UTD finally killed the on-campus Smoothie King. Great! Going to Smoothie King meant reserving at least 40 minutes of your day just to wait and hope that your smoothie gets made today. With the 2024 fall semester now beginning, students are met with a delectable replacement to smoothies: the first-ever boba shop on campus. I am obsessed with it and insist that every Comet must try it. This insistence comes from the simple fact that UTD is a treat-based society. Long have we wallowed in a treatless haze, aimlessly shambling between classes and exams. But TeaCo makes it so we will never have to despair again thanks to their wonderful array of treats — both in liquid and solid form!
The Smoothie King once tucked between Firehouse Subs and Halal Shack has fallen, and in its place TeaCo has risen. While TeaCo’s focus is on milk tea, as indicated by their name and menu, TeaCo manages to provide drink and food options for every other occasion. Did you stay up all night studying for your organic chemistry exam? Go get some Vietnamese coffee. Is your brain overheating from doing finals all week? Go get a refreshingly cold smoothie to cool down those neurons. As long as you have a hyper-specific understanding of what situations can occur, then TeaCo literally has everything you could possibly need and want.
If being a college student hasn’t already ruined my finances, then TeaCo most certainly will. As of the beginning of fall semester, TeaCo is not included in UTD’s meal plan, which means students will have to spend Meal Money or actual money to enjoy this covetous boba tea. While TeaCo’s base cost of $5.99 comes in below the average cost of boba in Dallas, which was $6.17 as of a 2022 survey by Steeped Dreams, the addition of toppings and the sheer frequency at which I yearn for boba can easily have me dedicating at least $100 each week to a TeaCo sweet drink. To answer the question of whether it is worth it, we must first understand the journey of a TeaCo consumer.
It is 9 a.m., you are aimlessly wandering around the Student Union while chatting with a friend — when suddenly the metal grate separating the restaurants from the rest of the SU lifts up. You are at first taken aback. It is Aug. 12, classes won’t start for another week. What could be going on here? You venture forward, making your way toward a prismatic spray of colors as a TV display scrolls through vibrant dining and drink options. You are a Comet — pretty colors are enough to completely capture your attention, but will their taste be enough to entice you further? They offer samples of what they just finished making: 75% sweetness Vietnamese coffee and taro milk tea. And the taste just absolutely erupts in your mouth. Even with the ruptured water pipes inside the SU, the people at TeaCo managed to lovingly craft some truly excellent tea.
I was nervous about TeaCo when I first approached it, just because it felt too good to be true. A boba place on campus would be so convenient, and it could provide new alternatives whenever I needed an energy boost between classes and exams. But it wasn’t just “acceptable.” It wasn’t even middling. It easily rivaled Feng Cha and Gong Cha, which were previously my de facto boba shops because of their consistent great taste. My experience with TeaCo left me wondering if I even needed to schedule any visits with the UTD Counseling Center this semester. A great taste at a decent price directly on my doorstep — my mental health could not have asked for anything better. After my second Mango Madness smoothie, I came to the conclusion that TeaCo had solved my generational trauma.
As of publication, I have sampled the Oreo Smoothie, the Mango Madness, the Mangonada, the Vietnamese coffee, the taro milk tea, the original milk tea, the yogurt milk tea, the Japanese milk tea and the TeaCo special. Each of them brought their own fun twist to the world of boba. Some of the drinks were savory, like the coffee, some were sweet, like the taro milk tea, and some like the Mangonada even had hints of spice. This small taste of their many options has left me yearning for more. While academics are still important to me this semester, my new goal is to get through the entire TeaCo menu to find what other tasty surprises lurk therein.
If you are addicted to boba tea, or just enjoy pretty colors and good drinks, then TeaCo is a must-try dining spot at UTD this semester. Please reach out to editor@utdmercury.com if you find any unique combination of ingredients at TeaCo that leaves you thinking, “Wow, I did not think that would taste this good.” I am completely serious when I say that TeaCo has now captured me as a regular customer. The treat they offer between classes is simply too enticing, and who am I to resist Temoc’s will? TeaCo was brought here by Temoc for a reason, and I fully intend to find out by continuously having boba and encouraging others to do the same. Perhaps together we can find a new god other than the school mascot. As a final request, if students could avoid making a long line whenever I try to get tea on Fridays around 11 a.m., that would be greatly appreciated. TeaCo is now my favorite dining option on campus, a perfect 10/10 in my book, and definitely worth paying a visit.