Brit Boba in Studio City Becomes a Front Runner in the Boba Craze That is Exploding all Over LA

Valley cuisine is all about fusion, but the combination that Brit Boba has come up with—authentic British pastry and Asian-inspired Boba tea—is still delightfully surprising.

Despite the fact that the shop’s location—the back of a small strip mall next to Calico Corners—is accessible only by making a right turn (for those headed west), the owners say business has been swift. Coco Lloyd and Jacob Clifton credit social media for driving traffic to the tea emporium, and report double-digit growth every month since opening last November.

Coco is a British actress with a yen for authentic English baked goods that taste like home. Husband Jacob is a native Angeleno with an MBA. Together they devised a menu that combines the best of British baking with boba teas enhanced with either chewy tapioca pearls or fruity-sweet popping bubbles.

Coco says that the couple tested 10 to 15 chefs in pursuit of an American baker who could make authentic British sponge cake and scones. Pastries are baked off-site using recipes from Mary Berry, former host of popular BBC TV competition The Great British Bake Off.

For Coco, sponge is key. “In America the consensus is to make it very sweet a lot of the time,” she said. “British sponge isn’t actually that sweet; it’s the buttercream in the middle that makes it sweet.”

The shop now works with two chefs, one for the British pastries and another to handle donuts, tea-infused cupcakes and a rotating selection of baked goods.

Coco occasionally steps in to bake the time-intensive English specialty banoffee pie, a confection involving digestive biscuits, caramel, bananas, lemon and whipped cream.

The couple prides themselves on their winning combination of tapioca pearls and bubbles with clear English teas. They eschew teas traditionally used for boba drinks that are thickened, sweetened and flavored with powdered mixes. One of their most popular combos is periwinkle lemonade, served iced with organic floral tea and popping fruit boba.

The shop also serves black teas, matcha, and Thai tea à la carte, as well as a “Queen’s Tea” that includes choice of tea with options from the day’s variety of British cakes and desserts.

Brit Boba  |  12747-½ Ventura Blvd., Studio City  |  britboba.com

Tea Tidbits

Boba tea originated in Taiwan and is typically served iced with tapioca pearls or popping bubbles made of sugar, fruit juice and an outer shell of seaweed extract that provides a satisfying mini explosion. Other places to get your boba on: Lemonade in Studio City, North Hollywood’s TEAPOP and Universal CityWalk’s Mini Monster.