Bubble tea shop with ‘island vibes’ opens this weekend in Port Orchard
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Bubl Cups opens Port Orchard shop Saturday after pop-up success and soft opening.
- Family-operated menu offers milk or fresh tea, dozens of flavors and toppings.
- 700 sq ft store nods to owners’ Mariana Islands heritage with mural.
Customers craving bubble tea in Port Orchard won’t have to drive north to Bremerton or down to Gig Harbor.
Bubl Cups, which started serving boba drinks as a pop-up at local events, officially opened its first brick-and-mortar store at the Town Square shopping mall Saturday. The shop held its soft opening March 14 and closed ahead of the grand opening while staff made minor adjustments, according to their Facebook page.
“Bringing island vibes to every sip — fresh bubble tea, fun flavors, and good energy,” says Bubl Cups on its Facebook profile.
The small business is the product of a family effort, according to an interview and messages with owner Heather Lizama, 39. She runs the business with her 16-year-old daughter, Ava Lizama, and her husband, Gil Lizama, has been “instrumental” in their journey, she wrote in a Facebook message to The News Tribune. Ava helps design and craft the drinks and has helped decorate the store, and Gil has been doing much of the work to renovate the space.
She told The News Tribune that Bubl Cups started with an idea she pitched to her daughter in July 2024. The two started drinking boba years ago and Heather learned to make it at home by researching online, teaching herself through YouTube videos and finding inspiration on Instagram, she said.
They noticed there weren’t many options to get it in Port Orchard, though some restaurants offer it as a drink option.
“Do you want to open up a boba shop?” Heather recalled asking her daughter. “And she’s like, ‘Yeah.’ And then I said, ‘OK, let’s do it.’”
They began with a mobile pop-up, serving boba at local events in the area and in Tacoma, before deciding to open a permanent shop, said Heather. She signed the lease for the space at the shopping mall in August 2025.
Customers can choose either milk tea or fresh tea for their drink, according to a menu Lizama shared with The News Tribune. Both come in an array of flavors, including typical options like brown sugar, Thai tea or matcha along with playful, tropical flavors like “Paradise Glow” or “Peach Passion.”
Fruit-lovers, in particular, will find no shortage of choices for their tea flavor: the menu features banana, honeydew, watermelon, blueberry, cherry, green apple, lychee, strawberry and many others.
The second step is to choose toppings, which come in three kinds: tapioca, popping pearls (flavors include green apple, lychee, strawberry and others) and jelly (mango or lychee).
The interior of the store, which is about 700 square feet, features a floral art mural. The store’s theme was inspired by her and her husband’s upbringing in the Mariana Islands — Heather in Guam, Gil in Tinian, she told The News Tribune. They later moved to the United States and raised their two children in Port Orchard.
A quote below the mural comes from “Warrior of Love,” a song written and performed by the late George Brooks Veikoso, widely known by his stage name “Fiji.” Veikoso was a renowned artist of Fijian and Tongan descent who “blend(ed) island influences with reggae, hip-hop, R&B, and jazz” over a musical career of nearly 40 years, as reported by Hawai’i Public Radio. He died last July.
The quote says, “Now you got to live your life the livitical way. Put yourself in the middle of a beautiful day. Never let the trouble of the world try to put you down. Stand firm with your feet upon the ground. Cause you’re a warrior, warrior, warrior.”
“I chose that verse because of its positivity and how it can apply to anyone’s life,” Heather wrote in an email. “My hope is that when people read it, they’re reminded — no matter what they’re going through, whether good or bad — to keep looking toward better days and to keep pushing forward. Balancing a full-time job, starting a business for the first time, and navigating the challenges of the city’s permitting process hasn’t been easy, but that mindset has helped me stay focused and continue pushing toward our goals for this family-run business.”
The business will be open from 3 to 7 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, Heather told The News Tribune. A flyer on their Facebook page says the hours are subject to seasonal changes.
She said customers gave them a lot of positive feedback at their soft opening.
“... no one wants to drive out to Silverdale or Gig Harbor just to get a cup of boba,” she said. “So, like I said, we had a lot of good response from the community and I guess that’s what motivated us to just keep going.
This story was originally published March 21, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
