Bubble tea – or boba tea - originated in Taiwan in the early 1980s. Today, it can embrace all sorts of ideas and concepts.
The base of the product is that it’s a tea-based drink with edible balls inside: that could be chewy tapioca balls, or gelatin-based balls filled with fruit juice.
It can come either with or without milk; and use a variety of different teas as their base. It is usually served cold.
Out-of-home, the drink is served in transparent plastic dome cups for visual effect; with a fat straw so that, as the drink is sipped, the pearls come up with the liquid.
Its success comes from a winning combination of several factors: such as the fun, interactive experience of the pearls (or ‘bobas’, which is where this name comes from).
Then there’s also the visually appealing aesthetics of the drink, as it’s often served in vibrant colors.
But how do you take that idea into retail?
Exploring the best packaging format
Retail is an attractive option for boba tea, helping it expand beyond the relatively limited scope of cafes and into more consumption occasions and potentially a wider audience base.
Bubble tea is making its way into retail in two main types: RTD versions, and then DIY kits that let consumers make their boba tea in a fresh and customized format.
SIAL - the international trade fair for food and drink innovation held in Paris - showed how boba tea is increasingly targeting retail.
And brands are experimenting with different formats for the drink.
With RTDs, the most common packaging format mirrors the on-trade plastic cup, albeit without the dome lid (which isn’t a good shape for stacking on shelves of maximizing space in distribution).
That’s shown by Boba Loba (pictured right), a Dutch company that launched on the scene last year.
That means the drink is completely ready-to-drink - no need to decant into a glass - and fits in with the on-the-go consumption that’s been common for boba so far.
The straw – which needs to be a wider dimension than usual – can be attached to the side in the same way children’s drinks have attached straws for years.
Boba tea makers Jenji - based in San Francisco - also use this format. But the company, best known as the #1 aloe vera infused beverage brand in the US, has also put boba tea into cans.
These cans are larger than the classic 12 fl oz (355ml) size: with a large can format at 16.5 fl oz / 490ml which is better suited to the beverage and boba balls.
The opening of the can is large enough for the boba balls to pass through, meaning there’s no need for a straw.
Launched this year, the cans come in come in two lines. The Jenji Original line is designed for convenience and mass market channels, with four different flavors: original milk tea, matcha latte, strawberry latte and brown sugar.
The Jenji Pure line is designed for natural grocery channels with three varieties of all-natural coconut milk teas: original milk tea, mango latte and matcha (these are in 10.8oz /320ml slim cans).
Boba tea can also be packaged in glass or PET: as evidenced by Jungle Fruits' bubble tea.
Both of these work well as the transparent packaging lets people see the boba balls inside, which the bottles are resealable.
Plastic bottles also lend themselves to the original on-the-go occasion for boba tea.
The drink can either be drunk from the bottle or poured into a glass.
From cafes to retail
Boba tea chain Bubbleology – which has venues throughout the UK – launched its at-home versions last year. These at-home versions come in two forms: a single serve in a sachet (pictured right), and a DIY kit (pictured below).
Each kit features flavor sachets and tapioca pearls which can be mixed together with milk or water.
They also include a jumbo straw for each serving.
As Bubbleology CEO Assad Khan puts it, moving into retail is a “natural next step” for the brand. “By giving consumers the opportunity to create bubble teas at home it extends reach with our fans, building awareness and loyalty,” he said.
Burst the bubble?
Packaged boba tea and RTD boba tea has potential to take off, confirms analysis from Mintel.
But boba tea brands need to adjust how they think for the retail category.
Tan Heng Hong, Mintel APAC senior food and drink analyst, says that for the category to succeed off-trade as a long-term proposition, it needs to expand usages and find new opportunities to keep consumers engaged in the category.
For example, consumers usually turn to the drink in summer: but making seasonal-inspired drinks (for autumn, Halloween or Christmas, for example) could help extend their appeal. Or simply encouraging consumers to try the drink warm could create an easy winter warmer.
“To increase its appeal in the northern hemisphere, brands are capturing interest by offering warm boba tea drinks during cold months and introducing seasonally inspired drinks to increase the year-round appeal of ready-to-drink (RTD) boba tea,” he said.
That’s already being seen in the US, where LTOs for events like Halloween and Christmas have enduring popularity.
In the on-trade, boba tea is spontaneous indulgent treat for a day out. But consumers in retail are more likely to look at the high sugar content of drinks and rethink their choices.
Research in Singapore, commissioned by Channel NewsAsia and conducted by students enrolled in the Applied Food Science and Nutrition diploma course at Temasek Polytechnic, found that a 500ml cup of brown sugar boba milk can contain about 92g of sugar: some three times more than the amount of sugar in a 320ml can of cola.
So the next step for brands in retail is thinking about how to reduce sugar content while still keeping a luxury proposition.
And - while it may not seem an immediate fit for a proposition that’s designed as a treat - there’s also an opportunity to explore the booming functional beverage category. Vancouver’s Boba Nutrition is doing just that, with a selection of all-natural healthy boba tea with whey protein and vegan protein.
Founder Daryl Lim was initially inspired to create a healthier boba tea with less sugar, but then started to wonder how he could combine his nutrition shakes with the format.
The result is a boba tea with 27g of protein, 0g sugar and 124 calories per cup (which the brand compares to 40g sugar and 240 calories for a typical boba tea on the market).
