Popular Bubble Tea Franchise 'Chatime' Hosts Grand Opening In Peterborough's North End

Peterborough’s newest entrepreneur Kanza Ghzanfar started her week-long grand opening of the popular bubble tea franchise Chatime in the north end of town on Friday.

Kanza Ghzanfar (left) with her brother Zaeem Ghzanfar (right) during Chatime’s first day of business. Their father owns the neighbouring Osmow’s Shawarma and is operated by Zaeem. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

The grand opening runs until Nov. 23. The storefront is located on 1447 Water St. Unit 6 next to the Osmow’s Shawarma. Ghzanfar’s family owns the latter and had worked there for an extended period of time since opening in 2018. The young entrepreneur wanted to take a risk and bring her love of bubble tea to Peterborough.

“Personally, I'm just the biggest fan of Chatime myself and five years ago I was craving bubble tea,” she said. “I put 'bubble tea' in Google Maps and the closest it was taking me to was Oshawa.”

Bubble Tea is a popular Taiwanese drink commonly consists of green or black flavoured tea typically with chewy tapioca balls (that act as the ‘bubbles’) and can include milk. Other popular toppings include popping boba (encased spheres of syrup or juice), jelly or fruit.

Customers can adjust sugar and ice levels to their bubble tea as the beverage boasts to be a healthier alternative to other sweet drinks.

Chatime is an chain with over 3,000 locations worldwide according to their website. It is widely popular in the Durham and Greater Toronto Area region.

Ghzanfar is from Toronto and attended University of Toronto (St. George Campus), earning a double major bachelor’s degree in criminology and politics. She earned her Masters at Wilfrid Laurier University, studying national security. She turned down a Ph.D offer and wanted to stick to her roots. She was immersed in a business with her family for several years and wanted to continue that.

“Back then, I didn't know I was going to get involved in the business world but I knew that if I was going to do something at any point, it would have to be bubble tea related,” explained Ghzanfar.

The week-long grand opening has a photo booth with bubble tea props. There are also two daily promotions during that week including a buy on get on free promotion on select drinks (Pearl Milk Tea, QQ Mango, Peach Green Tea) from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Customers can spin a wheel to possibly win free drinks, toppings and other prizes from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The store is fully-employed by Trent University students and accepts Trent flex cards as payment. Ghzanfar had many food and drink options in close proximity to her post-secondary institutions but believes Trent students do not have the same luxury.

“I feel like with Trent, there are wasn't that many options for students that were available so close to campus so that was primarily why I wanted to target that kind of community,” she explained. “At the end of the day, I still wanted to get involved with the locals are aware of our presence, what the product is and what we bring to the table.”

Chatime is open seven days a week and are open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Delivery orders can be made through DoorDash, Uber Eats and Skip the Dishes.

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Couple Opens New Bubble Tea Shop In Downtown Peterborough

Dreams of owning a bubble tea place have come true for couple Jasmine Sina and Allen Zhang as they soft opened their café Bobo Tea on the corner of George Street and Charlotte Street on Tuesday.

Allen Zhang (left) and Jasmine Sina (right) created their own menu for their bubble tea that includes ingredients such as condensed milk, cheese foam and aloe vera jelly in their various drinks. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

The popular Taiwanese drink commonly consists of green or black flavoured tea typically with chewy tapioca balls (that act as the ‘bubbles’) and can include milk. Other popular toppings include popping boba (encased spheres of syrup or juice), jelly or fruit.

Customers can adjust sugar and ice levels to their bubble tea as the beverage boasts to be a healthier alternative to other sweet drinks.

“We wanted to use a lot of fresh fruits to make it healthier," said Sina. "People want to have weight control and want a more healthier drink so they can have it every day.”

Zhang and Sina thought about opening a bubble tea shop last summer and began looking for property to open a store in January.

They chose Peterborough since it was a big city in the Kawarthas with a potentially large untapped market for bubble tea according to Zhang. Originally from Toronto, he and Sina believed opening a store in Peterborough would get people familiar with the famed beverage.

"Bubble Tea is already popular in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area),” he said. “Most people (here), I think still don't know what bubble tea is.”

The pandemic created several obstacles for the couple but they persevered in getting their shop up and running. The owners anticipate a shipment of decorations to come in soon before their grand opening at an undisclosed date.

"Of course it's very exciting, we actually did it," said Zhang. "During the time of the renovations, all the supplies were short and the inspections were behind."

Zhang had the idea of opening a store last summer while visiting a friend who went to school at Trent University.

“There are not many Chinese restaurants here so he would always drive to Toronto just for bubble tea,” he said. “That was the first idea that told me that I should start searching out and plan to open up a store in Peterborough.”

The café is offering 20 per cent off all its drinks during the soft launch until their grand opening.

"All the people coming with the feedback, we made the right choice to have it here and I think people like our drinks so I'm happy to see people that walk away with happy faces when holding our drinks,” said Zhang.

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