This Tacoma boba shop is redefining what the modern American cafe can be

Sisters Christina and Kelly Tran remember climbing into their dad’s 1998 Land Cruiser after dinner, in search of their preferred dessert.

“It’s always boba,” said Kelly. Not just any boba — it must be great boba.

Though they seem ubiquitous now, as near as five years ago, shops around their hometown Tacoma or even nearby Lakewood that specialized in the originally Taiwanese, tea-based drink with chewy tapioca pearls slurped through an oversized straw were limited. Hardly any stayed open late, and besides, few of them met the high standards of these first-generation Americans.

“We used to drive to Seattle,” admitted Christina, who was born at a refugee camp in the Philippines to her Vietnamese mother who soon after moved to the United States. One night, after enjoying one of their go-to Vietnamese restaurants, Pho on 38th, they began scheming how to cut that commute. “We were hyped! We wanted boba.”

Christina insisted they drive past 2421 S.Union Ave., the multi-decade home of Bertolino’s, a 24-hour coffee shop that closed in June 2020. The 31-year-old mother and esthetician-turned-data analyst had spent many wee-morning hours studying at that very cafe and knew it had been empty. With the public relations and marketing expertise of her younger sister, Kelly, now 25, and the support of their mom and dad, who sold their nail salon (not their first) to help fund the new venture, they imagined a community hangout — open past dinnertime! — where kids and their parents, retirees, Gen Z and anyone on a Target run would feel welcome to sip and stay a while. It would double as a conduit to explore unique Asian ingredients in modern flavor combinations.

They named it Jade Lounge, after their family name Ngoc, signing the lease in January 2022 and opening the doors that September.

Omitting “boba” or the more American reference of “bubble tea” from the name was the first step in building a space that catered to many kinds of customers, explained Christina. The next was designing the interior more like a coffee shop with jade-green walls than the “white and dainty” aesthetic of many of their peers. OK, Jade Lounge also has a flower wall with purple string lights (instead of TikTok-primed neon phrases to remind you that “boba is life”), but this nook stands out for its offbeat paintings by Christina Tran of the Super Boba Bros, for instance, or Mr. Krabs, of “Spongebob Squarepants” cartoon fame, smoking a joint with a little Plankton at the end.

That quirkiness permeates Christina’s frequently changing menu, which starts with the classic Taiwanese milk teas but also journeys through fruit teas, matcha and Vietnamese coffee.

The “curated” section offers seasonal selections and funky concoctions — currently including Lavender Haze (lavender-earl grey milk tea with lychee jelly and whipped cream), Jade Fusion (peppermint-Thai green tea with half-and-half, chocolate syrup and crystal boba), and the ever-popular King Brûlée (black sugar milk tea and boba, caramel and a torched-to-order crème topping).

Brewing nine base teas in-house, they regularly feature an astonishing list of 30 to 40 such drinks — and that’s not including the dozen matcha specialties with flavor components like blueberry-infused milk and house-blended strawberry purée. Among the fruit teas, shaken in a cocktail shaker, styles highlight pineapple and passion fruit (Liquid Sunshine), cranberry and dragonfruit (Cranbellini), mango and orange assam (Vincent Man-Gogh.) A trove of lemonades and limeades takes you from the grapefruit, kumquat and popping boba of Sour Patch Kids to the strawberry-mint-coconut jelly of Mint To Be. If you love the bitter strength of Vietnamese coffee, explore the Gingerbread Latte, Raveberry with blackberry milk or the popular purple-tinged Ube Ca Phe.

Did I mention the slushies, which combine the flavors of milk or fruit teas in the form of a smoothie/milkshake situation?

“We’re really trying to cater to everyone,” said Kelly, who manages the ordering, inventory, social media and more from Tacoma as well as her home base in Los Angeles, where she has gained inspiration from creative brands pushing the idea of what a boba shop can be.

In addition to sourcing teas from the Thai ChaTraMue and coffee from the Vietnamese Trung Nguyen Legend, they also pay particular attention to the boba itself, cooking it fresh throughout the day.

“When it’s fresh, it’s soft and chewy,” Christina explained of properly cooked and stored boba. Made of cassava root and a binding agent, they arrive in powdered-ball form. At Jade, they rinse them thoroughly in a colander before bringing them to a rapid boil and carefully simmering for about an hour, adding black sugar or a honey-longan blend to sweeten. Boba stiffens when it gets cold and when it sits for too long. “When you cut corners on boba, you know,” Christina added.

Almost two years in, Christina and Kelly now employ about 10 people, most of them in their late teens or early 20s. Their parents, Nga and Khoa Tran, often help out around the shop, tidying the sidewalk or whipping up drinks during the midnight rush of more than 200 people who bee-lined to this little boba shop next to a Little Caesars after the recent ENHYPHEN concert at Tacoma Dome. (They planned for that swarm, after their employees passed out fliers at a previous K-pop concert, drawing an unexpected late-night crowd.)

They have created 159 different drinks so far, and their constant research and recipe-testing means there’s always a fresh reason to visit Jade Lounge.

JADE LOUNGE

▪ 2421 S. Union Ave. (in Tacoma Central near IHOP and Target), Tacoma, jadelounge253.com

▪ Monday-Thursday 10 a.m.-10 p.m., Friday-Sunday 11 a.m.-10 p.m.

▪ Details: Vietnamese tea cafe with boba, milk tea, fresh fruit tea, lemonade, slushies, matcha and coffee; ample seating and WiFi for work, study sessions and meetings

▪ How to order: best in-person for advice, but online ordering and delivery also available

This story was originally published May 2, 2024 at 5:30 AM.