Worldwide beverage chain, bubble tea shop opens in Silverdale

SILVERDALE — Dang Nguyen, now living in Renton, first knew Happy Lemon when he visited a location of the worldwide bubble tea brand in the Bay Area some years ago. The store in California was always crowded with customers waiting. Noticing that there was no shop that was solely focused on serving the famous tapioca-balls-accompanied beverage in Silverdale, Dang decided to apply for franchising. His fortune of getting a green light means he's ready to share his favorite tea brand with Kitsap.

Now the lines of people waiting for bubble tea appear at the newly-opened Happy Lemon, located in the plaza with Office Depot, Safeway and JoAnne Fabrics along on Northwest Bucklin Hill Road. The store was attracting customers on its soft opening day last Friday, even without the company having spread the word, store manager Nora Nguyen recalled.

Most Silverdale bubble tea is served in restaurants, where the beverages are sold as a supplement to a menu rather than the center of a shop. Dang wanted to bring Happy Lemon to provide a new option, he said, with a menu of bubble team drinks and freshly-made bubble waffles, which are egg-based spherical waffles originally from Hong Kong.

"We know some people have restaurants and have businesses here, so I think it's going to be a very good addition to the companies here," said Dang.

More: Bubz cafe brings new tea, waffle concept to Kitsap County

Owned by the Yummy-Town Group, a publicly listed company originating in Taiwan that mainly operates its business in Mainland China, Happy Lemon was founded in 2006. Its first location opened in Shanghai. Now the tea brand has more than 80 stores in the U.S. — 20 in Washington State — and more than 1,000 other stores around the world, including Canada, Australia, UK, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and more, according to Happy Lemon.

Originally from Vietnam, Dang had lived in California for some years before he moved to Washington. He had owned a local coffee shop that sold bubble tea and sandwiches in West Seattle and sold the business before the pandemic.

Salted cheese, taro milk tea, avocado smoothie, and more

For those who are not familiar with a variety of tea-based beverages and topping options on the menu, Dang and Nora made some personalized recommendations to accommodate different preferences.

"If you never had a bubble tea, you're gonna just go for the traditional one, the bubble milk tea...and then you can try a different flavor," Dang said. Ube milk tea mixed with taro balls was his personal choice, the co-owner said.

Happy Lemon is famous for its salted cheese series of drinks, in which a layer of creamy, sweet, and salty foam made up of heavy cream, powder, condensed milk, and rock salt would float on top of the tea. A good combination would be Jasmine Green Tea with salted cheese, according to Nora and Dang.

In the summer, a cup of Strawberry Jasmine Green Tea with lychee jelly is on top of Nora's recommendation list, as the fruity beverage is fresh and tastes good during the season.

For those who'd like to avoid powders and prefer a healthy option, Nora suggested an Avocado smoothie, as it was made up with a whole fresh avocado in the drink. The manager had worked for a Happy Lemon location in Tacoma for one and a half years before she was transferred to Kitsap County.

So far, Taro and Ube-based milk tea are the most popular items sold in the Silverdale store, Nora said.

The Silverdale location will do a grand opening on Saturday, August 12. Feeling bad to keep some customers waiting for a long time on the soft opening day, Nora said that the store now has more employees and would be able to handle the number of customers they expect to have on the grand opening.

We really want the customers to have a place to gather, enjoy the best bubble tea, and have a good time with their friends and family, Dang said.

The Silverdale store is now open between 11 a.m. and 9 p.m. every day.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Happy Lemon bubble tea opens in Silverdale