Why bubble tea is still top of the pops

A buoyant market

Arriving in the UK via the east Asian restaurant and café market, bubble tea has generated a feel of being something different to the drinks mainstream, while offering an air of authenticity and provenance. There are now an estimated 1,400 specialist bubble tea shops in the UK.

 

“The trend is not just about a drink; it’s a lifestyle choice”

 

Deepak Shukla, chief executive of event and pop-up operator Bubble Tea Catering, says: “The bubble tea industry in the UK has witnessed significant growth, driven by an increasingly diverse customer base. Younger demographics, especially Gen Z and millennials, are leading the charge, seeking innovative, customisable beverages that match their social and experiential preferences.”

 

He adds: “The trend is not just about a drink; it’s a lifestyle choice. Bubble tea offers a unique combination of flavour, texture and visual appeal. The demand for plant-based, dairy-free and low-sugar options is also becoming more prevalent.”

 

While the kit needed to make bubble tea, such as a tapioca cooker, tea brewer and drinks shaker, isn’t that expensive, it’s specialist enough to have kept cautious mainstream operators from entering the market too quickly. That’s now changing. Teajoy, launched in 2021 by Ning Ma and Jack Gaskin, supplies a syrup that just needs ice and water, saving time as well as equipment costs, and has seen almost two million of its bubble teas served from non-specialist shops.

 

Gaskin says: “One challenge mainstream businesses faced was operational – they couldn’t make bubble tea.” With the obstacles overcome, during 2024 operators such as Primark Cafés, Black Sheep Coffee, Costa and TGI Fridays added bubble tea to their drinks menus.

Fruit flavours

As Chinese New Year approaches, ensuring that bubble tea maintains its all-important sense of excitement is part of the challenge, says Gaskin. “At the core of what we do is to spread joy – bubble tea is fun and makes you smile. We use real fruit and high-quality jasmine tea, and to support our customers we like to get creative, from warm Christmas drinks to Chinese New Year serves.”

 

As the Year of the Snake gets under way in January, Teajoy has created a Chinese New Year special: pineapple and lychee jasmine tea with strawberry popping boba. “The drink draws on our experience of travelling in China and Taiwan, to learn more about tea culture and where we source our teas from,” says Gaskin. “At Chinese New Year people eat a lot of pineapple cake and lychee is synonymous with Asian flavours – it’s one of the most popular fruit tea flavours in Asia. Red stands for fortune, so we added our strawberry popping boba.”

 

The move into the mainstream looks set to continue, with analyst Market Research Future forecasting 8% annual growth in the European bubble tea market up to 2032. Along with innovation in fruit flavours, such as banana, apple, lychee, kiwi and watermelon, its report suggests flavours such as almond, ginger and even coffee offer additional potential for growth.

 

Shukla says: “The out-of-home market presents a huge opportunity for expansion. With the increasing trend of consumers seeking new and exciting experiences, bubble tea outlets are capitalising on high-footfall locations such as shopping centres, train stations and busy urban areas.

 

“The rise of delivery services and pop-up events is creating new avenues for brand engagement and customer interaction. As competition heats up, staying innovative and offering a personalised experience will be key to capturing market share.”

Simple syrups

However, the availability of bubble tea in a broader range of foodservice outlets may come, at least to an extent, at the expense of sales through the Asian restaurant sector. Jae Cho, founder of Korean street food brand Bunsik, which has multiple sites in London and Manchester, says: “We’re selling approximately 3,000 cups of bubble tea a month. However, overall bubble tea sales have been declining slightly across the group.

 

“Our customers generally prefer the classic original milk tea and matcha milk tea. While we don’t have any plans to discontinue bubble tea, we’re not currently considering additional strategies to focus more on sales either.”

 

The number of specialist bubble tea cafés is also forecast to continue to grow, in part due to its strong appeal in the franchise market. Brands such as Mooboo, Cupp and CoCo offer bubble tea franchise packages, as does Teajoy.

 

Gaskin says: “Franchising a bubble tea shop is relatively low cost. You don’t need a fully functioning kitchen or a particularly large premises and the operating costs are low. We take that one step further, thanks to our tea syrups, which save time and eliminate waste as there is nothing to prepare.”

 

Cupp operates 39 UK bubble tea stores, 34 of which are franchised. Founder Lee Peacock says: “As well as offering low-cost entry, it’s a fairly simple format – the measures and serves are clearly set out for the operator. Many of our franchisees are new to the catering sector, and bubble tea is much less complex than a pizza or burger franchise.”

 

Suppliers

Bubble Tea Catering www.bubbleteacatering.uk

Bunsik www.bunsik.co.uk

Cupp www.cuppbubbletea.co.uk

Teajoy www.teajoy.co.uk