The future is looking bright for high-end bubble tea entrepreneur Anh Pham, with plans to expand her empire already underway.
Anh opened her first premium bubble tea room, Paeonia, in the royal borough of Windsor in October and, such has been its success, that negotiations are already underway for a second site, this time in west London, with plans to have five venues throughout Berkshire and the capital by the end of 2022. She’s also had interest in opening a Paeonia in Paris.
She said: “Paeonia has brought a unique, high-end experience to Windsor, where customers can expect premium bubble tea inspired by the flavours of Taiwan, and my intention is to expand quickly, first in Berkshire and west London, but I would eventually like to see Paeonias all over the UK and further afield.”
Anh moved to the UK from her native Vietnam to study at university in Bristol, but fell in love with the royal borough. An avid royalist who even had her own corgi, she immediately wanted to put down roots in the town.
Acclaimed foodie Anh has spent the past decade working in the UK’s hospitality industry. A tea lover with a strong passion for food and beverages, she has tasted bubble tea all over the world and set about creating her own recipes – unlike anything currently on offer in the UK.
With queues out of the door on launch day, regulars already visiting the classy tea room daily and demand for her premium bubble teas being so strong that she sold out of ingredients had to close for 24 hours to restock, Anh was confident that her hugely-Instagrammable tea room would be such a soaraway success.
She said: “There is nothing quite like Paeonia in the whole of the UK. Originating in Taiwan in the 1980s, the last few years have seen an increasing amount of bubble tea shops open in the UK, with 2020 in particular seeing a boom in popularity.
“What makes Paeonia different is that all of our bubble tea is made using a Teapresso Machine imported from Taiwan – the first UK shop to use this piece of equipment.
“Unlike other bubble tea shops, every bubble tea at Paeonia is made to order, ensuring better flavour, freshness and taste. We brew hundreds of cups of tea every day and I taste each and every batch myself. If it’s not good enough, I reject it and we start again. I want everything to be perfect, so our customers only taste the very best.”
Bubble tea is a tea-based drink served cold, hot or iced with chewy tapioca pearls providing an addictive mix of textures. The house favourites are the fluffy cheese crème brulee with tapioca pearls and fluffy dirty mess – milk tea with brown sugar pearls, fluffy cream cheese and Oreo crumbles – but you can choose from a multitude of fruit and milk flavours.
Simply choose your tea, your ice level, the amount of sweetness and then your toppings, with hundreds of combinations to choose from.
You can also expect to see limited-edition flavours alongside rotating seasonal specials and the option to make tea with a variety of plant-based milks, including oat, coconut, almond and soya, with all popping balls and jellies being plant-based, making Paeonia vegan-friendly.
Attention to detail is key in the design of Paeonia, which has a five-star hygiene rating, and each space will follow in the high-end footprint of the Windsor store.
A stone’s throw from Windsor Castle, no compromise has been made on the interior design, with its pink and green theme, luxe floral decoration and chic lighting creating an up-market space which is already proving popular with Instagrammers.
