Best of bubble tea: These 3 Regina cafes serve up their variation on the cool treat
Hot weather is already upon us. What better way to cool off than with a fruity or creamy (and chewy tapioca or coconut jelly) bubble tea?
You'll find multiple variations of the popular Taiwanese treat throughout Regina. For Asian Heritage Month, I sat down with three bubble tea operators to learn about the best they have to offer.
Ray Chien of IHADAY Cafe & Bubble Tea Bar
Location: 105-2300 Broad St.
Most popular bubble tea drink: Teddy Style (salted caramel and taro) milk tea.
Ray's preferred drink: Iced pour-over latte.
Vibe and decor: Modern, minimalist Japanese vinyl cafe.
Ray Chien is the OG of the Regina bubble tea game. First arriving in Regina as an exchange student from Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in 2012, he opened IHADAY (short for "I have a good day") in 2017. It was the first bubble tea shop in Regina.
There were skeptics early on, but he thought, "Sweet stuff and good drinks. Who's not gonna like it? [Bubble tea] is more than just a drink. You got something chewy — it's like a snack and a drink at the same time."
He's referring to the additive that makes the refreshing drink iconic: the chewy and sweet black tapioca pearls known as "boba" that float at the bottom of the drink. About a quarter-inch in diameter, they're chewy and sweet. I like them, but they're not for everyone.
In recent years, bubble tea cafes have added coconut jelly, flavoured jelly and even "popping pearls" (such as mango and strawberry) with a texture not unlike salmon roe, to the drinks.
IHADAY began as a boba cafe. Chien even had plans to franchise the business to other cities like Saskatoon and Winnipeg, but he decided against it. He preferred to keep things small and to redesign his space with a more Japanese esthetic. The shop features vinyl records and high-quality coffee, alongside bubble tea.
"I wanted to bring the specialty coffee culture from Japan and Korea to Regina and explain that coffee can be really different as well," he said.
As if serving excellent coffee and bubble tea weren't enough, Chien is also a bartender with flair. He doesn't have an alcohol licence for his space, but he flips steel cups and shot glasses as he makes your bubble tea. Between being your authentic bubble tea guy, your knowledgeable barista and your flair bartender, he might be the most versatile drink entrepreneur in the city.
Tam Streisel of So Tealicious! Café
Location: 10-3701 Duke Ave.
Most popular bubble tea drink: Brown sugar milk tea.
Tam's preferred drink: Brown sugar milk tea.
Vibe and decor: Bright, social and lots of plants.
Born and raised in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Tam Streisel (née Duong) immigrated to Regina in 2012 to join her mom, who already lived here. Streisel was only 19 at the time. She worked in restaurants and in retail, with stints at Robin's Donuts, McDonald's and Bench clothing store, before working in the kitchen at the RCMP barracks.
Now she works full-time in an office job with the RCMP, but opened So Tealicious as a side hustle in December 2022 because, well, she loves boba.
"I'm a bubble tea addict myself," she said with a laugh.
She has fond memories of drinking boba with her high school friends after school in Vietnam.
"There was a little stall right across from the school. Bubble tea is big in Vietnam. It arrived there probably in the early 2000s. It's hot there, so to get a cup of [cold] peach black tea is really refreshing. And what does a high school kid do? Hang out with friends, go for some tea and have a snack."
She also schooled me on bubble tea. Apparently the "bubbles" were originally literal bubbles that appeared from shaking the milk tea, not actually the tapioca pearls, which later became known as the bubbles and boba in the drink.
Tam hasn't lost sight of the social benefits of bubble tea.
"I'm proud to say a lot of people choose my store to meet up. I have seen lots of old groups of friends that haven't seen each other after COVID. I have customers that have family and visitors from out of town and they bring them here. So I'm kind of blessed in that way."
Yoni Lantayona of Sweet Chaperone Café Corner
Location: 1907 11th Ave. (inside the Quality Inn & Suites hotel).
Most popular bubble tea drink: Taro milk tea.
Yoni's preferred drink: Mango graham smoothie.
Vibe and decor: Comfy and inviting, located adjacent to the hotel lobby.
Leony (Yoni) Lantayona is from Davao City, Philippines. He worked in Saudi Arabia for 10 years, but tired of being away from his family. He immigrated to Regina in 2019 with the dream of finally being together with his wife, Liwayway, and two kids. He gets a little choked up talking about it.
Yoni and Liwayway opened Sweet Chaperone in April 2024 and their daughters, now 16 and 17, help in the shop on the weekends.
This isn't their first food venture. They were street food vendors in Davao.
In addition to bubble tea — which Liwayway and the girls love — they offer pizza, pasta, inasal chicken and rice, salads and all-day breakfast, as Sweet Chaperone also provides room service to hotel guests.
I asked him to make me their most popular bubble tea drink, which happens to be the taro milk tea with black tapioca pearls, but he insisted I also try their signature drink, the mango graham smoothie. It's spectacular. The graham crumble and the creamy mango flavour place it somewhere between a Dairy Queen Blizzard and gourmet milkshake. He boasts that after having tried it once, many regular customers order it via Uber Eats.
The name Sweet Chaperone is a translation of the Tagalog expression, Masarap Kasama, or "nice to be with."
"When you go somewhere, you need a chaperone with you," Yoni explained. "To make it safe and not boring. Since this is a boba cafe, that is the sweet part. And with chaperone, you will come with a companion."
In the spirit of Asian Heritage Month, I asked Yoni if he considers their shop a Filipino boba cafe. He said boba is for everyone.
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