Chatelet-Les Halles bubble tea: artisanal Le Te at Palais-Royal

Chatelet-Les Halles and its saturated bubble tea offering

The Chatelet-Les Halles area is one of Paris's busiest: Forum des Halles, RER, several metro lines. Bubble tea is present, mostly chains (Coco, Yi Fang, etc.) in the shopping mall. For an artisanal Taiwanese bubble tea lover, the option that changes everything is Le Te at Palais-Royal, 5 minutes on foot via rue de Rivoli.

The walk from Chatelet-Les Halles

From Chatelet (lines 1, 4, 7, 11, 14) or Les Halles (line 4), head west on rue de Rivoli, turn onto rue de Richelieu, then take rue de Montpensier along the Palais-Royal garden. 5 minutes on foot, straight. Faster than waiting at a Forum des Halles checkout.

Difference from Forum bubble teas

Forum des Halles chains use pre-cooked tapioca pearls in bags, tea diluted in a tank all day, reconstituted milk powder. Le Te does the opposite: pearls boiled 30 minutes that morning, Taiwanese oolong brewed to order, fresh milk. Pearl texture, tea character, milk roundness: three immediately perceptible differences.

Why leave the Forum after a shopping session

Forum des Halles is efficient for shopping but exhausting for a break. Le Te bubble tea is taken in a real tea house atmosphere: seated, calm, under arcades. After an afternoon in the mall, the contrast is appreciated. The house sees many customers coming specifically after a Forum shopping session, to decompress with a bubble tea in a calm setting.

The menu

Taiwanese oolong milk tea, matcha latte boba, taro boba, hojicha boba, seasonal fruit (strawberry, peach, mango, yuzu). Sugar to taste. Plant milk no surcharge. See the menu.

See also

Chatelet bubble tea (the other address), craft bubble tea, Chatelet tea house, Paris bubble tea selection.