Bubble tea - also known as boba tea, boba, or pearl milk tea - is a Taiwanese-origin drink made with a tea base, fruit or milk, a sweetener, and signature chewy tapioca pearls or popping boba. At Tempo Tea Bar, we are a family-owned Scottish business that has been shaking up the bubble tea scene since 2013. Our ready-to-drink bubble tea cans come in 330ml and 500ml sizes, bursting with real fruit flavour - low sugar, vegan-friendly, and boosted with vitamins B and C.

What does bubble tea taste like?

The taste depends on what you order. Fruit teas are refreshing, light, and juicy - think mango, lychee, or passion fruit. At Tempo Tea Bar, we specialise in fruit-based bubble teas that are full of bold, vibrant flavour without being overly sweet or heavy. From Mango with Passionfruit to Blue Grape with Lychee and Strawberry with Mango - real fruit taste with a satisfying popping boba twist, refreshing enough to enjoy any time of day.

What are the most popular bubble tea flavours?

For fruit teas, mango, strawberry, passion fruit, and lychee are consistent crowd-pleasers - especially popular among younger audiences. At Tempo Tea Bar, our best-loved flavours include Mango with Passionfruit, Strawberry with Mango, Blue Grape with Lychee, and Mixed Berry with Blueberry. Not sure where to start? Our mixed multipacks and bubble tea kits let you try a range of flavours and find your favourite.

What is the difference between boba and bubble tea?

Boba tea and bubble tea are the same thing - just different names. In the UK, bubble tea is the most common term, while boba tends to be more popular in the US. The word boba can also refer specifically to the tapioca pearls - chewy spheres made from cassava root. Alongside classic tapioca pearls, you will also find popping boba - juice-filled spheres that burst with flavour when you bite them.

Is bubble tea healthy?

It depends on what you choose. The main things to watch are sugar levels, portion size, and topping choices. Opting for a fruit tea base with less sugar is one of the easiest ways to enjoy bubble tea as part of a balanced lifestyle. Tempo Tea Bar's bubble tea cans are crafted around real fruit teas that are naturally lower in sugar and calories, and every can is boosted with vitamins B and C - great-tasting bubble tea that actually does something good for you.

Tapioca pearls are fully plant-based, and fruit tea-based bubble teas are naturally dairy-free and almost always vegan-friendly. At Tempo Tea Bar, all of our products are 100% vegan and gluten free. Our bubble tea cans are fruit tea-based and completely free from dairy - so whether you are vegan, lactose intolerant, or simply cutting back on dairy, you can sip away without a second thought.

Does bubble tea have caffeine?

Most traditional bubble tea contains caffeine, but the level varies depending on the tea base used. Herbal and fruit-based bubble teas contain little to no caffeine at all. Because Tempo Tea Bar focuses on fruit tea-based bubble teas, our cans are much lower in caffeine than traditional milk tea varieties - making them a great option if you are caffeine-conscious, want an afternoon drink, or are looking for something the whole family can enjoy.

Can I make bubble tea at home?

Absolutely - and it is easier than you think! Tempo Tea Bar's bubble tea kits include everything you need to make cafe-quality bubble tea at home - from real fruit tea blends and popping boba to step-by-step instructions, each kit serves up to 16 drinks.We also sell tea concentrates and popping boba separately if you want to top up your supplies. If you would rather skip the prep entirely, our ready-to-drink bubble tea cans are shaken and ready to go straight from the fridge.

Where can I buy bubble tea online in the UK?

You can shop Tempo Tea Bar's full range right here. Our bubble tea cans come in 330ml and 500ml sizes, are ready-to-drink, boosted with vitamins B and C, low sugar, and fully vegan - with mixed multipacks available for the best value. We also stock bubble tea kits, tea concentrates, and popping boba for those who love making it at home. Free UK shipping on orders over £40. Real bubble tea, delivered anywhere in the UK.

Posted by May Gem Tan on August 17, 2026

Our Story | Scotland's First Bubble Tea Café

Why I Started Tempo (And Why It Nearly Didn't Happen)

A few years ago I was sitting behind a desk at Morgan Stanley, staring at a screen, thinking "is this really it for the next thirty years?"

I called my brother Liam. He was having a version of the same thought in oil and gas. Neither of us had a background in food or drink. What we had was a feeling that something was missing, and a shared childhood memory that kept coming back to us both.

The false start

Our first idea was a frozen yoghurt shop. In Scotland. If you're wondering how that went, picture selling something cold to people who are cold most of the year already. It didn't take long to work out that wasn't the plan.

The drink we grew up with

What we couldn't stop thinking about was bubble tea, the drink we grew up drinking when visiting family in Malaysia. When we moved to Glasgow, we couldn't find it anywhere. Not a single place.

So in 2013, Liam and I opened Scotland's first bubble tea café. No real plan beyond wanting to share something we loved with the city we now called home.

The sugar shock

Once the café was up and running, I did something I probably should have done sooner. I actually looked into what was in a standard cup of bubble tea.

I was shocked. The sugar content was far higher than I'd ever thought about while I was busy enjoying it.

Diabetes runs in my family, so that wasn't just an interesting fact to me. It felt personal. I couldn't keep serving something I wouldn't feel comfortable giving to my own mum and dad.

Rebuilding from scratch

Swapping syrups for "healthier" ones wasn't going to cut it. We needed to rebuild the drink from the ground up.

That meant developing our own tea concentrates, working with the Food & Drink Federation's Scotland programme, and a genuinely funny (at the time, less funny) mix-up overseas between "sugar-free" and "no added sugar" that sent us back to the drawing board more than once. Liam led the development work in the kitchen, testing batch after batch until we had something we were actually proud of.

Jerrica, my best friend from uni (who later became my sister-in-law when she married Liam), was there in the development kitchen with us through all of it. She's been part of Tempo since the very start, and that batch-after-batch slog is as much her story as ours.

Our core cans now sit at 1.7g of sugar per 100ml, HFSS-compliant, with added B vitamins and vitamin C. It took a lot longer than we expected. It was worth every bit of the wait.

More than what's in the can

Somewhere along the way, Tempo stopped being just about the drink. Three things matter to us as much as the recipe does.

Healthier bubble tea. The reformulation work never really stopped. Every core can is HFSS-compliant, with added B vitamins and vitamin C alongside the antioxidants naturally in our tea.

A wellbeing culture. We believe small, regular things add up. That's shown up in a step challenge, a weekly walking club, and a run club, built around the idea that looking after yourself doesn't have to be complicated.

Community. This one means the most to us. Through Tempo Community CIC, we run events and get people moving and connecting together, and our TikTok Lives most evenings are where a lot of that happens too, a place to chat, ask questions, and be part of things as they happen.

The reason it all still matters

My mum and dad both have diabetes. For a long time, that meant bubble tea just wasn't something they could enjoy.

Now they can. That, more than anything else, is why we do this.

If you're new here, thank you for giving us a try. We built Tempo because we couldn't find what we were looking for, and we're genuinely glad you're here to try it with us.

Cheers, May Gem

Share this article

Bubble Tea Cans

Tea Concentrate