Tea shops · San Diego, United States
Tea shops · San Diego, United StatesCamellia Rd
A Kearny Mesa boba bar, open since 2017 and until 10pm every day, that sells the same single-origin leaf it brews with, in 40 g pouches.
The tea in the cup and the tea on the shelf are the same leaf, and the shelf is cheaper than anything else this list covers in San Diego.
Camellia Rd was established in the summer of 2017 by Darwin and Ricky, childhood friends from the San Gabriel Valley with shared Cantonese-American roots, who had joked years earlier in a boba shop that they should open one themselves. The flagship tea bar is at 8199 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, Ste H, in Kearny Mesa. The name is a double reference: Camellia for Camellia sinensis, the plant classic tea comes from, and Rd for road and for the founders' own initials.
The drinks were built on loose leaf from the start — cane sugar and honey instead of syrups, dairy and plant milks instead of powders — and the same leaf is sold over the counter in 40 g and 100 g pouches, all of it single origin from China, Taiwan, Japan, India and Sri Lanka. The 40 g ladder is tight: the India Earl Grey at the bottom, the Sri Lanka Ceylon just above, the sticky rice puer in the middle, and the jasmine green, the floral Tie Guan Yin and the Yue Guang Bai white together at the top.
It opens every day from eleven in the morning to ten at night, the longest day of any shop in this city guide, so it is the one place here you can buy leaf after dinner. Beyond the bar there is ordering ahead online, a Boba Box to take away, catering for events, merchandise, a wholesale programme, a rewards scheme, a blog with recipes and a newsletter the founders named The Orange Pekoe.
- verified prices
- 6
- tea types
- 5
- from
- US$ 8
- shops
- 1
Where it is
Kearny Mesa
8199 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, Ste H, San Diego, CA 92111
On Clairemont Mesa Blvd in Kearny Mesa.
Hours: Every day 11:00–22:00
What to buy here
Tieguanyin
China Floral Tie Guan Yin Oolong Tea
from US$ 10 · 40 g
The oolong the bar brews with and sells in the same 40 g pouch, in the floral style rather than the roasted one, as the name on the bag says.
See our page on this tea →Shou Pu-erh
China Sticky Rice Puer Tea
from US$ 9.50 · 40 g
The only fermented tea on this shelf, priced between the black teas below it and the greens above, so it costs little to find out whether puer is for you.
See our page on this tea →Earl Grey
India Earl Grey Black Tea
from US$ 8 · 40 g
The cheapest thing on the shelf and the shop's house black: an Indian base scented as Earl Grey, in the same 40 g pouch as the rest.
See our page on this tea →
The one worth the trip
China Yue Guang Bai White Tea
from US$ 10 · 40 g
Yue Guang Bai is the only white tea Camellia Rd lists with us, and it is the item that shows a boba bar buying like a tea shop: a Chinese white on the same shelf, in the same 40 g pouch, as the blacks that go into the milk tea. If you cross town for one pouch, this is the one that would be hardest to replace with something from the supermarket.
Every price we read, one by one
List prices read on the shop's own product pages. Open a tea to see who else sells it.
| Tea | Type | Price | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| India Earl Grey Black Tea | Black tea | from US$ 8 | 40 g |
| Sri Lanka Ceylon Black Tea | Black tea | from US$ 8.50 | 40 g |
| China Sticky Rice Puer Tea | Pu-erh tea | from US$ 9.50 | 40 g |
| China Jasmine Green Tea | Green tea | from US$ 10 | 40 g |
| China Floral Tie Guan Yin Oolong Tea | Oolong tea | from US$ 10 | 40 g |
| China Yue Guang Bai White Tea | White tea | from US$ 10 | 40 g |
Teas you can find here
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Prices checked by us on Sep 11, 2026; they may change. No shop pays to appear here.