How one beverage company is helping colleges put boba tea on the menu while easing labor challenges with automation

Jon Plodzik, director of dining at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, was first introduced to the beverage company Botrista at the National Association of College and University Foodservice National Conference (NACUFS), this summer. At the time, Plodzik was trying to make use of underutilized space at one of his dining venues. And his team had been brainstorming about how to bring new unique offerings to campus. Botrista’s automated beverage program, then, seemed to be the perfect opportunity for Dartmouth Dining to bring something new to the dining experience on campus.

And there was something unique about Botrista’s offerings that grabbed Plodzik’s attention right away—its ability to produce a high quality boba tea menu, with customizable options and various flavors, with just the touch of a button. That sold it for Plodzik who quickly began working on a partnership with the company, successfully launching a Botrista beverage program on campus in early September.

Plodzik, who has been working with Dartmouth Dining for almost nine years, has noticed demand for boba tea on campus for quite some time and recently the trend has seemed to grow in popularity. Boba tea, also known as bubble tea, is a Taiwanese beverage that comes in several varieties. The drink got its name from the boba, or “bubbles” that sit at the bottom of the flavored tea-based beverage.

 There is an off campus boba concept in downtown Hanover, the city where the college is based, that is quite popular with students. However, going off-campus is not as convenient as being able to get the drink right on campus, said Plodzik. And this isn’t the first time the dining team at the college has tried to bring the Taiwanese beverage to campus, but until now, the team has been unsuccessful in its efforts. A few years ago, Dartmouth Dining had approached a local boba tea concept and asked them if they’d be interested in operating a venue on campus, however the concept turned down the offer. And the team even tried to make boba in-house, however; they ran into a few difficulties.

“When we tried to do this, it was inconsistency. Sometimes we'd overcook, sometimes we'd undercook,” said Plodzik. “We couldn’t get the tapioca pearls to be right.”
Tapioca pearls are one of the central ingredients of traditional boba tea, but diners can also opt for exploding boba, which are typically fruit-flavored pearls that burst once bitten into.

Botrista’s automated program provides a solution for this challenge, as the recipes are replicated perfectly each time, with very minimal labor.

“This is so consistent that if you like it, you're going to love it every single time,” said Plodzik, “Which I think is part of their success story, and the fact that it's so simple to operate and requires so little training from our perspective.”

To operate the machine, an employee simply needs to press a button and pour the beverage. The ingredients for the selected drink are dispensed individually and then blended and ready to serve in under 20 seconds.

“It [Botrista’s technology] automates the process for making premium complex beverages at the touch of a button,” said Jason Valentine, chief strategy officer for Botrista. “We do require someone to push the button and pour the drink, but it's a very simple task and then that employee can focus on more important tasks as far as being with the customer or you know other tasks that might need to be done.”

Boba tea makes waves on college campuses

Botrista has the capabilities to develop a diverse cold-beverage program for the operations it serves, which includes restaurants and foodservice sites in theme parks, movie theaters, as well as colleges and corporate dining sites. The company’s offerings include a variety of boba options, such as salted caramel milk tea or a jasmine green milk tea, as well as smoothies, coffee, lemonades, energy drinks and more.

Boba tea is by far the most popular beverage option for diners at Botrista’s college sites, said Valentine, who noted that the drink does well in its other segments too.

But it seems that the college demographic, in particular, really enjoys the tea-based drink. In fact, according to a recent study by Botrista,  86% of college students would like to see boba on their campus. Valentine also said that boba is Botrista’s fastest growing offering in the college market.

“Boba tea is a very hot category, and the problem that colleges face for food beverage providers is that many universities don't have boba tea on campus. So, what they found through studies is that students were leaving campus to go get a boba tea for their afternoon break, or throughout their day,” he said. “And the college, university focus really is to increase the experience for their students on campus in a variety of ways, and one way is having a great food and beverage program.”

That trend rings true for diners at Dartmouth College, as Plodzik said that while the college’s Botrista menu does include some other offerings such as smoothies and lemonades, the team has focused primarily on its boba options.  While, the dining program menus different beverages, such as coffee and espresso drinks at many of its dining venues, with no boba tea offerings on the drink menu, Plodzik felt like his team was missing out on a big opportunity to meet a growing demand.

“I realized that demographics are changing here at Dartmouth College and boba tea is really really popular in the marketplace,” he said.

Now, instead of going off-campus to find boba, diners at the college can simply visit the café at Baker, Dartmouth’s main library on campus. And so far, Plodzik has heard positive feedback from diners.

“We've been very, very consistent, I would say, from the get-go on our sales,” he said. “We have slowly seen an uptake in the amount of people that come visit our venue and have a lot of repeat business for students here on campus that absolutely love the product.”

In addition to boba tea, the lemonade offerings are also very popular with students at Dartmouth. And another category of beverages that use boba pearls are boba chillers, which are refreshing drinks with a base of tea or lemonade and infused with boba for a fun twist. Plodzik’s personal favorite beverage on the menu is the passionfruit lemonade with exploding boba. The salted caramel milk tea and fruit-flavored boba beverages are also very popular with diners, Plodzik said.

Boba tea isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon

Boba tea originated in Taiwan in the 1980’s, and by the 1990’s, the drink made its way to the U.S. By 2010, the boba tea market had expanded rapidly and major boba tea brands journeyed to the U.S. and were quickly gaining popularity. Since then, American consumer demand for the drink has continued to grow, finding much of its success with younger consumers. Millennials and Gen Z diners, especially, appear to frequently purchase the beverage, according to a report by market research company, Allied Market Research.

 “What’s happened is you've seen just the boba tea go across the country as far as demand and awareness for the product,” said Valentine.

There is also a social aspect to boba tea, said Valentine, who noted that he believes the drink is typically popular with college students as it is often used as a way to connect socially.

“College age students are wanting to have that social kind of time together and grab a cold beverage and grab a boba tea and have that mental health break or have that relaxing afternoon in their hustle and bustle, their life between school and work and studying,” he said.

Valentine also attributes boba tea’s success to the diversity of the product. From flavors and sweetness level to type of tea and boba, the beverage leaves a lot of room for creativity and customization.

And the cold beverage category, in general, has seen a lot of growth lately. In fact, the demand for cold drinks sparked the founding of Botrista.

“Many restaurants and operators are limited to their ability to serve cold beverages because of the complexity,” said Valentine. “So, we're really here to bring cold beverages to the consumer. And the company was founded at the start of the wave of cold beverages. So, we wanted to really meet the demand”

Solving labor challenges through automation

Botrista's machines can produce made-to-order cold beverages in about 20 seconds.

Botrista got its start in 2017 and began to partner with foodservice operations in 2021. Since then, the company has expanded its reach to over 32 states and grown five times its size since 2022. The company was founded by former Tesla engineer, Sean Hsu, who is also experienced in the foodservice industry as he owned about 30 boba tea and coffee shops.

“Sean identified the problem that many operators see: the inconsistency in product, training staff and delivering a quality drink to the consumer,” said Valentine. “So, you know, his brain started turning and he thought there must be a better way,” said Valentine. “It [Botrista]was born through a technology mind combined with a restaurant executive and restaurant ownership problems that face our industry.”

And searching for a solution to that problem is exactly what led to Dartmouth Dining’s partnership with the company. Plodzik said he is always looking for ways to bring new concepts and offerings to campus, while keeping labor concerns in mind.

“What we have to offer has to be cost effective, and it has to be focused on the fact that we can't tie too much labor into it, otherwise it becomes not worthwhile,” he said. “From an operator perspective, all we have to do is really maintain the machine in its cleaning cycle and operate it. And that's it. And so, it's really incredibly simple.”

Plodzik was excited and eager about the concept from the beginning, but some members of his team were weary. The manager of the venue where the beverage concept launched was a bit nervous as he already oversees a nearby coffee concept and wanted to ensure the beverage program wouldn’t be too labor-intensive. But those concerns quickly went away.

“I was very excited when I saw it, and so I brought that passion back with me,” said Plodzik. “Operator-wise, as soon as we got the unit in and we saw what it looked like, all those questions and potential challenges went away. We really have enjoyed having this unit as part of our program and making a concept all the way around it.”

Launching the beverage program was a seamless process, with the Botrista team providing hands-on support along the way, said Plodzik.

“They’re really good partners for us in the sense that they care about how this is going every single day. This isn't like you put the machine in and they disappear,” he said.

 In fact, it seems to be the opposite, where once the machine is installed, the Botrista team appears, ready to help, Plodzik added.  

It doesn’t take much time to launch the program, typically the machine is ready-to-go in a manner of weeks. One college partner, the University of Arizona, was ready to launch its program in just two weeks. To get started, the Botrista team installs the machine, trains the foodservice staff and provides the ingredients directly to the site. In addition, Botrista assists with marketing efforts. For instance, during the launch at Dartmouth College, Botrista went on-site to help the foodservice team with samplings.

Then, once the program is up and running, the Botrista team monitors the machine to ensure it’s functioning properly and to assist if any issues occur.

Botrista also manages the menu and sets the price point of the products. Plodzik said that, overall, diners believe the beverages are reasonably priced. When it comes to creating the menu, Botrista uses data that it gathers through various sources to create a specialized menus that meet the demands of the specific operation.

“It's done by regional data; it's done by demographics, as far as the consumer of the partner that we are serving. And it's done by really the demand of different type of beverages and trending flavors,” said Valentine.

These efforts showcase the company’s commitment to its goal of reducing complexity for operators.

“What we've seen with our partners is that we're very hands on and they've appreciated it, you know, making their life simpler by essentially implementing a program without adding complexity to their world,” said Valentine. “The search for making the employees life easier is very much a focus. And there also is a push back to anything that will complicate labor or require more labor.”

Automation will continue to simplify operations

Looking forward, Valentine believes the role of automation in the foodservice industry will continue to grow as operators seek solutions to complexities of service. In addition, automation and technology in general have the potential to play a pivotal role in foodservice innovation.

“Automation is a trend in college campuses to expand the food and beverage offerings without the complexity. So, there's a big push for that, which obviously plays well for us,” he said.

Botrista hopes to use these trends to fuel its growth as the company aims to expand in its current segments. Valentine said the company seeks to expand its footprint in the segments it serves and continue to bring innovative cold beverages to foodservice operations.

“What we do is we look at our partners to see what's best for them. So right now, the sky's the limit because there are many, many places that need different beverage categories to help grow sales,” he said. “We're very much focused on executing what's in front of us and being a quality partner to those who are with us.”