Milk tea: A thriving venture and popular thirst-quencher this summer

It goes by many names. Milk tea, bubble tea, boba tea—but back in the early aughts, it was only known as "pearl shake."

This ubiquitous drink that everyone seems to love comes in varied flavors with endless sinkers and toppings to choose from. Mark Salazar, on "24 Oras" Thursday, visited three milk tea shops in Romblon, Bacolod City, and Quezon City to check out the stores' state of business—and the customers' state of palate.

One milk tea shop on the Lacson Tourism Strip in Bacolod City sells around 200 to 300 cups of milk tea per day. A favorite by customers is its strawberry ice blended mix, which you can top with a wide range of sinkers, from taro, red beans and pudding to lychee, grass jelly,—and even mojito!

Mark Carreon, a delivery rider, would spend hours a day delivering milk tea to customers, especially these days due to the sweltering heat.

In Looc, Romblon, a certain milk tea shop and restaurant's best-selling thirst-quencher is the avocado graham milk tea.

Patty Sari, the owner of the establishment, said she started small when she began in 2017, until such time that they finally got to open a restaurant. She didn't think that milk tea would click in their area.

"Nag-start po ako here 2017, small lang siya talaga eh as in nagstart lang ako sa labas ng bahay namin. Nilagyan namin ng milk tea 'tong restaurant na 'to tapos kami lang ang may kauna-unahang milk tea dito sa Sta. Fe nun," she said.

["I started in 2017, it was just small. I started outside our house. We added milk tea here in our restaurant and we were the first establishment here in Sta. Fe to have milk tea then."]

Milk tea shops in the metro also run aplenty and never seem to run out of customers.

Salazar visited milk tea store Cobo Tea in Quezon City, which had 14 stores at its height in 2014, said assistant manager Melia Peras. The stores, however, closed down as the spaces in the area were bought by other companies. Cobo Tea was able to eventually bring back its number to 10 stores, but these all shuttered again when the pandemic hit.

The business weathered the storm after finding a strong market online, with most of its milk tea shops now virtual.  

"Fifty percent po sa sales ang naidagdag [ng] virtual namin," she said, adding that there are times that one of its stores would get about 300 or 400 orders of milk tea."

["Our virtual stores increased our sales by 50 percent."]

For those who want to get into the milk tea biz, fret not. There are suppliers around to get started on this venture, who'll offer you your business starter kit and training.

A high-end milk tea business, for example, would require a bigger investment, to the tune of about P250,000.

According to Jack Sandig, from the research and development unit of restaurant supply store Possmei in Quezon City, the package includes heavy duty equipment like tea jugs and containers, as well as ingredients that are already good for two weeks to one month.

One may also start a small milk tea business with a capital of P50,000.