WILMINGTON — Already a staple in major cities on either coast, Wilmington just landed its first boba tea bar last month, the Tap Tea Bar.
Milk tea and tapioca bubbles form the classic combination known as boba tea, popular for its refreshing and often sweet flavor. The tap in Tap Tea Bar’s name is an salute to tapioca pearls, the traditional topping for the refreshing Asian tea.
Toppings rest on the bottom of the tea, which are meant to add a pop of flavor and consistency to the sweet drink. Tapioca black pearls have a gelatinous texture, which ascend through a thick straw with each sip.
Cream or sugar?
Tap Tea Bar offers a range of bubbles — from the staple tapioca black pearls to lychee jelly and poppers filled with juice. Customers can customize the level of sweetness, anywhere from zero to above 100 percent.
Before opening, co-owner Dynh Le visited multiple boba tea franchises on the west coast.
“I saw that a lot of true boba spots, they do sugar levels because it makes it more personal,” he said.
With green, oolong and black tea as refresher bases, choice of milk, as well as a “fros-tea” milkshake option, customers of Tap Tea Bar are encouraged to try flavor combinations until they can settle on one they love.
“Quality over quantity any day,” Le said.
Better together
The tea bar is owned by a pair of couples, Dynh and Kenleigh Le, Angela Nguyen and Danny Chansavath.
“We were going to open up one in New York but there’s so many there,” Nquyen said. “We moved down here and we saw there wasn’t anything Asian-related, not a lot at least.”
Observing an apparent void in the Wilmington market, Nguyen aimed to bring a flavor she had enjoyed all of her life to people who may still be unfamiliar.
“We want to bring diversity and culture to the places that we’re going to. That’s why we came to Wilmington,” Nguyen said. “That’s why we wanted to share it with everyone else who may be missing out on something that’s really good.”
Nguyen and Chansavath were looking for spaces in Wilmington to host a boba tea bar around the same time the Les were. The couples decided to combine rather than compete.
“We definitely want to open up more than one, that’s why we collaborated because you know you can’t do it by yourself,” Nguyen said.
Diversity in Wilmington
As an alumnus of University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Le has been invested in creating jobs for himself in town.
“What I learned very early on of living here because it’s such a service industry town, you either one, got to get a good job, two, you can just get any job, or three, make your own job,” Le said.
Le also owns GDN Nail Bar in Wilmington, short for “guys do nails,” a nail salon with gender-neutral designs that serves both men and women.
“I am trying to bring a little more diversity to Wilmington and this is definitely doing it,” he said.
As Wilmington’s first boba tea bar, Le had the vision to create a centralized space where Asians could gather.
“For me, it’s mostly culture. Growing up Asian, I’m always either the only Asian or the few of the Asians,” he said. “I’ve never seen so many Asian people in Wilmington since we opened up — never. They’re coming out of the wood-works.”
Le jokingly referred to boba tea, commonly called bubble tea, as “Asian Kool-Aid.”
Since opening, the owners say most of their customers are introduced to the popular Asian tea for the first time in their tap room.
Student-friendly
The crew designed a lounge with ambient, low light, to be conducive to studying or relaxing.
Open Sunday through Thursday, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, the crew at Tap Tea Bar have seen students from UNCW, less than a mile away, come in for late night study hours.
“I think what helped us a lot though is people Snapping it, people Instagramming it,” Le said.
Aside from turning customers on to boba, the owners strive to create a friendly and open atmosphere.
“Money just comes along with it, but success is making people happy and seeing them come back,” Le said.
Tap Tea Bar is located at 250 Racine Drive, Unit 9, in Racine Commons.
Johanna Ferebee can be reached at johanna@localvoicemedia.com or @j__ferebee on Twitter
