Youth Entrepreneur: Youth Leadership team relaunch tealine boba milk tea

Led by project leader Anna Zheng, alongside members Christy Zheng Roy Zheng, the AYLUS Tealine Boba branch is back. Tealine Boba is not a new name to AYLUS, but this relaunch is a lot more than just picking up where things left off. The team wanted to do this the right way, with better systems, a more thoughtful menu, and a real plan for where things are headed.

Two years ago, PROMIS/AYLUS Pearland members began their first fundraising initiative by selling freshly made lemonade. Edwin Gao, Erick Gao, Ethan Gao, Aiden Li, Roy Zheng, and several other youth volunteers wanted to start with a simple, affordable product that would allow them to generate initial funding for the Pearland youth volunteer group while gaining hands-on experience in entrepreneurship and community engagement. As one of the student leaders, Edwin took the initiative to identify community events where the team could operate a booth. He researched local festivals, contacted event organizers, submitted vendor applications, and coordinated schedules with both youth volunteers and parents. He organized volunteer sign-ups, assigned responsibilities, arranged transportation of supplies, and ensured that each event was staffed efficiently. During the events, Edwin led the team by demonstrating customer service, encouraging younger volunteers, managing sales operations, and ensuring the booth remained organized and welcoming. Through word-of-mouth promotion and enthusiastic teamwork, the lemonade stand became a familiar attraction at community events. With this single product, the team achieved encouraging early success at community events such as the Taiwan Yes Festival and the annual PROMIS/AYLUS Pearland Easter Celebration. As the organization continued to grow and participate in more events, Edwin recognized that relying on a single product would limit both fundraising potential and customer interest. He began researching additional food offerings, studying food preparation methods and applicable regulations, and once again completed the necessary food safety training to expand the team's capabilities. His willingness to learn, obtain additional certifications, and continuously improve the fundraising program allowed the youth organization to introduce new products, attract more customers, and generate greater financial support for future community service projects. To operate legally and safely, Edwin encouraged team members to take an online food safety course and successfully earn the Texas Food Handler Certificate before participating in food sales. Edwin completed the certification himself, learning proper food handling, sanitation, temperature control, and food safety regulations. This preparation enabled the team to confidently serve the public while complying with Texas health standards.

Relaunching a boba brand is a lot more work than it sounds, and the team put in a serious amount of effort behind the scenes before a single drink was ever made. The first big task was figuring out ingredients. The team spent weeks going through different tea bases, pearl suppliers, syrups, and milk options to find what actually worked best. One challenge the team ran into early on was that everyone had different taste preferences, which made it difficult to agree on recipes. To work through that, the team created a structured feedback form during tasting sessions so that every member could share their input in an organized way. That approach made the decision making process a lot smoother and made sure the final menu was something the whole group felt good about.

Once the ingredients were finalized, the team moved into recipe development, which turned out to be one of the most time consuming parts of the process. Members held multiple testing sessions, adjusting steep times, sugar levels, ice amounts, and pearl cook times until every drink came out exactly right. Each finalized recipe was written down with exact measurements to keep quality consistent across every event. The team also handled all purchasing independently, researching vendors, comparing prices.

At the same time, the team was making just as much progress on the marketing and technology side. Anna led the overall coordination of the project, kept everyone on track, and maintained a detailed inventory log that tracked all ingredients before and after every event to make sure the team always knew what needed to be restocked. Christy took on the design work, producing branded flyers and custom QR codes that directed customers straight to the ordering platform. Roy built and managed the online ordering website, giving customers a place to browse the menu, customize their drinks, and place pre-orders before events. Having that system in place made a noticeable difference in how smoothly each event ran. 

To celebrate the relaunch, Tealine hosted a free boba tasting event open to the community. No registration or purchase was required. It was a great opportunity to introduce the brand to new faces and give the neighborhood a chance to see firsthand what the team had been working toward.

Looking ahead, Tealine Boba has a lot in store. The team is actively looking into catering for birthday parties, local gatherings, and community events to make Tealine available beyond just pop-ups. There are also plans to continue improving the website, and expand the branch’s overall reach. It has been a significant amount of work to get here, but the team is proud of what they have built and is looking forward to what comes next.