Junior Alex Cho and senior Kayla Cho will officially launch their boba tea business, Choba Boba, at Penny’s Coffee Shop March 2.

The Cho siblings started Choba Boba in the fall semester of 2024 to bring boba and cultural diversity to Hillsdale. With the help of the Kehoe Family Initiative for Entrepreneurship Excellence fellowship and Jennifer Lutz, marketing manager and entrepreneurship coordinator for Hillsdale’s Career Services, the Chos are moving their business from Kayla Cho’s off-campus apartment to Penny’s.

“Boba is casual, fun, and tastes good,” Alex Cho said. “If people want to explore different foods and cultures, boba is a good starting point because it’s not too exotic or esoteric.”

Starting Sunday, Choba Boba will be open at Penny’s once a week, either on Saturday or Sunday, according to the Chos. Students can use Charger Change to purchase drinks.

“I recommend trying the Mango Green Fresh Tea,” Alex Cho said. “Especially when the weather gets better, it is very refreshing. It is not thick and creamy like the milk teas, it is just fruit juice.”

Choba Boba debuted at Penny’s Feb. 23 as a test run, advertising new drinks on the menu such as strawberry black tea, strawberry green tea, mango black tea and mango green tea, according to the Chos. The Chos sold 83 drinks, more than double the amount they would sell on average last semester.

The Chos said the soft launch of Choba Boba this past Saturday gave them the confidence to pursue the business long-term and better understand which type of drinks students are interested in. 

“I say the classic milk tea boba is obviously a given, and the Thai and mango milk tea too,” Alex Cho said.

Junior Maggie McGee said her favorite Choba Boba drink is the classic milk tea with brown sugar boba. McGee also said she is excited to have a boba shop at Hillsdale because it gives her more drink options to choose from in town.

“Sometimes you want something else that you wouldn’t normally find at a traditional coffee shop,” McGee said. 

The Chos said they are considering adding new items to the menu such as popping boba, taro milk tea, and matcha milk tea. 

“There are a lot of options for expansion,” Kayla Cho said.

The Chos have been working on perfecting dairy-free boba drinks for students since the summer after receiving positive feedback from friends about their business idea.

“We spent the last week of summer testing out drinks with ingredients we got,” Kayla Cho said. “We took note of the time it took to brew each tea and the measurements and ratios for the tea, sugar, and creamer.”

Kayla Cho said she and her brother ran more taste tests at Hillsdale before they started to sell them from her Townhouse apartment in the fall semester.

“There were a lot of experimental stages, but it eventually worked out in the end,” Alex Cho said.

Since opening, Choba Boba has catered boba at three school events: International Club movie night, Delta Tau Delta fraternity Delt Days, and Chi Omega Sorority Wish Week. 

The Chos encourage students, especially those unfamiliar with boba, to stop by Penny’s on Sunday to support boba tea in Hillsdale county and student businesses. The Chos said they believe boba tea is a tasty way to bring culture to Hillsdale and want students to give it a chance. 

“Hillsdale is a very closed circle,” Alex Cho said. “In the area, the closest boba shop is an hour away. People need to be a little bit more adventurous, and I think boba is a really good first step in doing that.”