CANADA BUBBLE TEA AWARDS 2027
Where Canada's Best Bubble Tea Gets Recognized
The Golden Boba Awards is a national recognition program created to celebrate quality, creativity and excellence across Canada's bubble tea industry.
Participating brands enter one competition drink for professional blind tasting, with winners recognized through official awards, media exposure and a live presentation at the Canada Bubble Tea Festival.
More Than an Award. A Platform for Recognition.
The Golden Boba Awards gives participating brands an opportunity to demonstrate product quality, strengthen their credibility and reach bubble tea consumers through a professionally managed national campaign.
Build Brand Credibility
Earn independent recognition through professional blind tasting—not popularity, follower count or advertising spend.
Stand Out in a Competitive Market
Give customers a clear reason to discover your brand and try your competition drink.
Extend Your Visibility
Participating brands and award winners may be featured through Boba Lab, Golden Boba Awards and Canada Bubble Tea Festival promotional channels.
How the Awards Work
- 1
Register Your Brand
Complete the official registration and pay the CAD $495 participation fee plus applicable taxes by January 31, 2027.
Brands may register before finalizing their competition drink.
- 2
Submit Your Competition Drink
Each participating brand enters exactly one competition drink.
Final drink information, ingredients, preparation requirements and other competition details will be collected separately before professional judging.
- 3
Professional Blind Tasting
Competition drinks are presented to the judging panel without visible brand identification.
Each judge evaluates every assigned drink once using the official 100-point scoring framework. Brand size, marketing reach and public popularity do not influence the professional award results.
- 4
Winners Announced
Professional award winners will be announced on April 30, 2027 as part of the Canada Bubble Tea Festival media launch.
- 5
Awards Presented Live
Professional award winners will receive their trophies and certificates and be formally recognized on stage at the summer 2027 Canada Bubble Tea Festival.
- 6
People's Choice
Festival guests will participate in a separate consumer blind-tasting experience to determine the People's Choice Award, which will be announced live at the festival.
Five Professional Awards
Five professional awards will be determined through professional blind tasting. Each competition drink is evaluated once using the official 100-point scoring framework. The resulting scores are then used to determine the eligible rankings for each award.
Bubble Tea of the Year
年度最佳珍奶飲品
The highest overall honour of the Golden Boba Awards, awarded to the eligible competition drink with the highest total professional blind-tasting score.
Selection: Highest total score across all eligible entries.
Best Milk Tea
最佳奶茶
Recognizes the highest-scoring eligible milk tea entry. The drink should demonstrate strong tea character, balance, texture, originality and overall execution.
Selection: Highest total score among eligible milk tea entries.
Best Fruit Tea
最佳水果茶
Recognizes the highest-scoring eligible fruit tea entry, with emphasis on the quality and clarity of its tea and fruit flavours, balance, texture and overall drinking experience.
Selection: Highest total score among eligible fruit tea entries.
Most Innovative Drink
最具創新飲品
Recognizes the competition drink that demonstrates the strongest originality, creativity and product innovation while maintaining a high overall standard of taste and execution.
Selection: Highest Originality & Creativity score among eligible entries that achieve a minimum overall score of 75 points.
Best Texture & Topping
最佳口感與配料
Recognizes an outstanding drinking experience created through pearls, toppings, foam, jelly, mouthfeel or other textural elements.
Selection: Highest Texture & Mouthfeel score among eligible entries that achieve a minimum overall score of 75 points.
Not every competition drink will be eligible for every category. Category eligibility will be determined by the drink's ingredients, format and submitted product information in accordance with the Competition Rules.
Judged on the Drink—not the Brand
Professional awards are determined through blind tasting. Judges will not be shown the brand name, logo, packaging or marketing materials associated with each entry during evaluation.
Every judge evaluates each assigned competition drink once. That single evaluation produces the scores used to calculate the drink's eligible award rankings.
| Judging Criterion | Weight |
|---|---|
| Taste & Tea Character | 30 points |
| Balance | 25 points |
| Texture & Mouthfeel | 20 points |
| Originality & Creativity | 15 points |
| Overall Experience & Finish | 10 points |
| Total | 100 points |
Bubble Tea of the Year, Best Milk Tea and Best Fruit Tea are determined by total score.
Most Innovative Drink is determined primarily by the Originality & Creativity score, while Best Texture & Topping is determined primarily by the Texture & Mouthfeel score. Entries must receive a minimum overall score of 75 points to qualify for either specialty award.
There is no public online voting for the five professional awards.
- Standardized competition codes
- Controlled preparation and presentation procedures
- Independent judge score submissions
- Conflict-of-interest disclosure
- Result verification before winners are confirmed
Chosen by Bubble Tea Drinkers
The People's Choice Award is separate from the five professional awards.
It will be determined through an in-person consumer blind-tasting experience at the 2027 Canada Bubble Tea Festival. Participating consumers will taste coded samples without being shown the competing brand names before submitting their selections.
The People's Choice winner will be announced live at the festival.
Professional Awards
Determined through professional blind tasting.
People's Choice
Determined through consumer blind tasting at the festival.
Who Can Enter?
The Golden Boba Awards is open to legally operating bubble tea shops, restaurants, cafés, dessert shops and other food-service businesses that currently offer—or intend to launch—an eligible bubble tea beverage in Canada.
The participating business does not need to specialize exclusively in bubble tea.
- The competition drink must be sold under the participating business's own brand rather than simply resold as a finished product from another brand.
- The final recipe and all required competition information must be completed by the official drink-submission deadline.
- The business must be able to prepare and deliver the competition drink according to the approved recipe and professional judging requirements.
- If the drink receives an award, it must be made available for public purchase within the period specified by the Organizer.
- The business must comply with all applicable business licensing, food-safety and public-health requirements.
- The business must follow the official Competition Rules, deadlines and judging procedures.
A competition drink does not need to be publicly available at the time of registration. However, it must be fully developed and ready for judging by the final drink-submission deadline.
One Brand. One Statement Drink.
Every participating brand enters exactly one competition drink.
This format encourages each brand to submit the drink that best represents its quality, identity and creative direction. It also creates a more focused and meaningful competition rather than allowing brands to increase their chances by submitting multiple products.
Additional drink entries are not available.
2027 Brand Participation
- Eligibility
- Legally operating Canadian food-service businesses offering an eligible bubble tea beverage
- Participation Fee
- CAD $495 plus applicable taxes
- Competition Entry
- One registered brand and one competition drink
- Registration Opens
- September 2026
- Registration Deadline
- January 31, 2027
- Final Drink Submission
- Separate deadline before professional judging
- Professional Judging
- March–April 2027
- Winner Announcement
- April 30, 2027
- Award Presentation
- Summer 2027 Canada Bubble Tea Festival
- People's Choice
- Determined live at the festival
Registration is confirmed only after the Organizer has received the completed application and the full participation fee.
The final competition drink does not need to be selected when the brand registers.
What Award Winners Receive
Each confirmed award winner will receive:
- An official Golden Boba Awards title
- A physical award trophy
- An official award certificate
- Formal recognition at the Canada Bubble Tea Festival
- An official digital winner badge displaying the award year and category
- Permission to use the winner badge in accordance with the official brand-use guidelines
- Inclusion in official winner announcements and awards-related communications
- Potential editorial, social media and promotional exposure through Boba Lab and Canada Bubble Tea Festival channels
Award titles, trophies, certificates and winner badges are issued only to confirmed winners. Winner badges may not be altered, transferred or used in a misleading manner.
2027 Awards Timeline
September 2026
Brand registration opens.
January 31, 2027
Registration and payment deadline.
February 2027
Final competition drink information and required documents submitted. Exact deadline to be announced.
March–April 2027
Professional blind tasting and result verification.
April 30, 2027
Professional award winners announced during the Canada Bubble Tea Festival media launch. No trophies are presented on this date.
Summer 2027
Professional awards presented on stage and People's Choice determined live at the Canada Bubble Tea Festival.
Category Availability
Award categories are subject to eligibility requirements, minimum judging standards and a sufficient number of qualified entries.
If a category cannot support a fair and credible competition, the Organizer may combine, reclassify, postpone or cancel the category in accordance with the Competition Rules and Cancellation and Refund Policy.
Cancellation and Refunds
Registration is confirmed only after the completed application and full payment have been received.
A participating brand may request cancellation within seven calendar days after payment, subject to the eligibility conditions stated in the Cancellation and Refund Policy. Approved refunds during this period are subject to a CAD $25 administrative fee.
Participation fees are generally non-refundable after the seven-day cancellation period.
Read the Cancellation and Refund PolicyFrequently Asked Questions
2027 Awards Partners
Partnership opportunities are now available for the 2027 Golden Boba Awards.
Explore Sponsorship OpportunitiesEnter the 2027 Golden Boba Awards
Put your best drink forward and give your brand the opportunity to earn professional recognition on a national platform.
Registration opens in September 2026 and closes January 31, 2027.
One brand. One competition drink. Applicable taxes are additional. Registration is not complete until full payment has been received.
Created by Boba Lab
The Golden Boba Awards is an initiative of Boba Lab, a platform dedicated to advancing bubble tea culture, discovery and industry innovation in Canada.
Professional award winners are announced in connection with the Canada Bubble Tea Festival and formally recognized on the festival stage.