Nat Ho Brings Famous Taiwanese Bubble Tea Brand Bobii Frutii To Clementi Mall

Bobii Frutii, the popular Taiwanese bubble tea chain that typically has queues of up to two hours in Taipei for its Instagrammable fruit-infused drinks, is coming to Singapore.

It currently has four other outlets in its native Taiwan and China.

The chain is famous for its “layered” bubble tea, which has ingredients like milk, tea and colourful pearls heaped in a cup like a pretty parfait.

The franchised cafe with a standing counter at Clementi Mall decorated with “earthy, natural oakwood" is slated to open around Dec 21. Incidentally, one of the shareholders of Bobii Frutii Singapore is Tanglin star, Nat Ho.

“Some of my friends saw how [well] I ran Lovebento and approached me to be part of their project [opening Bobii Frutii]. They have experience running other F&B projects so I feel safe working with them,” he tells us.

“My official title for Bobii Frutii is ‘creative director’, and I’m involved with promoting the brand and coming up with strategies for their marketing."

Nat Ho, in full tea-plucking gear, visiting the brand's tea supplier in Miaoli, Taiwan.

The drinks come with fancy, whimsical names such as the Extraordinary Bubble Milk Tea ($3.90) with black tea, milk, and brown bobii ('bobii' is Taiwanese slang for tapioca pearls).

There’s also their famous Mermaid’s Tears ($5.90), an ice blended concoction with mango, lemon, honey, milk and bobii dyed blue with butterfly pea flowers (said to resemble, erm, a mermaid’s teardrops).

Love green tea? Go for their matcha series like the Uji Snow ($6.50) with matcha, milk and bobii pearls in the original flavour. The matcha is sourced from Uji, a town in Kyoto, Japan, that's famous for its production of good quality green tea leaves.

Also popular: the shop’s namesake fruit teas, such as Grapefruit Oolong Tea ($4.50) and Yuzu Green Tea with Original Bobii ($3.90).

The preservative-free pearls are made in a Taiwanese factory and flown to Singapore. There are three pearl flavours: Original, Butterfly Pea and Brown Sugar (from 50 cents per additional topping), the latter two ‘dyed’ with natural colouring from butterfly pea flowers and Taiwanese brown sugar.

The ingredients in the drinks, including most of the tea leaves, are largely sourced from Taiwan.

The franchise company plans to roll out eight Bobii Frutii outlets within the next three months following its opening, and aims to eventually open 40 outlets islandwide.

Will it give Gong Cha a run for its money? Only time will tell.

Bobii Frutii Singapore opens late December at #04-K4 Clementi Mall. www.facebook.com/bobii.sg.