This tea shop’s opening five locations in the Fresno area. Karaoke is also on the menu
MilkT Society is a new tea shop – serving boba and other teas – where having a good time is part of the business model.
The shop is in the process of opening five locations in the Fresno area.
The first, which opened in May, is at the southwest corner of Cedar and Nees avenues.
Others in the works:
- A location at West Shaw and Feland avenues in the former Starbucks opening in a few weeks.
- A location at the southwest corner of Peach Avenue and Kings Canyon Road opening in a few weeks.
- A location at the southeast corner of Herndon and Clovis avenues, next to Pokiland, opening in about four months.
- A location in Madera is in the works, but has not been finalized yet.
A MilkT Society is also open in Pomona.
At its most basic, MilkT is boba shop, though karaoke tends to break out at random moments – more on that in a moment.
Boba are the little chewy balls of tapioca in the drink sucked up through a fat straw. They are cooked fresh daily at the shops.
You can also get jelly in your drink, which are usually little rectangles of flavored chewy bits made from fruit and other ingredients in flavors like mango, coconut and coffee. Some jellies are heart shaped.
There’s plenty of non-boba options too, like the milk teas the shop is named for.
The milk teas are all made using a soy-based nondairy creamer. Flavors come in basic black and green tea, but also long list of other options, including taro (a purple tea made from the root vegetable) watermelon, honeydew, lavender and coffee.
And there’s all kinds of other specialty drinks too, including blended drinks made with Oreos and chocolate drizzle. There are drinks that are packed with fruit that are perfect for hot days. They come with chunks of mango, watermelon, even basil seeds, which are little seeds that puff up in tea, similar to chia seeds.
“You’re mixing your food and your drink into one,” notes owner Teresa Choi.
And some drinks are just colorful, like the vanilla sky drink, which is blue and white and comes with heart-shaped blueberry flavored jelly.
Find all this new and overwhelming? That’s OK. Just tell the workers and they will walk you through it and figured out a drink for you based on your favorite flavors.
Also, between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, you can buy one drink and get one free.
MilkT Society wants to bring in food too. Desserts like pastries and Korean corn dogs are about to show up on the menu.
Korean corn dogs are a trend that’s taking hold in the United States – but not yet in Fresno for the most part. They are hot dogs breaded or topped with things like cheese, potatoes, even Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.
Karaoke and other fun stuff
That brings us to the overall vibe of the place. There’s a neon sign that’s perfect for selfies, a giant Jenga puzzle and other games, and a karaoke machine that’s always available.
Choi encourages her employees (called bobaristas) to have fun. For example, karaoke breaks where the employees belt out a song together are a regular occurrence during the workday.
They sang Bruno Mars’ “When I was your man” to prove it during our interview.
And job interviews here are a bit more like an audition because Choi wants people who aren’t shy and who are willing to have fun.
No labor shortage here, Choi had 20 or 30 job applicants singing, dancing and posing like supermodels on vehicles outside the business on interview day.
As she puts it: “You don’t have to be crazy to work here, we’ll train you.”
Details: MilkT Society is at 7975 N. Cedar Ave. in Fresno. Hours: Noon to 9 p.m. daily.
This story was originally published July 20, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
