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Bubble tea bandits: Meet the Boba Bros.
Benjamin Shyong and Arthur Kuan's story could easily come off as a shady undertaking.
Bubble tea bandits: Meet the Boba Bros.
Benjamin Shyong and Arthur Kuan's story could easily come off as a shady undertaking — they started a business in Shyong’s dorm room, ordering supplies from overseas and taking orders via cell phone. They delivered product on bicycle, sometimes as late as 3 in the morning. Customers clamored for their stuff, and sometimes they received 100 orders per day.
It was all in the name of bubble tea.
Shyong (right) and Kuan (left), both UPenn students from Taiwan, started their own beverage business, Boba Bros., to sell bubble tea — cold flavored tea with soft tapioca pearls. At first, they duo was considering the idea of "a drink truck that would drive around Philly," says Kuan, a sophomore. "But then we started ordering the bubble tea ingredients and testing them in the dorm."
They received such positive feedback that they created Facebook events for "tastings" and set up a Google Doc for people to place orders. So began the late-night bike deliveries to satisfy customers itching for a taste.
As business grew, the two ran into some speed bumps. "It actually isn't legal to run a business from a dorm," says junior Shyong. To keep things legit, they started approaching vendors until they found a home at Taglio (3716 Spruce St.). Marco Lentini, founder of the Avanti Food Corporation (which owns Taglio), let Shyong and Kuan begin selling the tea from the pizzeria in November. Now, Avanti’s replacing Taglio with a new concept, TBowl (read our feature), which will feature Boba Bros. products on its menu. Currently, they offer flavors like classic milk tea, taro milk tea and green tea; they also have a line of ice slushies in mango, passion fruit, peach and strawberry, which people also drop tapioca balls into.
On their website, Shyong and Kuan explain that the "bubbles" don’t refer to the tapioca balls, but to the bubbly foam in the cup after it’s shaken to enhance flavor. The tapioca balls are actually the “boba,” made from the starch of the cassava root. They’re about a quarter-inch in diameter and have a chewy, Gummi Bear-like texture; Boba Bros. uwse extra-wide straws to allow drinkers to suck up the bobas.
While there are a a number of restaurants in the Philly area that feature bubble tea on the menu, Kuan says that most of these venues treat the beverage as an add-on or afterthought. "It's not just a side thing for us," he says. "The quality of our bubble tea really is our main focus."
I would also like to point out that Beojing Restaurant, located right next door to Tbowl, also sells the Boba Bros. Bubble Tea. That's where I purchased it from. Avanto Food Corporation is not exclusively selling this product. It is probably cheaper at Beijing. Their food is better, and less expensive.— mdeirdre- Sorry. The correct spelling is BEIJING Restaurant. My apologies.— mdeirdre
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