8 DAYS | 101STORY (^) YIP JIEYING
natural oak wood”, but will only
have a standing counter for you to
enjoy your drinks.
Incidentally, one of the
shareholders of Bobii Frutii
Singapore is Tanglin star, Nat Ho,
- Nat is no stranger to F&B,
having opened healthy bento stall
Lovebento at Beach Road food
court enclave Wild Market earlier
this year. Naturally, Nat is also
the face of the bubble tea brand
in Singapore. “My friends saw
how [well] I ran Lovebento and
approached me to be part of their
project [opening Bobii Frutii]. They
have experience running other F&B
projects so I feel safe
working with them,”
he tells us. His pals
also run an F&B
company that helps
market a few famous
local makan brands that
they declined to disclose
here. “My official title for Bobii
Frutii is ‘creative director’, and I’m
involved with promoting the brand
and coming up with marketing
strategies," adds Nat.
The Singapore outlet’s menu is
“80 per cent similar to Taiwan’s”,
with some local exclusive flavours
such as a range of cheese teas.
There are over 30 drinks to choose
from here, and the menu is divided
into four categories: Tea/Au Lait
(which means “served with milk”
in French), Ice Blend, Matcha and
Fruit Tea.
The drinks come with fancy,
whimsical names such as the
Extraordinary Bubble Milk Tea
($3.90) with black tea, milk, and
brown bobii (pearls). There’s also
their signature Mermaid’s Tears
($5.90), an ice blended concoction
with mango, lemon, honey, milk
and bobii dyed blue with butterfly
pea flowers (said to resemble,
erm, a mermaid’s teardrops). Lovegreen tea? Go for their matcha
series like the Uji Snow
($6.50) with matcha, milk and
pearls in the original flavour.
The matcha is sourced from
Uji, a city near Kyoto that's
famous for its production of
good quality green tea leaves. Also
popular: the shop’s namesake fruit
teas, such as Grapefruit Oolong
Tea ($4.50).
The preservative-free pearls are
made in a Taiwanese factory and
flown to Singapore. There are three
pearl flavours: Original, Butterfly
Pea and Brown Sugar (from 50
cents per additional topping),
the latter two dyed with natural
colouring from butterfly pea flowers
and Taiwanese brown sugar.
The ingredients in the drinks,
including most of the tea leaves,
are largely sourced from Taiwan.
There are plans to roll out eight
Bobii Frutii outlets in Singapore
within the next three months — the
towkays aim to eventually open 40
outlets island-wide. Is there space
for another major bubble tea player,
on top of Gong Cha, Koi and LiHo?
Only time will tell.Bobii Frutii Singapore opens late December
at #04-K4 Clementi Mall. http://www.facebook.
com/bobii.sg.Ho’s that?
Nat in full tea-
harvesting gear,
visiting the brand's
tea supplier in
Miaoli, Taiwan.