The “bubble tea craze” has taken over the country and Davao City is no exception. With more and more people clamoring for this satisfying drink, business owners need to have access to top quality raw materials and highly responsive after-sales support from the best manufacturers and suppliers in Taiwan.

Opening doors of opportunities is the Taiwan Bubble Tea Pavilion at the Taiwan Expo 2019, held last November 8-9, 2019 at the SMX Convention Center Davao. Organized by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), the special exhibition featured member companies of the Taiwan Bubble Tea Alliance, an organization established in 2017 to unify and boost the collective strength of over 125 bubble milk tea vendors and industrial firms.

With a theme “Taiwan Bubble Tea, Bubble Up Your Life!,” the exhibition and business conference gave bubble tea fans, business franchises, and startup entrepreneurs in Davao to see and taste the latest bubble tea products from Taiwan. Hundreds of visitors, which included local business owners and buyers in Davao and nearby areas in the Mindanao region, lined up for the demonstrations and sampling held at the bubble tea booth. Customers who have tried bubble tea products before cited the difference in taste quality of the tea and pearl products from the exhibitors.

Highlighting different fields of the bubble tea industry—raw materials (e.g. tea, tapioca), packaging, equipment, total solution, and chain stores—the pavilion showcased three alliance members Good Young Co. Ltd., Mr. Sun International Tea Chain Co. Ltd. (Red Sun), and Great Eastern Food Co. Ltd., who all shared their field expertise.

Good Young is one of the more popular bubble tea suppliers in Taiwan. It is best known for its line of milk tea powder, flavor syrups, and the ready-mix CASA Milky Flavor Tea and CASA Black Tea. Aside from raw materials, Good Young also offers various services for its business partners such as taste design, private labeling, OEM customization, and production technology training. Established in 1989, Good Young Co., Ltd. is a professional tea manufacturer and mainly supplies tea and coffee products to various food and beverage industries.

Meanwhile, Red Sun, an international tea brand known for its innovative beverages such as the Heineken Green Tea (a cold green tea mixed with Heineken beer) and its handmade tapioca balls or pearls, offered its franchise services to business owners in attendance. The company is greatly known in Taiwan for its innovative Heineken Green Tea, which made a historic record of 2.5 million cups sold in six months in 2005. The product, which was basically Heineken beer mixed with green tea, has a complex flavor profile topped with a beautifully frothy foam.

Finally, Great Eastern showcased its one-of-a-kind innovation to the now lucrative bubble tea industry, which first came to be in the 1980s. The company developed and exclusively produces 3Q Jelly Pearl, a pearl product made from naturally extracted Konjac (a kind of taro harvested directly from the mountains), natural seaweed, sugar, pectin, and Guar gum. It boasts a low-calorie count of only 70kcal/100g—perfect for the health-conscious milk tea and bubble tea fans—and can be widely used in various beverages.

Through the Taiwan Bubble Tea Pavilion, business owners and buyers at the Taiwan Expo 2019 got to see first-hand the integrity of the overall supply chain in the Taiwan bubble tea industry. At the end of the event, at least 35 Davao business owners have expressed interest in partnering with the Taiwan Bubble Tea Alliance for future endeavors. There were also numerous inquiries from other visitors about franchising popular bubble tea brands as well as establishing new concepts to make Taiwan bubble tea products more appealing and enjoyable for the Filipino market.

The Taiwan Bubble Tea Alliance and TAITRA are hopeful that this event could start more partnerships with Filipino entrepreneurs and promote the expansion and export of the bubble tea industry and culture to the Philippines. The exhibition also served as an excellent opportunity for business owners to connect with industry-leading Taiwan suppliers for potential partnerships.

To learn more about the Taiwan Expo 2019 and the Taiwan Bubble Tea Pavilion, contact the Taiwan Trade Center Manila hotline at (02) 551-7281/551-7349/551-7339 or visit the TAITRA Manila website at https://manila.taiwantrade.com/. Like and follow the TAITRA Manila Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/taiwantradecentermanila/) for more updates.