All that bubble in your cup is friendly Korean effort

.By CHAITANYA PRAMOD

NEW DELHI: Got Tea Bubble Brew Co is a start-up launched in December of 2019 with a vision to becoming a space where people can engage with and savour East Asian, especially South Korean, culture.

It all started at the Woodstock boarding school in Mussoorie, where South Korean students YuSung and SuAh and Delhiites Aarman and Jo met as High School classmates. After their graduation in 2011, they went their separate ways – SuAh to South Korea, Aarman and YuSung to the United States for further studies. Jo stayed back.

In 2019, YuSung returned to India and met with Aarman. The two were reminiscing their school days when they hit on the idea of bubble tea. “Aarman said he missed having bubble tea. While in the US he got used to having bubble tea. There weren’t many options in Delhi,” co-founder YuSung recalls.

The four had always wanted to start a business which led to brainstorming for this venture. They were inspired by Boba Guy, an American bubble tea chain building an Asian-American tea drinking culture. “It’s not just about business. Yes, business is important but, we are passionate about building this culture more than anything else,” YuSung says.

The name and logo of Got Tea came from the traditional Korean hat called ‘gat’. While coming up with the name they wanted to have a Korean touch to it. YuSung and SuAh even wore gats on their flight to India and when people questioned them about it, they introduced them to their business.

The first store came up in Safdarjung, on November 18th, 2020.

“We did two events in December 2019 which were successful. People wanted to experiment. We had a misconception that people would want want traditional chai with bubbles, but they were going for more experimental flavours like Taro Purple or Matcha,” says YuSung.

The store, located in the Safdarjung area, was launched on November 18th, 2020. They started with only four flavours on the menu – Classic Black, Green Matcha, Caramel Brown, and Taro Purple. However, they wanted to create a space where customers could walk in and have conversations. They found a bigger space nearby and moved the store there. Finally, on March 1st, 2021, Got Tea launched its new store, with 8 new drinks on the menu.

Got Tea now offers 8 refreshing drinks, along with selective eatables, like sandwiches.

“Looking back, we have done a lot with rebranding. We have established our products. Now it’s time to explore outside perimeters, reach out to more people and make bubble tea a popular concept,” he added.

The young entrepreneurs plan to release merchandise after capturing the Delhi-NCR market.

“Our next step is to expand to Gurugram where the potential of client numbers rising is high. We recently had a pop-up there to gauge the interest of customers and found out that many people in this area are passionate about tea drinking and like our products. Dwarka and Mumbai will be our next stop,” YuSung said.

The young and friendly Korean wants to bring here a lot of things that are successful in Korea. “We want to be that all important bridge not just for bubble tea, but for bringing more Korean culture and Korean food to India to connect people through our social and cultural mores. We have ambitious projections and in that context we have big plans to achieve much more than what we have now,” YuSung says.