Tea Shop To Open In Brookline Village

BROOKLINE, MA — Brookline is set to get another bubble tea shop this summer.

A Weymouth couple is set to open The Shared Tea shop in the space formerly occupied by Sana Belle.

“They think that sharing tea and sipping tea can relax you," Meihuei Hu who is the owners' attorney."It’s really a good lifestyle to incorporate in your busy life schedule, and so they came up with the idea to open up a tea shop."

Sana Belle closed in 2019, when the owner retired. Owner Kevin Tan told the Select Board Tuesday he and his wife expect to renovate the space to turn it into a tea shop.

But when they open, hopefully in the summer, he said, look for varieties of tea and smoothies and baked goods.

"We can bring healthy food to the town and lead to a higher quality of life," he said.

This is not the first tea shop to put down stakes in town.

Although bubble tea — the name given to a variety of milk or fruit teas with chewy tapioca bubbles or "boba"at the bottom — started popping up on the West Coast in the 1990s after becoming popular in Taiwan. It spread from there. Today, according to the trade group Tea Association of the USA, some 87 percent of millennials in the US drink tea.

The tea spot joins a number of other tea shops in town hoping to capitalize on that, including the space formerly occupied by Gen Sou En, and RoyalTea on Beacon Street. Then there's One Zo with plans to open this month on Beacon Street. PokeGarden in Brookline Village and TBaar in St. Mary's both also serve bubble tea.

• Japanese Tea House Gen Sou En opened in
• Royal Tea on Beacon Street in Coolidge corner opened last year.
• Drink Me Bubble Tea Shop - opened in fall 2020

The Shared Tea menu features dozens of tea, according to Hu. A sample menu provided to the select board features flavors like cereal oolong milk tea, supreme orange green tea, as well as cheese tea toppings: Which is akin to the sweet and salty cream topping that both Starbucks and Dunkin are now offering on some of their drinks.

The shop will also sell baked goods like marble chocolate oreo and rose toast.

The shop is set to be open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Sunday.