in the house was occupied. An employee called out people's names. When I approached her to ask if my name had been called (eyeing a drink with my order number on the counter), I was told it hadn't been called yet. Several minutes later, I discovered from another employee that my order had been ready and was sitting against the back wall, in separate to-go bags. Slightly annoyed, I decided to find a seat outside and try Chagee's drinks while they were still in optimal condition.
It wasn't until I sat down outside and looked at my order that I realized why Chagee's signature blue-and-white patterned cups, to-go bags and other merchandise looked so familiar. The pattern and cup design are both blatant ripoffs of Dior's Book Tote, and the pattern bears more than a passing resemblance to the French luxury brand's actual line of home goods.
Sip by sip, I sat down and tasted through all five drinks. 'This is it?' I thought to myself. 'This is what everyone's raving about?'
In a line-up of jasmine milk teas I've had in my life (and I first visited Sawtelle's Volcano Milk Tea at the tender age of six), I wouldn't be able to identify Chagee's BOYA Tea Latte in a l line-up next to other slightly higher-quality boba tea shops like Latea in Culver City, Boba Guys (Culver City and Historic Filipinotown) or even the jasmine milk tea offered at Din Tai Fung. It may be an apples-to-oranges comparison, but when it comes to international Chinese tea brand expansions, I was far more impressed with Heytea, a cheese tea specialist that opened an outpost in Beverly Hills last year and has other locations in Monterey Park and Rowland Heights.
The other teas at Chagee were a slight cut above anything I'd find at Starbucks or even most specialty coffee shops without well-considered tea programs, but they weren't outstanding in any way. Like many East Asian drinks, none of the drinks were particularly sweet. The iced roasted black pure tea, which I ordered unsweetened, brought out the roasted notes in the leaves. The peach oolong and jasmine green lemon tasted only vaguely of each fruit, like someone had whispered the name of each flavor into each drink. None of the drinks were offensive, but nothing really stood out.
The only milk tea option, jasmine or otherwise, that stands out to me in L.A. is Taiwan's oolong-oriented Chicha San Chen, whose perpetually busy locations in San Gabriel and Alhambra also use teaspresso machines, minus the use of artificial intelligence. Recently, I also tried the San Gabriel outpost of Molly Tea, another equally popular Chinese jasmine tea brand originally founded in Shenzhen. It wasn't anything special in my book, and I still think Chicha San Chen is the best overall. Even then, however, I would still put Molly Tea above Chagee. Another dark-horse favorite of mine in the San Gabriel Valley is Good Alley, a restaurant in Rosemead that also uses a teaspresso machine, uses direct sourcing from Chinese growers and also offers to-go drinks. For fruity teas, the obvious favorite in my book is Sunright Tea Studio.
Of course, all of the aforementioned options are slightly tainted by the fact that these mostly iced drinks are served out of paper or plastic cups. Even the casual afternoon tea aficionado understands that proper ceramicware and the ability to sit down and relax elevates the tea drinking experience. If you're looking for truly great loose-leaf tea (I'll leave the matcha shortage-causing cafés out of the equation here), I love the traditional brewed teas and Korean-style sweets at DAMO in Koreatown. In still-recovering Altadena, Callisto Tea House offers a traditional Chinese gong fu tea service on the weekends that includes a delightful, color-changing tea pet and your choice from a selection of high-quality, carefully selected imported varieties you can't find anywhere else in Los Angeles. Other solid options for properly brewed loose-leaf tea include Steep LA in Chinatown and the tiny but mighty Golden Dragon Tea Room in West L.A. You also can't go wrong with Chado Tea Room, which has locations in Little Tokyo, Hollywood, Pasadena and Torrance.
Given this abundance of options, I can't really recommend visiting Chagee. Maybe if you happen to be at Westfield Century City and the line isn't too long, give it a shot. It's the Starbucks of tea for a reason—there are way better caffeinated drink options in Los Angeles, and you don't need to deal with weekend crowds at the mall to experience them.
