Sweet Boba House celebrates grand opening, first month in business

Rachel Kroeger

Staff

June 23, 2025

EAU CLAIRE – A former nurse, passionate about caring for her community, has taken her first official step into entrepreneurship with the recent grand opening of Sweet Boba House in Eau Claire.

Mai Vang – owner of West Central Wisconsin’s newest boba tea shop, located at 2602 Craig Road and open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday – said pursuing business ownership was “a big career shift” for her as a tenured healthcare professional.

Prior to attending nursing school, Vang said she spent 10 years working as a pharmacy technician and was inspired to pursue nursing to specifically serve the Hmong community.

“I saw there was such a big gap in the nursing world when it came to patient advocacy for Hmong people,” she said. “Being Hmong, that held such a big spot in my heart, and I want(ed) to help these people.”

After graduating nursing school in 2019, Vang said she discovered her “dream job” of caring specially for the Hmong community would only ever be a dream.

“I realized that my dream job doesn’t exist, and I don’t have the connections to make that dream job a thing,” she said. “So, I did five years of nursing and started my nursing career at the peak of the pandemic.”

Despite her passion for the healthcare industry and specifically nursing, Vang said she was drawn to a different path.

“There are so many great things about nursing, but there are also so many things about nursing that are not so amazing,” she said. “Throughout (my) time (as a nurse), I always wanted to have a bake shop, but (I) viewed that as a hobby and not as a career, so that (idea) was set aside.”

However, Vang said her craving for that sweet taste of entrepreneurship never ceased – later being satisfied when she opened Sweet Boba House April 26.

“After my husband and I got married, we moved to Chippewa Falls, and we’ve been here since,” she said. “Then (we had) the thought of bringing something that we felt like we were missing to our community. When we were having that conversation, and when boba tea came up, I’m like, ‘We should just do it in Eau Claire.’”

Uniquely sweet

Vang – a Taiwanese immigrant – said her love for boba tea stems from much more than her cultural roots.

“My husband was born in Eau Claire, raised in Chippewa Falls, then I was born in Thailand, but came to the United States when I was three, and then grew up in Menominee,” she said.

Though she is trained in making traditional boba tea, Vang said Sweet Boba House offers a more modern version of the Taiwanese fare.

“Boba tea was developed in Thailand in the 1980s,” she said. “Then – (and this is something) I think is great about boba tea – everyone (added) their own spin on it. Everyone makes it unique or special to themselves.”

Vang said a Taiwanese man in Texas – “who is very proud of his (boba tea) products” – taught her how to make the traditional drink, which typically includes “fewer creams and toppings.”

“(In Thailand), the tea would be the superstar for boba tea,” she said. “We do brew our tea fresh every day, and we are very proud of that, but in terms of flavors, we make more fun and modern flavors that people (here) are more familiar with.”

One unique aspect of Sweet Boba House, Vang said, is that unlike its surrounding competitors, her shop allows customers to tailor the sweetness level of their drink.

“We are sugar-level customizable,” she said.

Using data gathered from customer surveys, Vang said she developed her tea’s baseline sweetness that customers can then add to or take away from.

“Based on those surveys, we were able to narrow it down to what’s considered the ‘average’ (sweetness-level) that people liked more, and we went off of that,” she said.

Utilizing her percentage method – versus measuring her tea’s sweetness in grams of sugar – Vang said Sweet Boba House customers are able to customize their drinks confidently and conveniently.

“That’s something that I’m really proud of,” she said.

Topping tips

Another way customers can customize their drinks at Sweet Boba House, Vang said, is through its topping options.

“We have the classic tapioca pearls, or tapioca boba – that’s my No. 1 favorite,” she said. “Besides that, we have our popping boba – little capsules that are filled with different juice flavors, and I think we have six or eight different flavors of those. Then we also have our fruit jellies.”

Sweet Boba House’s tapioca, Vang said, “is made from cassava root – so it’s naturally gluten free” – and is cooked in a particular way to achieve a popular texture.

“We have a process of how we cook it, and then it comes out nice and soft,” she said. “We add some brown sugar to our mixture, and then we keep our tapioca in a warmer so (it’s) served warm.”

Serving the tapioca boba warm – on top of the tapioca itself – Vang said, is another unique aspect of the shop’s tea.

“Other places say they serve it at room temperature, or they serve it chilled, or they also serve it hot or warm, but to me, that’s my preference,” she said. “(Our tapioca is) something a lot of people look forward to when they come. We’ve had a lot of feedback about our tapioca, how they really like the texture of it, they really like the nice touch of sweetness to it and that it’s not overly sweet – it’s just enough for you to be able to taste the flavor.”

With all the options available, Vang said those new to the boba experience are sure to select something they enjoy – encouraging her employees to give out as many topping samples as they need to decide.

“Some people do half a scoop of this and half a scoop of that, (but) some people just straight up (say), ‘Nope, I don’t like the tapioca texture,’” she said. “But above all, it’s giving you an option to customize and do what is specific to your tastes.”

When she and her husband were contemplating opening a business, Vang said a boba tea shop seemed obvious for the couple who, as boba lovers themselves, found a lack of options in the area.

“Boba is not something we have a lot (of) in the City of Eau Claire,” she said.

Because of that, Vang said a lot of customers that visit Sweet Boba House are first-time boba drinkers who appreciate the opportunity to sample the shop’s different toppings, as well as the ability to customize their drinks.

“We continue to have our employees educate our customers and offer samples,” she said. “We always say once you pick a boba to add to your drink, you’re committing to one scoop full of that boba – so we want you to like what you’re adding to your drink.”

Sips of joy

Instead of caring for people as a nurse, sometimes on their worst days, Vang said as the owner of Sweet Boba House, she instead gets to serve them on their best days as they enjoy a boba tea.

“When I was creating Sweet Boba House, the mission was to just enjoy life,” she said. “I love when people come out after a soccer game, because I’ll be like, ‘Oh, did you guys win?’ And sometimes it’s a no, but then I’ll say, ‘Well, did you get to kick the soccer ball?’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah.’ And I’m like, ‘Hey, that’s a win!’”

Vang said her new career in both boba and business ownership allows her to spread joy and care for her community just like she was doing as a nurse, but in a more positive setting.

“I’m not saving lives or doing CPR, but now I am brightening up people’s days by serving something I like,” she said. “I’m happy, I love serving people, I love making people’s day and working with people, and I’m so excited to be able to serve my community, but now in a more cheerful way.”

To learn more about Sweet Boba House, visit its website, sweetbobahouse.com, or its Facebook page.