ThirsTea offers bubbly beverages

ThirsTea Cafe

170 Inverness Plaza

995-7788

Monday-Wednesday, 11 a.m. – 9 p.m. 

Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m. – 11 p.m. 

Sunday, 1 p.m. – 9 p.m.

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When Tam and Ashley Duong moved to Alabama from California almost two years ago, they soon realized the bubble tea concept hadn’t arrived in Birmingham yet, so they decided to change that. 

“After months of driving around asking pedestrians where a busy cross street was, a lot of people said 280 and Valleydale Road,” Tam Duong said. “We wanted a store front, so we chose this location.”

ThirsTea Cafe opened last November in the Inverness Plaza shopping center next to Steak ‘n Shake. They are the first and only full bubble tea shop in Birmingham. Just five months after opening, they were named the number one coffee and tea shop in town by the Birmingham Business Journal.

The menu is extensive, but the concept is simple. Duong is very good at helping newbies select a beverage they’ll enjoy. 

“The concept is adding stuff into your drink. The small drop-in flavored balls are called bubbles or boba. It creates the illusion they are floating in your drink. It’s basically a reverse order of getting ice cream. When you get ice cream and put on toppings, but when you get our drinks, you put on ‘bottom-ings,’” Duong said.

They’ve already developed a following of regular customers, whom they know by name and their usual order. 

“Our customers make Alabama feel like home,” said Duong, 26. “Most of our close friends were originally our customers.”

The couple run the business themselves, with only one additional employee who works in the evenings when they are the busiest.

“Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we have lines out the door between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.,” Duong said. “It’s a hangout place. People meet up before going out or come by after dinner or a movie. We are open until 11 p.m., so it gives people a place to go later at night.”

The drink offerings include smoothies, fruit tea, milk tea, fresh tea, slushes, yogurt drinks, juices and coffee. The regular size is $3.75 and large is $4.25. ThirsTea also offers an online ordering option with pick up in 15 minutes. 

The cafe has seating to accommodate up to 25 people. They play pop music over the speakers and have board games for their customers to play while enjoying their beverages. 

The space next door has recently become vacant, and Duong said he would like to expand and make the current location bigger, add more seating and also offer snack foods on his menu in the future.