Bubble tea shop opens in Worthing – but what is bubble tea and how do you make it?

Ajisai Bubble Tea is a new family-run ‘boba’ shop that opened on Saturday in Teville Road. Boba are tapioca pearls that sit at the bottom of the tea, like bubbles, hence the name.

Brothers Shakib Rashid, 22, Shadat Rashid, 18 and their parents, Yusuf and Jhumu Khan, opened the shop due to Shakib’s passion and love for boba.

Shakib said: “My passion came from when I was studying out in New Zealand a couple of years ago.

“They had a really large Asian community in Auckland and that’s where I sort of got the passion for it, my mate asked me if I wanted to try bubble tea and from then I was absolutely hooked and I’d go every other day and get bubble tea.

“Ever since I have come back from New Zealand, I’ve realised there was nothing in Worthing that would make me reminisce of it so we opened our own place.”

Shakib said that research he found said bubble tea originated from Taiwan in the street markets in 2003.

Shakib added: “This tea really isn’t new. It’s stayed dormant for a while but it has spiked up in the last few years.

“It begun in the Taiwan street markets, then moved onto Singapore before being introduced into other Asian markets, and then it moved to the Western side.

“There are lots of different combinations of bubble tea, but to boil it down it is two basic categories.

“You’ve got fresh milk tea and fruit tea, and in the fresh milk series you’ve also got the drinks without the tea itself, so it is just fresh milk.

“The fruit teas are more refreshing and just kind of taste like summer, but the fresh milk series are a lot more decadent, rich and creamy.

“The main part of bubble tea is the bubbles. They are tapicoa pearls, also known as boba. They need to form and then be soaked in brown sugar syrup which makes the balls turn black. They usually sit at the bottom of the drink and have a chewy, haribo-like texture.”

Shakib said his bubble tea shop will help to move Worthing forward. He added: “We want to be unique and express ourselves, hence why we made the interior the way we did and why we make the teas the way we do.

“We had so many people turn up on our opening day just completely curious as to what our shop was.

“They absolutely loved it and I feel our shop will have a great impact on the community.”

The opening day took Shakib and his family by surprise. Shakib said: “It completely exceeded our expectations. We almost doubled our targets for the day which was definitely an achievement and fingers crossed we will carry on achieving our targets in the future.

“Most of the public reaction was surprise because they didn’t expect this kind of place to open up in Worthing.

“Normally people, and including myself, before we opened would normally have to go Brighton or London for our boba fix, but now we are in Worthing, people can stay local and visit us.”

The first 50 people who visited Ajisai on its opening day also got a free drink.

Ajisai Bubble Tea is open Monday to Saturday from 11am to 9pm and Sunday 11am to 8pm.

Read more stories about new businesses here:

Space-themed mini golf course opens in Eastbourne

New convenience store opens in Bognor Regis