The storefront windows at 1801 L Street are covered with closing materials, and Yelp now lists Bober Tea's Midtown Sacramento location as permanently closed. The boba tea and mochi doughnut shop, known for its pink interior, floral decor and Instagram-designed backdrops, had operated in the Handle District for six years before shutting its doors.
The closure was first reported by The Sacramento Bee, which noted that Bober Tea USA did not respond to its request for comment on why the Midtown outpost closed. The shop opened in October 2020 inside the 1801 L Street building, a 164-unit mixed-use complex with 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail developed by Sacramento-based SKK Developments in 2006. Bober Tea USA had welcomed franchisee partner Kao Saechao that same month to run the Midtown location at Suite 80, according to the company's own announcement at the time.
A Flagship Spot in the Handle District
The L Street shop sat inside the Handle District, a four-block business improvement area established in 2011 that funds streetscape upkeep, security and promotion through a 1.5% assessment on restaurant food sales, per the district's own materials. Neighboring tenants in the same building include The Rind, an artisanal cheese and wine bar operating out of Suite 40. The Midtown storefront's exit follows other beverage-shop departures along the same corridor, including Chicory Coffee and Tea's permanent closure across from the California State Capitol in January 2024 after more than 20 years in business, as reported by ABC10.
Bober Tea began in Asia in 2017 and expanded to the United States in 2020, according to its website, growing into a chain popular across Northern California. The Midtown shop served loose-leaf teas, Okumidori matcha from Japan, Chizu fruit teas and brown sugar boba milk teas, the Sacramento Bee's report detailed. The brand also operates locations in Singapore, China and the Philippines.
Combo Shops Still Open Around the Region
Even with the Midtown closure, Bober Tea still operates five combo locations paired with its Mochi Dough concept elsewhere in the Sacramento region: at 1164 Galleria Blvd. in Roseville, 2791 E. Bidwell St. in Folsom, 2738 Sunrise Blvd. in Rancho Cordova, 8848 Calvine Rd. in Elk Grove, and 6900 65th St. in South Sacramento. Mochi Dough sells Japanese-style rice flour doughnuts, and the combined boba-and-doughnut format was standardized nationally after Bober Tea introduced the Mochi Dough concept in Sacramento in mid-2021. U.S. licensing for Bober Tea is headed by licensee Michelle Moore, who established the chain's American presence in Sacramento before scaling it to more than 25 franchise locations across nine states by late 2023, according to background compiled by industry outlet WhatNow.
Why any single shop closes while a chain keeps expanding is not unusual in the beverage business right now. The U.S. bubble tea market reached $978 million in 2024 and is projected to grow to $2.4 billion by 2034, an estimated annual growth rate of 9.4%, according to Zion Market Research. Globally, the bubble tea market was valued at roughly $2.81 billion in 2024 and is forecast to reach $4.21 billion by 2030, per industry research from Markntel Advisors. That national growth curve stands in contrast to the shuttered L Street storefront, where the specific financial or operational reasons behind the closure remain unknown, since Bober Tea USA has not issued a public statement addressing it.
Midtown's Shifting Retail Landscape
The 1801 L Street site sits within Midtown Sacramento's broader infill redevelopment wave, which has added more than 500 residential units and 31,400 square feet of retail space to the urban core through SKK Developments projects alone, according to Inside Sacramento. That density has reshaped Midtown's restaurant and retail corridors over the past two decades, even as individual tenants like Bober Tea's Midtown shop come and go. For now, boba fans in the neighborhood will need to head to one of the chain's five remaining regional combo locations for their fix.
