Bubble Up: NH Is Falling in Love With Exotic Asian Tea
Bubble tea’s popularity is bursting, New Hampshire shop owners say.
Owner Christopher Hui from Lawrence, Mass., in front of Kung Fu Tea in The Mall at Rockingham Park.
“Tea is extremely important to the Asian community,” says Chris Hui, managing owner of Kung Fu Tea, at the Mall at Rockingham Park.
Hui, whose parents immigrated to New York City from China in the ‘80s, started drinking bubble tea — little soft balls of tapioca known as “pearls,” “boba” or “bubbles,” usually served in a cup of milk tea — as a teen around 2005.
“Tapioca pearls are sweet, black, chewy spheres that resemble bubbles,” Hui says.
The beverage originated in Taiwan, and later arrived in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
“Bubble tea was just as popular as Starbucks. It was a household drink that even my parents knew about,” Hui adds.
Back then, a store called Quickly’s was the only place to get it.
“Their flavor selection was limited. All we really drank was the regular milk tea with boba. The tapioca pearls had a lot less flavor than today’s pearls,” Hui says.
Still, the beverage was a blast to drink.
“My friends and I would go every day and get a drink for around $4,” he says. “I remember, very fondly, us racing to finish the drinks so we can suck up the remaining pearls and shoot them out of the straws like a pea shooter at each other.”
Bubble tea has grown up since then, evolving into more complex flavors, varieties and shapes.
There’s boba Thai iced tea, taro boba, made with the purple root vegetable, and grass jelly, made from Chinese mesona, a flowering plant in the mint family. “Bursting” or “popping” boba are sweet little juice-filled capsules that explode with flavor when you bite them. A jumbo straw allows the consumer enough room to drink the boba and milk tea at the same time.
Michelle Doan, owner of MIU Cafe at the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester, found boba tea while living in Los Angeles. “It was love at first taste!” she writes in an email.
Doan, who describes boba tea as “a modern twist on classical traditional tea,” says the drink stretches boundaries.
“Boba tea allows for the tea experience to be as colorful as one’s imagination,” says Doan, who wants to share her love of boba tea with others. “What makes it really special are the toppings that you can add to the tea to personalize it. It is super fun to experience the flavor explosion in every sip!” she says.
Teatotaller owner Emmitt Soldati from Somersworth, NH, inside his shop in Concord.
Emmett Soldati of Somersworth, owner of Teatotaller — with locations in Concord, and soon, Dover — hopes to attract a wider audience of boba fans.
Soldati, who describes boba as “little gummies made of tapioca starch,” is planning a bubbly redesign for the Dover opening.
“There’s a lot of color. Certainly, a lot of pink. We have some special, very fun, colorful furniture … there’s some exciting art and murals. It’s going to be a fun and challenging operation to transform it,” Soldati says.
When Teatotaller created a hugely popular boba tea delivery service early in the pandemic, Soldati knew he had something. “Literally, Boba kept us afloat during COVID,” Soldati says.
Soldati attributes its popularity to boba’s eye-catching look, versatility and compatibility with countless flavors and beverages.
“You get this nice sweet milky beverage with these gummies that absorb some of the sweetness and flavor of the tea. It’s very delicious. It’s sweet, and it’s got great flavors,” Soldati says.
And the initial sip is a sight to see.
“Their first reaction is like, ‘Whoa, what was that?’ But then they realize ‘oh, the gummy has a nice chew to it. And it’s sweet.’ People get really hooked,” Soldati says.
Doan chooses her favorite boba on how she’s feeling.
An assortment of teas created at MIU Café in Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester: Ocinawa Brown Tea, Butterfly Tea with a splash of milk and First Look Tea.
“If I’m in the mood for something refreshing, I would go for a super fruit tea like our ‘First Love’ made with lychee and rose. If I’m in the mood for something more decadent, I will have our ‘Okinawa Milk Tea’ — it’s a brown sugar oolong tea,” Doan says.
Hui agrees bubble tea’s popularity can only go up.
“With the recent boom of Asian pop culture (South Korean boy band BTS, Netflix hit “Squid Game,” anime), more of the younger generation are trying Asian things,” Hui says.
Tea shop owners are also building on the pop culture aspect of the beverage.
MIU Café offers drinks with tantalizing, fun names, like Okinawa Way (Okinawa oolong black milk tea), Matcha Love (matcha milk tea), and “super fruit” teas like Sweet Butterfly, Wintermelon, and Princess Peach. Signature drinks include Tiger Milk (brown sugar milk and flan), Mango Sago (mango slush, coconut sago, crystal boba), and Vietnamese coffees.
Three teas from Kung Fu Tea at the Rockingham Park Mall: Coco Cream Wow Tea with Boba, Fruity Flurry with Crystal Berry Tea with Boba and Taro Milk Green Tea with Boba.
Kung Fu Tea offers 70 mix-and-match drinks and 16 toppings, both traditional — herbal jelly, pudding and red bean — and nontraditional: Oreo crumbles, and milk cap, a creamy soft foam. The shop imports their honey boba and brown sugar boba from Taiwan to maintain a consistent size and flavor profile.
Teatotaller partners with Lo’s Seafood in Portsmouth for their boba supply, which Lo’s gets from overseas. Teatotaller plans to keep customers on their toes with seasonal boba drinks like a Peeps marshmallow boba and a coffee-based pumpkin spice latte boba in the fall.
Hui says they’re starting to see their hard work pay off. “Even though our store has only been open for a few months, we have seen an increase in repeat customers and influx of new ones,” Hui says.
Doan says residents who grew up drinking boba tea can now relive the experience here.
“There is a group in New Hampshire that is curious about the experience, and another group yearning for a place closer to home when the cravings kick in,” Doan says.
Michelle Doan, owner at MIU Café, located at the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester.
MIU Café has only been open for about three months, but Doan is confident it will catch on, because tea is simply popular. “It is a casual and colorful take on a beverage that is synonymous with tradition and ceremonial practices,” Doan says.
Soldati encourages more New Hampshire residents to give it a shot.
“Its popularity even here in New Hampshire should serve as a testament that it is totally worth trying. We try to work with folks to meet them in the middle. We’ll make sure it’s a flavor that you like,” Soldati says.
Once they try it, he says they’re often hooked.
“We love when people try boba for the first time. It’s a fun experience to watch someone get excited by a new product that brings them a little joy and curiosity. I just encourage folks to give it a try,” Soldati says.
Bubble tea newbies can then experiment with different flavor combinations.
“Everything can be mixed and matched, but just because something can doesn’t mean it should,” Hui says. “There was a customer a while ago that ordered a Strawberry Lemonade with Oreo in it. But that is the beauty of boba. You can really have it any way that you would like.”
This article is featured in the winter 2023 issue of 603 Diversity.
603 Diversity’s mission is to educate readers of all backgrounds about the exciting accomplishments and cultural contributions of the state’s diverse communities, as well as the challenges faced and support needed by those communities to continue to grow and thrive in the Granite State.
