New Fresno bubble tea shop opens with K-pop twist: ‘I feel like I’m back home’
Love boba tea and K-pop? A new spot that just launched in Fresno combines both passions.
Visitors to Bubble Pop Tea, 681 East Nees Ave. in Fresno, will spot purple drawings on white walls, a ceiling full of puffy clouds and posters of famous South Korean boy bands BTS and ZB1.
“My daughter is a die-hard, big fan of K-pop,” said Sengphiane Kim, owner of Bubble Pop Tea. “This is her decoration.”
A native of Fresno, Kim moved away from the Central Valley city 14 years ago before moving back with her daughter, Hailey Kim.
“I love Fresno. I just missed my hometown,” Sengphiane Kim said. “So now I feel like I’m back home.”
Kim had previous experience in the restaurant industry, working at Me-n-Ed’s Pizzeria and opening her own pizza restaurant in Hollister before opening a boba tea and snack shop.
“Boba ... a new thing for me, and I’m learning every day,” she said.
What is Bubble Pop Tea?
Bubble Pop Tea celebrates its K-pop theme with colorful decorations and a variety of band posters adorning the walls of the 1,100-square-foot space, according to Kim.
K-pop music videos play on the TV while customers order drinks themed after K-pop acts.
“We wanted to keep the Korean culture,” said Kim, explaining that it was important to her and her daughter that their business reflected their roots.
The business has about four employees but Kim is planning on hiring two or three more, she said.
What’s on the menu at Fresno boba shop?
The menu at Bubble Pop Tea is colorful as it is creative, with a variety of specialty milk-based teas. All milk teas can be made with dairy-free milk.
Run Ube Run, named after the BTS song “Run,” is a purple yam-flavored milk drink that includes boba coconut shreds and puff cream.
Another popular drink on the menu is Lovers in Okinawa, named after the Japanese island of Okinawa. The cold beverage blends Okinawa brown sugar milk tea with brown sugar boba, coffee jelly, cheese foam and brown sugar syrup.
Kim’s favorite drink is the taro milk tea, a simple purple drink made with a starchy root vegetable that tastes similar to vanilla.
The shop also has a variety of specialty fruit teas such as the Love Lee Lychee, a lychee fruit tea with lychee jelly. Lychee popping boba balls burst when squeezed to add flavor to the drink.
La Vie en Rose, another drink, combines rose fruit tea syrup and lychee syrup with red jelly hearts, lychee jelly and real rose petals.
The shop also offers teas named after Kastner Intermediate School in Fresno and Clovis West High School in Clovis.
In addition to drinks, customers can enjoy banh mi sandwiches, a pork belly bowl and snacks such as Pocky sticks, Thai seaweed snacks and Meiji Hello Panda strawberry biscuits.
What are food and drink prices?
Specialty milk teas and specialty fruit teas cost $6.75 each, while snacks range in price from $1.75 to $3.
Banh mi sandwiches range from $8 to $10, and the pork belly bowl is $4.99.
When is new store’s grand opening?
Bubble Pop Tea had its soft opening from Feb. 21 to Feb. 23, according to an Instagram post.
Kim said the soft opening offered a chance for “friends and family to come and try out” the business “before we actually open so we get feedback from the customers.”
The boba tea shop plans to celebrate its grand opening on Saturday, April 5.
Bubble Pop Tea will hand out K-pop photocards to visitors during their grand opening.
What are business open hours?
Bubble Pop Tea is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday through Thursday. On Friday and Saturday the store closes at 9 p.m.
This story was originally published March 18, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
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