Behind the scenes at Weston Favell’s new bubble tea shop

Bubblyicious serves fruit based and milk based drinks.

When Rameez Ali Syed moved to Northampton he was disappointed to discover that there was nowhere for him to get his bubble tea fix.

Six months on, Rameez has now built up a bubble tea business from scratch and is bringing the popular craze to the area.

Bubblyicious, which opened in Weston Favell Shopping Centre last weekend, has already been popular among shoppers as Rameez says he’s had an ‘awesome’ week.

Rameez Ali Syed has set up a bubble tea shop to bring the craze to Northampton.

And his plan to ‘spread Bubblyicious all over’ is already taking shape as he is in talks with the Grosvenor Centre and other places about opening more branches.

The 31-year-old said: “Most of the people who know about us are kids and I’m getting messages on Facebook all the time. People have a lot of interest.

“When people know about it there just don’t want to leave.

“I had one women come down and try a drink and later that day she came back with her whole family.

The Jasmine tea is brewed on site every two hours.

“I also served a customer on Sunday and they have been back everyday. I already have regulars.

“It’s been awesome.”

Bubble tea, which is a mix of Jasmine tea, fruit flavours or milk, tapioca balls and fruit juice balls, shot to fame in Taiwan and Vietnam.

At Bubblyicious, which gets its name from combining the words 'bubble' and 'delicious', Rameez uses all organic ingredients so that no one has to ‘feel too bad’ about having a drink.

There are a lot of fruit flavours for customers to choose from.

Rameez added: “We use hand picked Jasmine tea leaves and there’s no caffeine in it at all so everyone can have bubble tea.

“That is the base and then we mix it with different flavours.

“We boil the tea leaves to keep the freshness of the tea then we mix it with balls and flavours.

“After three hours it does not taste as fresh as it could. After two hours it is fine.

Juice balls include, cherry, strawberry, pomegranate and even chocolate.

“I make sure I consume the tea within the time, if I don’t I waste it.

“And I use fruit sugar not actual sugar so you don’t have to feel too bad.”

Rameez gets most of his juice balls and flavourings from suppliers in the UK.

There are some, however, that have to come from Taiwan as they’re not yet available here.

Looking to the future, Rameez is hoping to include bubble coffee ‘some time in the couple of months’.

He is also experimenting with new ingredients. Kidney beans and sesame seeds could soon be added to the menu.

The juice balls pop in your mouth and offer an additional flavour.

The businessman is looking to expand his venture by creating another three branches of Bubblyicious.

Rameez has already agreed contracts with intu Milton Keynes and a shopping centre in Merryhill near Birmingham.

He is also in talks with the Grosvenor Centre, as he hopes he can bring bubble tea to Northampton town centre too.