From Koi's 90 island-wide outlets and famously chewy pearls to CHAGEE's fresh milk tea, Mixue's S$5 mega cups and HEYTEA's cheese foam, we ranked Singapore's 10 best bubble tea brands for 2026: what each does best, and which to queue for.
Singapore's bubble tea scene is in flux: Gong Cha is still gone, Tiger Sugar has quietly vanished from the island, and CHAGEE is the fastest-growing chain here.
> Quick view: Koi Thé is the safest everyday cup and much the widest network at 90 outlets; Mixue sets the floor at S$1.50-S$5 against S$5.50-7.50 for a Tall almost everywhere else. Catch: liho.sg is still a parked domain, so use LiHO's app, not its website.
Singaporeans' favourite bubble tea brand by polling, and the one credited with kicking off the modern bubble tea wave. It is also the biggest: Koi's own store finder listed 90 Singapore outlets when we counted it on 5 September 2026, made up of 62 KOI Thé cafés, 26 smaller KOI Thé Express counters in MRT stations and hospitals, and 2 Signature KOI stores. Koi's strength is consistency: the milk-tea base is reliably aromatic, the pearls always chewy with the right bite, and sweetness levels are well-calibrated across all 90. Order: Hokkaido Milk Tea with Pearl, low sugar, less ice. The cult favourite.
Members earn 1 Leaf for every $1 spent, redeemable for free toppings and drinks via the KOI Thé SG app. Koi's official store finder lists 90 Singapore outlets, the most of any brand here.
The local favourite, genuinely homegrown, founded in Singapore in 2017 by Royal T Group, and the most consistently innovative on the wellness front. LiHO has led on Singapore-inspired flavours (gula melaka, pandan, kaya), oat-milk variants, and lower-sugar lines that genuinely taste good rather than punishing. Pricing sits firmly in the affordable middle tier. Order: Brown Sugar Pearl Milk with oat milk, or the rotating local-flavour seasonal.
Deals are app-only: liho.sg is still a parked domain (re-checked 5 Sep 2026), so the myLiHOTEA app is the only place its cashback, 1-for-1 and Members' Day drops appear. LiHO itself is trading normally.
The fastest riser here by some distance. CHAGEE's official Stores page listed 44 Singapore outlets when we counted it on 5 September 2026, up one on our August count, which puts it third for reach behind Koi's 90 and Each-A-Cup's 48. The pitch is 'original leaf fresh milk tea': whole tea leaves brewed fresh and combined with fresh milk rather than powder or non-dairy creamer, which gives a noticeably cleaner, lighter cup than the brown-sugar school. If you find most bubble tea too sweet or too milky but still want something more substantial than straight brewed tea, this is the one to try. Order: a Fresh Milk Tea (the house pillar), or a Snow Cap Milk Tea if you want a cream top.
No chain-wide promo code verified as at 5 Sep 2026. CHAGEE's official Stores page lists 44 Singapore outlets, from orchardgateway to the newest counter at Punggol Coast Mall.
The Chinese giant that landed in Singapore in 2022 and rewrote the value end of the market. Mixue's signature is the price: most of the menu runs S$1.50–S$5, with large drinks around S$5 and the Signature KingCone at S$1.50, well below any local chain. (The cone was S$1 until 25 November 2024, when Mixue raised it 50% on rising ingredient costs; it is no longer a dollar.) Quality is fine for the price, not exceptional but consistent, and the chain has expanded hard into heartland malls and MRT stations rather than Orchard. Order: Fresh Lemonade or Strawberry Boba.
Singapore's lowest standing prices: most of the menu S$1.50–S$5, Signature KingCone ice cream S$1.50. No membership needed.
The cheese-foam tea pioneer. HEYTEA built its name on the cheezo (salted cheese foam) topping that you sip through to get a savoury-sweet contrast against the tea, still the signature you should try first. They use fresh natural fruit, premium milk, and skip artificial flavours and creamers, which shows in the flavour cleanness. Pricier than most. Order: Cheezo Mango or Cheezo Grape.
New users get a welcome voucher after registering in the HEYTEA app, plus rewards on every purchase and a birthday-month discount coupon.
The brand for tea-drinking purists, with 32 Singapore outlets counted off its own site on 5 September 2026. Chicha San Chen brews each cup to order from leaves grown on its own Taiwan tea farms, and the resulting tea aroma is genuinely closer to a pour-over than the standardised concentrates that most chains use. Pricier and slower, but if you care about the tea itself rather than the toppings, this is the brand. It marked 7 years in Singapore in May 2026. Order: Four Seasons Spring Tea or Oriental Beauty.
New sign-ups get a 1-for-1 drink voucher; collect stamps for free drinks via the Rewards Program.
The handmade-pearl specialist. Playmade's boba is rolled by hand in-store every day and rotates through unique flavours like pink cactus, burnt caramel, black sesame and brown sugar, some only available on specific weekdays. Worth checking the daily flavour board before ordering. The Earl Grey milk tea base also stands out as one of the better-balanced versions in town. Order: ask the counter for today's pearl.
SAFRA members: 5% off food & drinks on PlayMade app orders (self-pickup or delivery) with code PMSAFRA5, until 31 Dec 2026. Not stackable with other promos. Re-confirmed on SAFRA's promotion page 5 Sep 2026.
Valid till 31 Dec 2026
The Taiwanese student-budget pick. R&B sits in the sweet spot of decent quality at clearly lower prices: Brown Sugar Milk Tea around S$3.60, against S$5.50+ for the same thing at the mainstream chains. Quality is competitive at the price point. They lean into fruit teas and creative seasonal items more than the brown-sugar-boba crowd. A good no-fuss daily option. Order: Brown Sugar Milk Tea with Pearls.
New members get a 1-for-1 voucher; collect 6 stamps for a free drink via the R&B Tea Membership Portal.
The old-school survivor, and one of only two homegrown brands on this list. Founded in Singapore in 1999 at the height of the first bubble tea wave, Each-A-Cup has quietly held on with classic formulations and a 48-outlet heartland-and-mall footprint that makes it the easy default when you walk past. Their Brown Sugar Pearl Milk Tea, Honey Lemon Ai Yu Jelly, and Yakult Apple Jelly Milk Tea are throwback orders most newer brands don't do anymore. Order: Brown Sugar Pearl Milk Tea or Yakult Green Tea.
No chain-wide promo running as at 5 Sep 2026. The official Stores page still lists 48 outlets islandwide, second only to Koi; Each-A-Cup does run short national-day and seasonal drops, so check there before you go.
The Taiwanese veteran with one of the longer Singapore lineages and a reputation for clean, consistent execution. Sharetea's tea-base flavour is more pronounced than most milk-heavy competitors, and the pearls are reliably good. Their Wintermelon Tea and Hawaii Fruit Tea are signatures you don't see at the bigger chains. Order: Wintermelon Tea with Pearls or Hawaii Fruit Tea.
Earn points with every purchase, redeem for free drinks and exclusive offers via the Sharetea app.
| Brand | From | Price band | Signature order | Official channel that works |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Koi Thé | Taiwan | S$5.50-7.50 Tall | Hokkaido Milk Tea + pearl | koithe.com store finder, 90 SG outlets listed |
| LiHO TEA | Singapore, 2017 | Mid-tier | Brown Sugar Pearl + oat milk | myLiHOTEA app only - liho.sg is still a parked domain |
| CHAGEE | China | Mid-tier | Fresh Milk Tea | chagee.com.sg - 44 SG outlets listed |
| Mixue | China | S$1.50-5 | KingCone S$1.50 | No SG website - walk in |
| HEYTEA | China | Premium | Cheezo Mango | HEYTEA app |
| Chicha San Chen | Taiwan | Premium | Four Seasons Spring Tea | chichasanchen.com.sg - 32 SG outlets listed |
| Playmade | Taiwan | Mid-tier | Hand-rolled pearls of the day | PlayMade app - SAFRA code PMSAFRA5, 5% off to 31 Dec 2026 |
| R&B Tea | Taiwan | Budget, from ~S$3.60 | Brown Sugar Milk Tea | rbtea.sgmembers.com member portal |
| Each-A-Cup | Singapore, 1999 | Budget | Brown Sugar Pearl Milk Tea | each-a-cup.com - 48 SG outlets listed |
| Sharetea | Taiwan | Mid-tier | Winter Melon Tea | 1992sharetea.com + Sharetea app |
Counted off each brand's own store list on 5 September 2026:
Koi's lead is the one most people get wrong, because CHAGEE has opened so visibly and so quickly over the past two years. Reach and momentum are not the same thing. CHAGEE is growing fastest; Koi is simply already everywhere, including 26 smaller Express counters inside MRT stations, hospitals and office lobbies that most roundups never count.
Almost every chain here is an import, which surprises people. Only two are homegrown:
Cai Ca (采茶) counts too, though it is not on the list above: it is Singaporean, founded by Gong Cha Singapore's ex-CEO. Everything else is imported. Koi Thé, Chicha San Chen, Playmade, R&B Tea and Sharetea are Taiwanese; Mixue, HEYTEA and CHAGEE are Chinese.
The turnover at the top of this market is fast, so here is what has actually arrived (or left) most recently:
The ten above are the ones with real scale, but a few smaller chains are worth a detour if you happen to be near one:
Almost every saving now sits inside the brand's own app rather than at the counter. Two habits beat any promo code: order in-app for self-pickup, because most 1-for-1s exclude delivery; and check whether your mall is running a campaign, since CapitaLand malls ran 1-for-1 Koi Thé as recently as June 2026. If you want the lowest walk-in price with no app at all, Mixue and R&B Tea are the answer.
*Prices, promos, outlet counts and every brand link were re-checked on 5 September 2026 against the brands' own channels: Koi's official store finder (90 Singapore outlets counted across its three formats), CHAGEE's Stores page (44), Chicha San Chen's own store list (32), Each-A-Cup's Stores page (48), Royal T Group's LiHO brand page, SAFRA's official PlayMade promotion page, and the Tiger Sugar and LiHO domains themselves plus the .sg registry record for tigersugar.sg. Tiger Sugar's removal rests on its expired domain, its dormant official Facebook page and the absence of any Google Maps listing, not on a closure announcement, because there has not been one. Mixue publishes no Singapore website, so its prices could not be re-verified at source this round. Chains change prices and promotions without notice, so confirm in-app or in-store before you buy. Cover image: CHAGEE Singapore official campaign photograph (chagee.com.sg).*
Gong Cha shut all 29 of its Singapore outlets on 2 October 2025 after its agreement with its master franchisee ended. Gong Cha Global called the closure temporary and said it would relaunch in 2026 with new local franchisees, bringing its 'Gong Cha 2.0' store format. As at 5 September 2026 that relaunch still has not happened and no franchise partners have been announced. What did happen: six of the vacated units reopened from late October 2025 as Cai Ca (采茶), a new brand founded by Gong Cha Singapore's former CEO Kang Puay Seng, which rehired more than 20 ex-Gong Cha staff. Cai Ca trades at Bugis Junction, Century Square, King Albert Park, Lot One, Northpoint City and NUS UTown, and pitches itself as Singapore's first chain brewing tea with soy bean milk. For a similar brown sugar or milk tea fix, Sharetea, Koi Thé and LiHO are the closest matches. Tiger Sugar, which used to be the obvious answer here, has itself disappeared from Singapore.
Yes, LiHO TEA is homegrown. Royal T Group founded it in Singapore in 2017 and describes it as 'a proud Singapore tea beverage brand'; the name means 'How are you?' in dialect. Its founder, Rodney Tang, ran Gong Cha's Singapore franchise before starting LiHO, which is why the menu leans so hard into gula melaka, pandan and kaya. The only other homegrown chain on this list is Each-A-Cup, founded here in 1999 during Singapore's first bubble tea craze and still running 48 outlets. Cai Ca (采茶), the brand that took over six former Gong Cha units, is Singaporean too, started by Gong Cha Singapore's ex-CEO. Everything else is imported: Koi Thé, Chicha San Chen, Playmade, R&B Tea and Sharetea are Taiwanese; Mixue, HEYTEA and CHAGEE are Chinese.
The newest major arrival is Molly Tea (茉莉奶白), the Shenzhen chain known for jasmine-forward floral teas, which opened its Singapore flagship at Orchard Central #01-17A on 6 March 2026 (around 1,400 sq ft, its largest store in Southeast Asia), and followed it with a second, larger store at Singapore Land Tower (#01-02C, 50 Raffles Place) on 11 May 2026, over 2,000 sq ft and the brand's largest CBD outlet in the world. Cai Ca (采茶) launched from late October 2025 in six units left empty by Gong Cha, founded by Gong Cha Singapore's ex-CEO and pitched as Singapore's first chain brewing tea with soy bean milk. The brand that has changed most, though, is CHAGEE: not new here, but it has scaled to 44 outlets on its official Stores page, the fastest growth of any chain on this list, which is why it sits at #3. It is not the biggest, mind: Koi Thé lists 90 Singapore outlets and Each-A-Cup 48. Going the other way, Gong Cha closed every Singapore outlet on 2 October 2025 and has still not relaunched as at 5 September 2026, and Tiger Sugar has dropped off Google Maps entirely.
Mixue is by far the cheapest, with most of the menu between S$1.50 and S$5, with the Signature KingCone ice cream at S$1.50 (raised from S$1 on 25 November 2024, so older guides quoting S$1 are out of date). R&B Tea also sits in the budget tier (Brown Sugar Milk Tea around S$3.60). Most other chains run S$5.50–7.50 for a Tall and S$6.50–9 for a Large. Mixue's price point is so low it has effectively created its own category in the SG market.
Koi Thé is the consensus pick for consistently chewy, well-cooked pearls across all 90 of its Singapore outlets. For unique pearls, Playmade rolls them by hand in-store every day with rotating flavours (pink cactus, burnt caramel, black sesame). Sharetea's pearls are reliably good at a lower price point, and Each-A-Cup's classic pearls are the cheapest decent ones on this list. If you came looking for Tiger Sugar's house-made brown sugar pearls, they are no longer an option in Singapore.
Most chains let you pick sugar level (0%, 30%, 50%, 70%, 100%). LiHO TEA leads on actively-good lower-sugar lines that don't taste 'punishingly diet'. HEYTEA and Chicha San Chen offer fresh tea-forward drinks where the tea, not sugar, is the star. Avoid syrup-heavy categories (Frappuccino-style, brown sugar boba) if you're cutting calories.
Almost every saving now sits inside the brand's own app rather than at the counter. The reliable ones, re-checked on 5 September 2026: SAFRA members get 5% off PlayMade app orders with code PMSAFRA5 until 31 December 2026; LiHO's myLiHOTEA app is now the only place its deals appear at all, since liho.sg is still a parked domain, and it credits cashback to your account for the next order and carries its 1-for-1 and Members' Day drops; Chicha San Chen gives a 1-for-1 voucher for signing up to its Rewards Program via a referral link; Koi Thé's KOIThélicious members earn 1 Leaf per S$1 spent, redeemable for vouchers; HEYTEA gives a welcome voucher on registration plus a birthday-month coupon. Two habits that beat any code: order in-app for self-pickup (most 1-for-1s exclude delivery), and check whether your mall is running a campaign. CapitaLand malls, for instance, ran 1-for-1 Koi Thé in June 2026. If you just want the lowest walk-in price with no app at all, Mixue and R&B Tea are the answer.
Yes, in every practical sense, though the brand never announced it. The clearest evidence is now the domain registry: tigersugar.sg expired on 1 August 2026 and, as at 5 September 2026, carries the statuses redemptionPeriod, pendingDelete and serverHold. The zone has no working nameservers left, so tigersugar.sg, dessert.tigersugar.sg, order.tigersugar.sg and online.tigersugar.sg all return nothing at all. When we checked in August, the online.tigersugar.sg landing page was still up; it has since gone with the rest. The official Tiger Sugar Singapore Facebook page has not posted since 17 June 2023 and still lists the long-closed Capitol Piazza unit as its address. Google Maps returns no Tiger Sugar location anywhere in Singapore: we searched the brand name, the brand plus "bubble tea", and the specific NEX, Paragon and Capitol addresses that listing sites still publish. Those aggregator pages, not the brand, are why you still see Tiger Sugar outlets in search results. For house-made brown sugar pearls, R&B Tea is the cheapest substitute and Koi Thé the most consistent.
They cost about the same and sell almost opposite things. Chicha San Chen is the tea: leaves grown on its own Taiwan farms, brewed to order cup by cup across 32 Singapore outlets, and the drink you should order (Four Seasons Spring, or Oriental Beauty) is one you would happily drink unsweetened and without toppings. It is slower, and the queue is the price. HEYTEA is the topping: its cheezo salted cheese foam over fresh fruit tea is the whole point, the fruit is real rather than syrup, and its app is the most actively maintained of any chain here. The rule of thumb: if you would drink it plain, go to Chicha San Chen; if the foam is the reason you are buying it, go to HEYTEA.
