Tiger Den Tea House starts with love of boba

BY RACHEL LORENZ SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA

Vanessa Bui traces the genesis of Tiger Den Tea House back to her sister’s love of boba. Well, that and the entrepreneurial streak that runs in her family.

“It started with Michelle’s obsession with boba,” Bui told Colorado Community Media. Her sister, Michelle Jankowski, is a fan of the chewy tapioca balls and the tea-based drinks they come in. Before the sisters decided to open their own shop, Jankowski regularly picked up a round of the colorful, cold beverages for herself and family members.

Now, eight months after pulling permits and bringing in an architect to redesign the former PDQ Print & Copy shop in Highlands Ranch, Bui and Jankowski have opened Tiger Den. e 1,500-square-foot beverage shop serves milk teas, fruit teas, smoothies, and alcohol-free mojitos with toppings like brown sugar boba and mango jelly.

e tea parlor’s March 19 grand opening was “a lot crazier” than its founders expected. A buy-one-getone-free deal they posted on Instagram to promote the special event was widely shared and resulted in a line out the door for most of the day. It was fun, if a bit overwhelming, Bui said.

“Now we feel like, ‘Oh, we can handle anything,’ basically, if we could handle that night,” Bui said of the experience.

Typical of new business owners, Bui and Jankowski are practically living at their tea house, coming in seven days a week to greet customers, manage inventory, smooth out their processes and train their 12 part-time employees.

If You Go

Tiger Den is at 44 Springer Drive in Highlands Ranch. It opens at 10:30 a.m. It closes at 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and at 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

But long lines and even longer hours are not new for Bui. Before becoming a business owner, she worked for 28 years with the U.S. Postal Service. Jankowski was formerly a cosmetologist doing hair, facials and permanent make-up. However, the pair grew up in the restaurant industry where their mother, uncle and other relatives had worked for over 40 years, Bui said.

Already the sisters are putting that familiarity with food to good use. ey started out serving small bites like spring rolls, wontons and sweet pastries at Tiger Den but have already expanded the menu to include noodle bowls and fried rice plates.

“Our whole mindset was ‘Hey, we are going to concentrate on making our drinks — perfect that, but also complement it with a food side, too. … It’s a one-stop where you can actually get quality on both sides,” Bui said.

e sisters are originally from Vietnam but have lived in the Denver metro region since leaving a Malaysian refugee camp with their family in 1979. Jankowski currently lives in Littleton, and Bui is a Highlands Ranch homeowner. e pair noticed that Highlands Ranch — particularly the 80129 zone, Bui said — had few boba tea places.

“We gured we can bring something new to Highlands Ranch,” Jankowski said.