BC Business
Joshua and Joyce Yim are bringing some new tricks to their brick-and-mortar bubble tea store.
Life Story: Joshua and Joyce Yim’s bubble tea obsession started young. The siblings were under 10 when their parents would bring them to local boba shops around Vancouver. After awhile, they didn’t want to ask their folks for bubble tea money anymore, so they started selling random items on Craigslist and eBay and eventually got jobs at a bubble tea shop. “It was a dream come true,” laughs Joyce. “Worked with friends and family, had bubble tea whenever we wanted.”
That place eventually closed down and the gang had to, in Joshua’s words, “disband and do our own thing,” even as the idea of owning their own shop remained in their minds. A few years ago, Joyce stumbled upon a store in downtown Vancouver and the pair made it a reality. With a little help from family and friends (“we had some handy people to help with renovations,” says Joshua), Teaspoons & Co. was born.
Bottom Line: The Yims have worked to make their company stand out, not just in terms of taste, but also in how it does business. After the pandemic forced the store to close, the duo started making DIY bubble tea kits that became so popular they’re now in over 50 brick-and-mortar stores in North America. And, last year, Teaspoons introduced plastic-free, fully compostable cups that went viral on TikTok.