Boba: Pearls in Your Tea

Bubble tea, pearl tea or boba all refer to a milk or juice-flavored tea with tapioca pearls. 

Lili Liang owns Boba Express, along with her brother and sister, Peter and Sally Liang.  Lili met her husband, Sam Chiou, while attending college in Taiwan.  Sam met an American interested in opening a “bubble tea” business in Los Angeles.  In 1999, Sam and Lili applied for business visas, packed their belongings and moved to Los Angeles with a new baby and a two-year old.  “Tapioca Express” quickly grew to become a successful chain. 

Four years ago, Sam sold his interest in the business and moved the family to the Puget Sound.   Sam moved to the wholesale side of the business, importing monthly shipments of “bubble tea” from Taiwan for retail establishments.  Lili and her siblings opened the first Boba Express at the Great Wall Mall in Kent.  They opened their Crossroads store in August 2004.  Peter’s children, Andy and Vanessa, work with Lili at Crossroads.

Boba Express is a popular destination in Crossroads, thanks to their fresh ingredients and expert flavor-matching that generates a great drink every time. In fact, the hardest thing at Boba is deciding which flavor to try first.  Long lines of repeat customers ask for myriad additions like coconut and lychee jellies to their already tasty drinks.

"Our most popular drinks are fruit smoothies and milk tea,” says Lili. “We love to see repeat customers, because then we know they like our product. We really like being at Crossroads.  It's a very good environment for business.”