Family-run bubble tea shop SanSan puts a fresh flavour twist on tradition

A family-run bubble tea shop in Liverpool city centre has won a growing fanbase thanks to its fresh take on a traditional favourite.

Bubble tea originates from Taiwan, but instead of sticking to the original flavours, husband and wife Nichola and Peter Szeto, and their daughter Mya, decided to do things a bit differently.

They launched SanSan Bubble Tea on London Road in January last year, combining the authentic methods and teas with more modern flavours.

Peter creates a bubble tea. Credit: SanSan

They’ve also added matcha green tea to the menu, creating matcha lattes and matcha ice cream to feature alongside vanilla, Oreo and Biscoff fraps and a Red Bull energy fizzy which blends tea, Red Bull, ice and popping pearls.

Nichola says bringing together the two concepts has been behind their success over the past 12 months and it’s helped them stay ahead of the bubble tea explosion.

“It is a trend that’s really going to take off because it’s becoming more and more popular in this country and in Liverpool,” she says. “Bubble tea is just so different to any other kind of drink and we do get people coming in who’ve never tried it before. There can be mixed reactions and sometimes customers aren’t too sure at first because they are so surprised by it, but usually they love it.”

Nichola explains their bubble tea is divided into milk-based and fruit based, which each come with a choice of toppings – the pearls which give the tea its bubble name.

“You have four different types of tea – Jasmine, Assam, roast milk and ordinary milk tea. Assam and Jasmine are clear teas so we use those for the fruit-based drinks and the milk ones still have a tea taste but they’re more like a milkshake than a regular tea.

“The tea is mixed with whatever flavour the customer would like so for instance strawberry, grapefruit, or peach if they want a fruit-based one and then they can then add toppings of their choice. With a milk-based tea that’s often tapioca pearls which are small chewy caramel tasting balls, and the fruit-based have fruit flavoured popping pearls like apple or mango.”

The family opened SanSan Bubble Tea after seeing the rising popularity of the drink and spotting an opportunity to create something different.

“We own a supplements shop in Anfield which we’ve run for about 15 years, but my husband’s family are Chinese and they’ve always had takeaways/restaurants,” says Nichola. “It was something Peter and our daughter Mya were discussing and she actually went to work in a bubble tea shop when she left school.

“We saw what other shops were doing, and a couple are franchises so they stick to more traditional menus with some quite unusual flavours, so we thought we could do our own, combine the idea and include more familiar flavours.

“We’re also pet friendly so we also do pup cups for customers who would like to visit us with their dog too.”

Being based on London Road, close to the universities, means many of SanSan’s customers are Chinese students so, although the business is run by Mya, they have a team that’s fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin.

Nichola says the first year has been so successful that they’re already looking to expand.

“London Road is a great location for what we do, and we’ll have another shop opening hopefully within the next six months in Crosby, near to Merchant Taylor’s school, so we’ll have a new type of customer base and menu there.”