Boba Quest: Débutea

As part of Boba Quest 2025 🧋, I'm trying and reviewing a new boba shop each week.

This week we tried Débutea in Greenwich Village, our first review in Manhattan. It's right next to Washington Square Park and NYU, so there's convenient subway access at West 4th Street for the A, B, C, D, E, F and M trains.

When we walked in, they had a sign for their New Year special: a camellia ruby pomelo tea. I'm a big fan of pomelo, or પપનસ in Gujarati, since we regularly ate it as kids. If you haven't tried it before, it's similar to a grapefruit, but better. And as I just learned, pomelo is also part of Lunar New Year celebrations. Here's the entire tea description on the menu:

Red pomelo is more than a fruit, it's a celebration of the New Year. Its vibrant red symbolizes abundance and togetherness, while its bright, tangy sweetness bursts with freshness. Subtle notes of camellia and osmanthus add elegance, blending festive joy with the warmth of home. Fresh yet unique, it redefines the pomelo experience.

A vibrant and citrusy drink featuring freshly brewed Taiwan camellia oolong tea, juicy seasonal Florida ruby pomelo, and a handcrafted natural plant-based osmanthus jelly. Hand-peeled pomelo segments add a delightful burst of freshness to this floral and aromatic blend.

As I've mentioned before, I much prefer milk teas, but since this was a special, limited edition drink I was willing to give it a try. And, it paid off.

• Boba: 4/4 perfect chewiness and sweetness. The jelly was a nice complementary texture in between the boba and the pomelo pieces.
• Tea: 4/4 it tasted exactly like the description: pomelo juice with subtle amounts of oolong tea. I've not enjoyed lemon teas in the past, so I was genuinely surprised at how much I liked this.
• Bonus: 1/1 it was not well advertised, but they do have a privacy-friendly stamp card! It took a minute for one of the workers to find the cards when I asked, so probably not enough people take them up on it.

Total: 9/10. We have our first complete score! It is incredibly well deserved, it sounds cheesy but for a few hours after I finished the tea I was telling my girlfriend, Kajol, that I couldn't stop thinking about the tea and wanted more. Speaking of Kajol, she ordered a "BOBO milk tea" (brown sugar boba) with light ice. By default it came with lactose-free milk.

• Boba: 4/4 good amount of QQ, good flavor
• Tea: 4/4 tea flavor is good, perfect amount for her (not too strong, not too mild, not too sweet)
• Bonus: 1/1 the place is aesthetic and it was nice that they had different lactose free milk options. We had to order on a self-checkout kiosk, but there are interesting and different options from other places. The container was cute but she wished it was bigger.

Before we total up the score, we need to discuss what happened with the boba cups:

There was a minor accident and my tea cup was dropped right as we entered my apartment. The bottom cracked so I dumped the tea into the closest jar to me, salvaging nearly all of it. On the other hand, Kajol's tea came in quite a robust plastic mason jar that didn't break. It definitely is small compared to what you normally get at other boba shops.

Back to the total score: 9/10, another complete score!

As I had explained when I first laid out the rating system, the tenth and final point is for consistency. After earning a 9/10, I'll go back and if keeps up the same level of quality, then the score will be increased to a perfect 10/10.

I will likely wait until the summer to officially retry Débutea (and other 9/10 shops) and have some vague plans about inviting a bigger group of people to get broader feedback. But also I'm probably going to go back this weekend just so I can have the camellia ruby pomelo tea again before it goes away.