BobaMania to Permanently Close Original Tuscaloosa Location

Tuscaloosa's first standalone boba tea shop will permanently close its original location on University Boulevard downtown, management announced Friday.

Shannon Grady, a founding manager at BobaMania, opened the store with longtime friends Peter Xu and Lingyan Kong in the summer of 2021.

The shops center around boba tea, which generally consists of brewed tea mixed with milk and chewy tapioca pearls mixed into highly customizable drinks popular with young people.

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They have grown in there, and launched a traveling BobaMania food truck and also opened a second location across the city in Midtown Village.

Now, more than two years after first arriving in the Druid City, BobaMania is moving to close the downtown location, which operates next to the Ajian Sushi.

"Sadly, we have decided to close our downtown BobaMania location," Grady said in an email. "The sales have declined over the past six months and are not high enough to be sustainable. Our Midtown Store has been much busier, to our surprise, and will continue to remain open!"

"A huge thank you to everyone who's walked through these doors," BobaMania staff wrote on Facebook. "It's been fun because of all of you."

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