How to Play Teabbles Game—3 Different Ways - Quick Board Games For Families

What is Teabbles?

Teabbles game where you get to play a game around your favourite bubble tea. And if that wasn’t enough, there are 3 ways to play this card game in the one box: Original Play, Bluff, and Boba the Builder. Choose an option to suit your palate, just like your bubble tea orders.

This is an easy-to-learn, action-paced card game. Easy to set up and play.

How to Set Up Teabbles – Original Version

The setup: shuffle and place the drinks cards in the middle with the top 3 turned face up. Each player is then dealt 5 cards, with the leftover over cards being the draw deck.

Objective of Teabbles

Is to be the first player to earn 11 points (the total value of the drink cards).

How to play Teabbles Original

On your turn, draw two cards from the Inventory deck. You now have three moves

1. Draw one card from the inventory deck

2. Play an action card (if you have one in your hand)

3. Complete a drink order

4. Replace all three drinks cards with new ones.

How to Complete a Drink Order

To fulfill an order, match the ingredients in your hand to those shown on the bottom of a Drink Card.

Trade In: Discard your used ingredient cards.
Restock: Draw new Inventory Cards equal to the point value of the drink (e.g., a 2-point drink = 2 new cards).
Claim Points: Keep the completed Drink Card and replace it on the board with a new one from the pile.

The “Hand Limit” Rule

After your turn, you must have no more than 9 cards in your hand.

Watch Out: If another player catches you with too many cards, they can randomly discard your cards until you only have three left!

How to Win

Be the first player to reach 11 Drink Card points.

To get there, you’ll need to dodge Action Cards designed to slow you down, including:

Hand swaps
Forced discards
Cards that “stop” you from completing orders

How to play Teabbles – Bluff Version

The set is the same as the original set except you need to remove the Today Only Action Card.

How to Win Teabbles: “Bluff” Version

In this version of the game, the goal is to reach the endgame quickly while using deception to get ahead. The game ends immediately once a player completes 5 drink cards. At that point, everyone totals their scores, and the player with the highest points wins.

Making a Move: The Bluff

On your turn, you can choose to be sneaky. Instead of showing your ingredients face-up to complete an order, you place them face-down.

If no one challenges you: You successfully claim the drink order, regardless of what cards you actually played.
If you are challenged: You must reveal your hand, leading to one of the following outcomes based on whether you were being honest.

Outcome A: You were telling the truth

If a player calls your bluff but you actually had the correct ingredients:

Keep the order: You successfully complete the drink.
Restock: Draw inventory cards equal to the drink’s value.
Penalty for the accuser: You take one completed drink card from the person who challenged you.
Alternative penalty: If they have no drink cards, they must give you two cards from their hand instead.

Outcome B: You were caught lying

If you were dishonest and a player correctly identifies your bluff:

Lose the order: The drink card goes back into the face-up pile.
The accuser is rewarded: The person who caught you takes any one of your completed drink cards.
Alternative reward: If you have no drink cards, the accuser takes three cards from your hand to add to their own.

Outcome C: The “Success Bonus”

If you successfully lied and did not get caught, wait until the action is over to reveal your hand to the group.

Claim a bonus: You get to take a bonus drink card from the pile and place it face-down.
Final Scoring: This bonus card stays hidden until the end of the game. While it adds to your final point total, it does not count toward the 5 cards needed to trigger the end of the game.

How to play Teabbles – Boba the Builder Version

To set up for this version, you place 6 drink cards face up. Unlike the original gameplay, these can not be changed out. Just like the original, it is the first person to 11 points who wins. Each player is still dealt 5 cards.

On your turn, you can draw two cards and complete two actions.

1. Play an action card from your hand

2. Pick up an inventory card

3. Display up to three ingredients in front of you. See below for further information

4. Complete a drink order—only with the ingredients that are on display in front of you. Reward yourself by collecting inventory cards to the same value as your drink value.

5. Or replace your cards and draw seven new inventory cards

You may not display ingredients and complete a drink order in the same turn. And you can only complete an order OR replace your inventory. Not both on the same turn.

Displaying your ingredients—you are only allowed to display 5 unique ingredients in front of you with no more than 3 of each ingredient. If you wish to replace an ingredient in front of you, you may do so by discarding the ingredient you no longer wish. This card can not be placed back into your hand.

And the same rule applies, where you are not allowed more than 7 cards in your hand at the end of your turn. If you do and some catches you, that person is allowed to randomly discard cards from your hand until you only have 3 cards left.

Action Cards in Teabbles

There are numerous action cards, which add another level of fun to this game.

Here are just a couple:

Switch Hands—Swap your entire hand with another player

Angel Investor—Draw three inventory cards

Out of Stock – Stop a player from making drinks for one turn

There you have it, the the Teabbles game with 3 versions. This game has huge replayability because of the nature of having three games in one box. Perfect for traveling as well. Wanting to check out more card games? Head over to the articles page for more options.