Bubbles 'N Ice (3061 NE 163rd Street) in North Miami Beach is opening soon, and that means plenty of premium Bubble Tea, Philly style Italian ice, and more combinations thereof than you can shake a widemouth straw at.
Bubble Tea first hit the streets of Taiwan in the 80's, and it's slowly taking over the world. It is a sweet tea drink served cold, mixed with fruit or syrup and gummy-bear-like tapioca balls, sealed, and machine shaken to create a bubbly mixture in a plastic cup. A wide mouthed straw is used to puncture the plastic seal and slurp up the tea and bubbles. Oh yeah, it's also vegan friendly.
Mexico City natives, husband and wife, and business partners Yoav Anisz and Miriam Lach fell in love with Bubble Tea when it became a teen sensation in their nation's capital. Now, they're ready to spearhead the movement in South Florida, where the market is wide open, and competition is scarce.
Shing Wang Restaurant and Bubble Tea House is close, but that's about it.
Bubbles N Ice plan to separate themselves from any emerging pack with their unique innovation of mixing a scoop of their premium Philly style Italian Ice into the bubble tea.
Italian Ice is not just shaved ice and syrup, that's a snow cone. It's also not gellato, which uses butter fat. Italian Ice, or Water Ice as it's known in Philly, is more akin to ice cream, without the dairy. Ingredients like ice and pureed fruit, or even chocolate, are mixed finely and deep frozen in a batch to create.
Miriam says, "We took a trip to Chicago and we went through Little Italy and we just fell in love with Italian Ice. When we got back to Miami it was like 'Do we do one, do we do both, how can we put them together?' We found this location and we thought, 'What the hell, we can do both."
The shop is in a plaza next to Hiro restaurant, and across the street from Oleta River State Park.
Bubbles N Ice use all premium teas, flavor powders, tapioca balls, and ingredients in their products. Most of their menu is fat free. Once they get through dealing with the last of their permits they look forward to a grand opening where they can share their fun product with the world.
Log on to bubblesnice.com for more info.
Update: image added by request:
