Sugar Shack bubble over their bubble tea success since working with Global Boba
With dreamy aesthetics and decadent bakes, Swindon’s first Instagram Cafe, Sugar Shack, has grown exponentially since humble covid-born beginnings in 2020. Elly Vitale-Ireland, Director and Co-Owner of Sugar Shack, recalls how the business took off:
“We started in lockdown of 2020 with home baking, before opening up our Swindon café two years later. Customer feedback was so good that we took this to wholesale and opened our bakery in Wiltshire. Our bakery now supplies around 15 companies nationwide.”
Alongside their mouth-watering bakes, Sugar Shack has a comprehensive drink and lunch menu. The range of items offered attracts a mixed customer base from mums and families to those of the older generation. Teenagers and young are also tempted by the café’s plethora of decadent desserts and refreshing drinks that are regularly promoted via Sugar Shack’s Instagram page.
With such a dominant social media presence, it is no surprise that Sugar Shack saw the benefits of expanding their menu to include the latest trending item - bubble tea. Elly explains:
“There are not many places in our area that sell bubble tea, so we’ve been hoping to offer this for a little while now.”
Barista, Kiera adds:
“Having visited many bubble tea shops myself, I could see the value of adding this colourful beverage to Sugar Shack’s menu, but given the many components required, I was concerned it would be too difficult. However, since discovering the Global Boba Mixology Kit, we’ve been able to easily add a delicious variety of fruit and milk bubble teas, through a one pack format!”
Within the Global Boba ‘Mixology Kit’, operators will find all of the core ingredients required to make 20 of the most popular fruit or milk-based bubble tea drinks with each kit making 5 mango bubble teas, 5 passion fruit bubble teas and 10 brown sugar bubble teas.
Having trial the mixology kit, Sugar Shack’s belief in bubble tea was confirmed, as Elly enthuses:
Our new bubble tea offering has gone down really well with customers, and we enjoy making these drinks too! The kit that Global Boba provided has been very simple to use, and Aimia Foods for Professionals are a pleasure to work with!”
With more and more of Sugar Shack’s customer now opting for bubble tea when they visit, Keira quickly realised that moving onto Global Boba’s bulk range was the next best step:
“Global Boba’s mixology kit was definitely a good starting point for us, as we had everything we needed to trial the drinks. However, now our customers have fallen in love with our Global Boba bubble teas, we have moved on to using Global Boba’s bulk range.”
Global Boba’s range of bulk options includes 2.5ltr Syrups, 3.2kg popping bobas, jasmine tea, tapioca pearls and consumables such as cups, lids and straws. Keira goes on to talk about some of the prep work involved, with these ingredients:
“When using the bulk range, we have to do a bit of morning prep, such as cooking off the tapioca pearls for our milk-based teas and brewing our jasmine tea for our fruity drinks. This allows us to efficiently make our bubble tea on customer demand.”
Reviewing the ease of adding bubble tea to their menu and its unwavering popularity, both Elly and Kiera agreed that partnering with Global Boba was a valuable choice. Elly remarked:
“We would absolutely recommend Global Boba to other cafes and hospitality establishments. It’s a very simple product to use and it goes down with the customers really well.”
Whilst Kiera expanded eagerly:
“Bubble tea has definitely been a hit at Sugar Shack. We’ve had such great feedback. Everyone’s loving it!”