Columbia, Missouri–based boba shop Bubblecup Tea Zone has just opened its first St. Louis area location, situated inside Pan-Asia Supermarket (14246 Manchester) in West County. The counter is tucked beside the China Bistro food court near the store’s entrance.
Owner Tzuyang Chao opened Bubblecup Tea Zone in Columbia after graduating from Mizzou in 2017. Originally from Taiwan, Chao arrived in Columbia in 2013 to study statistics and economics, eventually earning two master’s degrees. He had the option of pursuing a job on the coasts but wasn’t especially drawn to the prospect. “I grew up in Kaohsiung [Taiwan’s third largest city], so I was a little tired of big cities,” he says. Keen to share a part of his culture with Columbia residents, Chao decided to open a bubble tea shop.
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The menu captures a wide range of flavor profiles, and you can accessorize your drink with such toppings as boba, popping boba, jellies, red bean, espresso shots, and vanilla ice cream. Among the selections:
- Flavored Brewed Tea & Fruit Tea: Chao imports shipments of tea leaves—black, green, oolong—directly from farmers in Nantou, the largest tea-producing region in Taiwan. The Bubblecup team brews the leaves in house and uses real ingredients.
- Milk Tea & Tea Latte: Chao explains that milk tea culture in East Asia is analogous to coffee culture in the United States. Many of the milk teas are made with non-dairy creamer, but each category on the menu is clearly labeled to indicate whether the drinks contain dairy.
- Sea Salt Tea: The sea salt is roughly similar to what other boba shops might call “cheese” or “salted cheese”—a thick layer of salted cream on top of the tea. It’s slightly saltier at Bubblecup Tea Zone than at some other local boba shops, which adds a welcome contrast to the overall flavor profile. One highlight is the matcha sea salt oolong tea (pictured below).
- Slush & Snow: The former is water-based, while the latter is milk-based. “It’s more like a milkshake or a frappe,” Chao says. Both are available in a broad spectrum of fruity, nutty, and sweet flavors. “I want to bring something people will already know,” Chao says, “and then we’ll make it better, and you can add some boba.”
Among the classic milk tea options, the tiger tea (pictured above) is a combination of green tea and sweet Thai milk tea. Bubblecup’s version of tiger tea is a combination of Thai tea and green tea, which is different from the recipe usually associated with the name.
If you want something closer to that visually striking combination of milk and brown sugar syrup, order the brown sugar latte (pictured below). Bubblecup’s brown sugar syrup is prepared in-house and cooked slowly in a pan for a roasty, caramel flavor.
While Chao’s ambition is to spread the boba word, there’s also room on the menu for ultra-local offerings from Taiwan. Chao points out two items that he says are all but exclusive to boba shops in Taiwan: the 8 Ice Green Tea (made with kumquat and plum) and the vanilla ice cream black tea.
“If anyone orders these, I’ll know they’re Taiwanese,” he says with a smile.
