good tea quick service while young lady in the store was also working to fix a wifi issue.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Ian Fitzcharles
This place’s management is terrible. Boba is good but they’re always out of everything only have one employee working on busy days, and never update their website. They have 0 competitors in Santa Cruz which is why they get business but it’s lowkey not worth it anymore cuz you can never get what you want.
Food: 1
Service: 1
Chloe Chavarria
This place is the worst!!! Their managers quit on them, they had no strawberry drink at all when half the menu is strawberry. One of the employees asked two customers to move their cars because she wanted their parking spots, of course they couldn’t leave until they got their drink they’ve been waiting a long while for. With a sidewalk full of waiting customers a male worker talks badly about customers from the day before. The employee bringing in food and supplies at 3:00 pm then pulls one of the working employees to help get milk and strawberries from Costco out of the car for her. Female employee begins to yell through the window that these customers have been waiting for 30 minutes and for them hurry up so she can take their parking spot. The male employee yelled back calling the customers liars. The teenage employee are completely unprofessional and rude. All of this was in front of 10 other waiting customers. When we got our drinks we asked for with the plushie surprise. The drink didn’t fit in the surprise cup at all. Worst boba place ever.Parking: Limited parking.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 1
Adrian Can
It’s a cute little place but usually they’re out of ingredients so they can’t make half the drinks. The sweetness sometimes varies as well, might be due to their shortage of ingredients. One time got our sizes wrong.On a good day it’s amazing though!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 4
Yanxing Zhang
Worst service. They made wrong item and even didn’t want to use a new cup for the new drink.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 1
Delaney Jackson
Ume is the best option for milk tea in Santa Cruz — the Brown Sugar Boba is super good! It’s nice that there’s milk alternatives. However, I would recommend coming here only if you have the time to wait 30 minutes for a drink, or order way in advance. The pick-up system is confusing because it’s usually understaffed. Some of the baristas are openly stressed and unfortunately the vibes are off, usually.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 5
Service: 1
Kasimov Oybek
Passion fruit is great but it got those small seeds, lil
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Thomas C.
Ran out of large cups but had to pay the large price because there isn't a regular price for their passion fruit green tea.... Pretty ridiculous... should have been given the extra in another cup or something...
Judy E.
Even though they ran out of a lot of things, the staff did a really good job trying to accommodate for us. The baristas were really nice and offered excellent costumer service regardless of the situation! Would definitely recommend going here , the boba is fantastic and the staff is exceptional!
Kiki O'Toole
Waited 53 minutes for two drinks. They served people ( who got the same exact drink as me ) who got there 15 minutes after my arrival before serving me-- no excuse. Again, 53 MINUTE WAIT WITH NO WARNING. Come here if you want to waste your day. I could have driven to San Jose and ordered boba from there before I got my drink.When I complained to the server saying, " it's unfair for your customer to not be notified they will potentially be waiting up to an hour for their drink. It's not only unfair to your customers, but also to you the staff who are obviously understaffed " .30 minutes into my wait a second employee showed up to help their, and was apparently late due to traffic.After I complained to the staff and asked them to pass it on to the manager, a woman and her kid decided to get a refund ( they initially ordered approximately 10 minutes after I did) , and the refund itself took over 10 minutes.I cannot stress enough, PLEASE do not come here unless you are comfortable waiting 53 minutes or more in full sun without a chair. I wish I was able to email the manager because this experience was ridiculous.I arrived at Ume tea at 3:26 pm on 2/22/24, and left at 4:17 pm. -- managers please take note of this and fix this, it's not okay for your customers to pay only to wait almost a n hour with no warning. This problem has obviously been an issue for months now, according to prior yelp reviews, and has not been rectified. Your management team replies to complaints about the long wait time promising to look into it/ to work towards fixing it--- but never do apparently as months later you are still making people wait almost an hour.I was not the only one who was impacted by this.People would wait up to 15 minutes just to order, then find out what they wanted was out of supply ( all cream products were out such as matcha etc ). It was like a comedy show, people would walk past and laugh at how many people were standing outside.
Waited 53 minutes for two drinks. They served people ( who got the same exact drink as me ) who got there 15 minutes after my arrival before serving me-- no excuse. Again, 53 MINUTE WAIT WITH NO WARNING. Come here if you want to waste your day. I could have driven to San Jose and ordered boba from there before I got my drink. When I complained to the server saying, " it's unfair for your customer to not be notified they will potentially be waiting up to an hour for their drink. It's not only unfair to your customers, but also to you the staff who are obviously understaffed " . 30 minutes into my wait a second employee showed up to help their, and was apparently late due to traffic. After I complained to the staff and asked them to pass it on to the manager, a woman and her kid decided to get a refund ( they initially ordered approximately 10 minutes after I did) , and the refund itself took over 10 minutes. I cannot stress enough, PLEASE do not come here unless you are comfortable waiting 53 minutes or more in full sun without a chair. I wish I was able to email the manager because this experience was ridiculous. I arrived at Ume tea at 3:26 pm on 2/22/24, and left at 4:17 pm. -- managers please take note of this and fix this, it's not okay for your customers to pay only to wait almost a n hour with no warning. This problem has obviously been an issue for months now, according to prior yelp reviews, and has not been rectified. Your management team replies to complaints about the long wait time promising to look into it/ to work towards fixing it--- but never do apparently as months later you are still making people wait almost an hour. I was not the only one who was impacted by this. People would wait up to 15 minutes just to order, then find out what they wanted was out of supply ( all cream products were out such as matcha etc ). It was like a comedy show, people would walk past and laugh at how many people were standing outside.
Diana Martinez
This place is my 13th reason I hate it here.Had me waiting over ONE HOUR for ONE DRINK. I ordered ahead to avoid any time delays but these people can’t even manage their own workers. Workers were slowly drinking their own drinks, on their phones, while they were on the clock.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 1
Samantha C.
I'm so impressed by how good the boba is here! I'm so happy a good boba spot opened near the boardwalk because it's so convenient to grab one before heading there! The wait time is usually a bit long but it's because everytime I've been it's super busy. Worth a visit if you're nearby!
Michelle L.
The boba was SOOOOO GOOD ! usually santa cruz boba is not authentic but ume tea does it right. i go to the location in LA a lot and can't believe they have a location here !
Manning L.
Good tea. The location in Santa Cruz is pretty convenient next to the pier. The shop is small and they only had one person taking orders and making the drinks. She did a great job at it! We could choose the ice level, sweetness and add toppings. The boba was decent by being not too mushy, but not as firm as I like. The logo and cups for the place are great. I like the rabbit design and I like how they heat seal their cups. Good variety of flavors too!
good tea quick service while young lady in the store was also working to fix a wifi issue.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
This place’s management is terrible. Boba is good but they’re always out of everything only have one employee working on busy days, and never update their website. They have 0 competitors in Santa Cruz which is why they get business but it’s lowkey not worth it anymore cuz you can never get what you want.
Food: 1
Service: 1
This place is the worst!!! Their managers quit on them, they had no strawberry drink at all when half the menu is strawberry. One of the employees asked two customers to move their cars because she wanted their parking spots, of course they couldn’t leave until they got their drink they’ve been waiting a long while for. With a sidewalk full of waiting customers a male worker talks badly about customers from the day before. The employee bringing in food and supplies at 3:00 pm then pulls one of the working employees to help get milk and strawberries from Costco out of the car for her. Female employee begins to yell through the window that these customers have been waiting for 30 minutes and for them hurry up so she can take their parking spot. The male employee yelled back calling the customers liars. The teenage employee are completely unprofessional and rude. All of this was in front of 10 other waiting customers. When we got our drinks we asked for with the plushie surprise. The drink didn’t fit in the surprise cup at all. Worst boba place ever.Parking: Limited parking.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 1
It’s a cute little place but usually they’re out of ingredients so they can’t make half the drinks. The sweetness sometimes varies as well, might be due to their shortage of ingredients. One time got our sizes wrong.On a good day it’s amazing though!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 4
Worst service. They made wrong item and even didn’t want to use a new cup for the new drink.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 1
Ume is the best option for milk tea in Santa Cruz — the Brown Sugar Boba is super good! It’s nice that there’s milk alternatives. However, I would recommend coming here only if you have the time to wait 30 minutes for a drink, or order way in advance. The pick-up system is confusing because it’s usually understaffed. Some of the baristas are openly stressed and unfortunately the vibes are off, usually.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 5
Service: 1
Passion fruit is great but it got those small seeds, lil
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Ran out of large cups but had to pay the large price because there isn't a regular price for their passion fruit green tea.... Pretty ridiculous... should have been given the extra in another cup or something...
Even though they ran out of a lot of things, the staff did a really good job trying to accommodate for us. The baristas were really nice and offered excellent costumer service regardless of the situation! Would definitely recommend going here , the boba is fantastic and the staff is exceptional!
Waited 53 minutes for two drinks. They served people ( who got the same exact drink as me ) who got there 15 minutes after my arrival before serving me-- no excuse. Again, 53 MINUTE WAIT WITH NO WARNING. Come here if you want to waste your day. I could have driven to San Jose and ordered boba from there before I got my drink.When I complained to the server saying, " it's unfair for your customer to not be notified they will potentially be waiting up to an hour for their drink. It's not only unfair to your customers, but also to you the staff who are obviously understaffed " .30 minutes into my wait a second employee showed up to help their, and was apparently late due to traffic.After I complained to the staff and asked them to pass it on to the manager, a woman and her kid decided to get a refund ( they initially ordered approximately 10 minutes after I did) , and the refund itself took over 10 minutes.I cannot stress enough, PLEASE do not come here unless you are comfortable waiting 53 minutes or more in full sun without a chair. I wish I was able to email the manager because this experience was ridiculous.I arrived at Ume tea at 3:26 pm on 2/22/24, and left at 4:17 pm. -- managers please take note of this and fix this, it's not okay for your customers to pay only to wait almost a n hour with no warning. This problem has obviously been an issue for months now, according to prior yelp reviews, and has not been rectified. Your management team replies to complaints about the long wait time promising to look into it/ to work towards fixing it--- but never do apparently as months later you are still making people wait almost an hour.I was not the only one who was impacted by this.People would wait up to 15 minutes just to order, then find out what they wanted was out of supply ( all cream products were out such as matcha etc ). It was like a comedy show, people would walk past and laugh at how many people were standing outside.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Restaurantji Recommends
Waited 53 minutes for two drinks. They served people ( who got the same exact drink as me ) who got there 15 minutes after my arrival before serving me-- no excuse. Again, 53 MINUTE WAIT WITH NO WARNING. Come here if you want to waste your day. I could have driven to San Jose and ordered boba from there before I got my drink. When I complained to the server saying, " it's unfair for your customer to not be notified they will potentially be waiting up to an hour for their drink. It's not only unfair to your customers, but also to you the staff who are obviously understaffed " . 30 minutes into my wait a second employee showed up to help their, and was apparently late due to traffic. After I complained to the staff and asked them to pass it on to the manager, a woman and her kid decided to get a refund ( they initially ordered approximately 10 minutes after I did) , and the refund itself took over 10 minutes. I cannot stress enough, PLEASE do not come here unless you are comfortable waiting 53 minutes or more in full sun without a chair. I wish I was able to email the manager because this experience was ridiculous. I arrived at Ume tea at 3:26 pm on 2/22/24, and left at 4:17 pm. -- managers please take note of this and fix this, it's not okay for your customers to pay only to wait almost a n hour with no warning. This problem has obviously been an issue for months now, according to prior yelp reviews, and has not been rectified. Your management team replies to complaints about the long wait time promising to look into it/ to work towards fixing it--- but never do apparently as months later you are still making people wait almost an hour. I was not the only one who was impacted by this. People would wait up to 15 minutes just to order, then find out what they wanted was out of supply ( all cream products were out such as matcha etc ). It was like a comedy show, people would walk past and laugh at how many people were standing outside.
This place is my 13th reason I hate it here.Had me waiting over ONE HOUR for ONE DRINK. I ordered ahead to avoid any time delays but these people can’t even manage their own workers. Workers were slowly drinking their own drinks, on their phones, while they were on the clock.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 1
I'm so impressed by how good the boba is here! I'm so happy a good boba spot opened near the boardwalk because it's so convenient to grab one before heading there! The wait time is usually a bit long but it's because everytime I've been it's super busy. Worth a visit if you're nearby!
The boba was SOOOOO GOOD ! usually santa cruz boba is not authentic but ume tea does it right. i go to the location in LA a lot and can't believe they have a location here !
Good tea. The location in Santa Cruz is pretty convenient next to the pier. The shop is small and they only had one person taking orders and making the drinks. She did a great job at it! We could choose the ice level, sweetness and add toppings. The boba was decent by being not too mushy, but not as firm as I like. The logo and cups for the place are great. I like the rabbit design and I like how they heat seal their cups. Good variety of flavors too!