SA owned bubble tea joints: Here’s where to get your fix around Adelaide
The growth in bubble tea shops in Adelaide is astounding – so we went and found eight of the best, to hear the stories behind their success. Drink up!
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Everyone has their own special order of bubble tea, whether it’s fruity, tangy, frozen or creamy, there’s a bubble tea flavour and topping for everyone.
If you’re a bubble tea expert or someone wanting to have a try for the first time, take an inside look into how these South Aussies got started in the bubble tea biz and find out where you can get your fix.
Bubble Me Bubble Tea
Location: Soon to be opening a store at Southgate Square, check their Facebook page for events they will be at.
The Bubble Me Bubble Tea empire started with humble beginnings in Mohamed and Diana El-Sayed’s home in Morphett Vale.
One day Mrs El-Sayed prompted her husband to try bubble tea. She has a Vietnamese background and would buy bubble tea when training to be a hairdresser 20 years ago.
“My wife was like, how have you never had this before? So we went to Chinatown and I tried it, I thought it was nothing special … until I started craving it every day,” Mr El-Sayed said.
“I became obsessed with it, I had it every day.”
The couple’s love for bubble tea blossomed into a business that started in 2020, at the height of the pandemic.
They wanted to buy a trailer at first, but as they were saving up for one they operated their business at their home.
“It was one of the very first bubble tea in the southern area, and we did that for six months. Then, our trailer was ready and we started doing events,” Mr El-Sayed said.
“Everything just seemed to fall into place. I never thought as a Lebanese person that I would ever run a bubble tea shop, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Bubble Me Bubble Tea travel to food truck events, and the couple would operate it even while they were still working full-time. Recently they bought a new trailer and even have a bubble tea cart that is set up for weddings and birthdays.
“Now, we are branching out to open a store and we are so excited with it opening to launch our specialised drinks,” Mr El-Sayed said.
“We are scared and excited at the same time. We know people love the truck and love it at their weddings and birthdays but we’ve never had a shop so this is the nest frontier.”
If all goes smoothly, Bubble Me Bubble Tea’s store will open in June at Southgate Plaza. And if you’ve never had a sip of bubble tea before and wondering what to try, Mr El-Sayed has some sweet advice.
“We would say go for a fruit flavour as they are best suited for people who are trying it for the first time, but our go-to flavour at the moment is brown sugar as we specialise in brown sugar flavours,” he said.
PA TEA
Location: 10/7 Moseley Sq, Glenelg
Effie Xu emigrated from China to Adelaide at age 18 in 2006. With a background in hospitality and after studying business at university, she joined with business partners from Taiwan in 2019 to start PA TEA, which stands for Passionate About Tea, in Glenelg.
“As bubble tea comes from Taiwan and my business partners had a lot of knowledge with it, along with my experience in hospitality, we made a great team,” Ms Xu said.
“We chose Glenelg because at the time there weren’t any bubble tea shops there at all and we knew it would be a hotspot in summer.”
Ms Xu’s business partners left the business in 2020 to pursue other careers, but she kept going as the sole owner.
“Through Covid it was hard but we got through it with the help of our loyal customers and delivery apps. I fully engaged myself in the business during the pandemic. I worked as much as I could to save labour costs and sacrificed a lot of my own time,” she said.
“My business partners and I are all friends, there were no hard feelings after they left, we understood one another, but it does get hard sometimes handling everything
“In Glenelg it all depends on weather, we are busy on hot days and in school holidays. We also serve hot bubble tea when the weather gets cooler.”
Ms Xu hopes to franchise PA TEA in the future and have more stores pop up around Adelaide.
Momentea
Locations: 153 Anzac Hwy, Kurralta Park, Shop 4/21 Pulteney St, Adelaide, 50 Elizabeth Way, Elizabeth SA, SP136, Beach Rd, Noarlunga Centre, Shop T10/16-30 Fiveash Dr, Pasadena, Mount Barker Shopping Centre, Shop/54 Hutchinson St, Mount Barker
Momentea opened their first store in Elizabeth and has now franchised into stores across Adelaide.
Sweet Tang, her business partner Dale Zheng and his wife Candice Tang as well as other partners got together to launch Momentea in 2019.
“Dale is really passionate about bubble tea. He’s thought of all the ideas and likes to create crazy recipes from different raw materials,” Ms Tang said.
“We are really passionate about the design of the whole brand, we wanted a concept that attracts peoples attention.”
The three are all from China, and Mr Zheng even had a bubble tea shop over there when he was in high school.
“There are so many flavours of our bubble and I know there are over 20 toppings, I haven’t even tried them all,” Ms Tang said.
After the success of the Elizabeth store, Momentea developed a franchisee model that led to stores opening up in various Westfields and shopping centres across Adelaide.
HITEA
Locations: 79 Grote St, Adelaide, 12 Rundle Mall, Adelaide, Shop 61 Tea Tree Plaza, Modbury
HITEA opened its Grote Street location in 2018 and co-owner Tong Guo said at the time that the shop was out to change the way we think about tea.
“We were trained in China. We share the same values and want to promote tea culture,” Mr Guo said.
“We get our tea from Taiwan. Oolong and green tea come from Taiwan – they are famous for their teas.”
Mr Guo said they used fresh tea as the base and then fruits are bought directly from farmers. HITEA also have seasonal specials depending on what fruit is available at the time.
HITEA in Rundle Mall offer three concepts in one store, bubble tea, fried chicken and yoghurt smoothies.
“Our drinks are also fresh and vibrant. Pretty much all of our customers take a photo and post it on Instagram,” Mr Guo said in 2018.
Chico Tea Boba Project
Locations: Shop 7, 259-269 Unley Rd, Malvern and 4/8 Waymouth St, Adelaide
Established in 2019 by owner David Lim, Chico Tea Boba Project offer a wide range of creamy milk teas and refreshing fruity teas.
“Growing up in China, milk tea has a very special place in my heart and it has always been a passion of mine to open up my own bubble tea shop,” Mr Lim wrote on the businesses website.
“Fast forward to today, I’m extremely proud to present Chico Tea Boba Project, a project where I am to spread joy and happiness in a cup, making you smile with every sip of our Chico Tea.”
All of the drinks at Chico Tea Boba Project are house brewed and made with natural ingredients, with over 25 teas across their menu to choose from.
Ucool Bubble Tea
Locations: Shop 14B/60 John St, Salisbury, Shop 34A/575 North East Rd, Gilles Plains
Bubble tea and bubble waffles, what’s not to love? Ucool in the northern suburbs seem to have it all.
Whether you like your bubble tea fruity, milky or frozen, be sure to check them out for your latest fix this bubble tea day.
One Little Tea
Locations: 127A Gouger St, Adelaide, Homes Supermarket 400 Churchill Rd, Kilburn
One Little Tea is a hole in the wall shop on the west end of Gouger Street.
Don’t be fooled by the name ‘little’ – this place offers a wide range of flavoured teas in their extra large 750ml size.
The store advertise frequent specials on their social media and said their most popular drink is the small bubble milk tea.
Teamazing
Locations: Parade Central, Norwood, Westfield West Lakes, Westfield Marion
It’s the bubble tea joint that has popped up all around Adelaide with locations now in Norwood, West Lakes and Marion.
Choose from a wide range of colourful teas and interesting toppings including popping pearls, rainbow jelly and flavoured jellies.
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