Costco Is Now Carrying This Popular Drink

If you're a fan of boba tea, you're going to want to run to your nearest Costco warehouse ASAP.

The chain is now selling kits to make the popular Taiwanese drink at home. A Food52 review calls it "basically magic"—and the Costco pack includes enough boba and flavor pouches to make 10 cups of tea.

It retails for $14.79 and is called Taiwan Boba Milk Tea, made by the company J Way Foods. This rounds out to about $1.50 per cup, making it significantly less expensive than buying the drink in a shop.

To prepare the boba tea, you have to microwave it inside the packaging for about 20 seconds. Then, you empty the flavored powder into two ounces of hot water and mix. Add ice and cold water or milk before adding in the boba themselves.

The 10-pack of boba sold at Costco includes passionfruit–pineapple green tea with fruity boba, crème brûlée milk tea with caramel boba, classic milk tea with brown sugar boba, and taro milk tea with brown sugar boba.

"Each cup tastes nearly exactly like the advertised flavor, and the boba plumps up nicely and softens to a pleasant chewiness in the microwave," wrote Naomi Tomky of Food52. "It might not have perfectly replicated the tea shop experience, but it came darn close at a fraction of the cost—especially since my kids couldn't tell the difference at all. Of course, if you don't live near a Costco, either, you can purchase the tea on Amazon or Walmart at slightly different prices."

Last spring, there was a shortage of the tapioca balls that make boba tea so famous. But the warehouse soon brought on a stark contender to the drink: frozen boba bars. The Brown Sugar Boba Ice Milk Bars come in packs of 12, and while they aren't a new product, they may be a nice substitute if you have a boba tea craving.

For more on boba tea, check out Everything You Need to Know About Bubble Tea.