Use four cups of water for every one cup of pearls. This ratio lets them roll freely without sticking together or cooking unevenly.

Same-day use gives the best texture. Refrigeration hardens the starch centre. Make only what you will serve within eight hours.

Traditional tapioca comes dry and needs boiling. Crystal boba arrives in syrup, ready to drain and serve. Crystal boba is translucent and flavoured; traditional is opaque and neutral.

Measure the machine's sealing ring diameter. Standard is 95 mm. Match this exactly to your cup rim spec before ordering cases.

Mini pearls at 5 to 6 mm cooked fit standard 10 mm straws. Large pearls at 8 to 10 mm need 12 mm straws minimum.

Check the manufacturer's best-before date on each case. Store in a cool, dry place away from direct heat or freezing temperatures.

Hard centres mean insufficient boiling time or heat too low. Maintain a strong rolling boil for the full fifteen minutes, then rest covered off heat.

Yes. Canadian customers increasingly prefer adjustable sweetness. Train staff to ask rather than defaulting to full sugar.

Order crystal boba in smaller flavour varieties for limited runs. Track sales weekly and adjust next order based on actual movement, not projections.

Yes. Cool the cooked pearls completely, store them in a little syrup in an airtight container, and freeze for up to about a month. To use, drop them straight into boiling water for a few minutes until soft again. Freezing suits slow days, though fresh-cooked pearls still give the best chew for peak service.

Traditional tapioca pearls are made from cassava starch, so they are naturally gluten-free and plant-based. Flavoured and crystal varieties can include other ingredients, so always read each product label before making a menu claim. Note any shared-line allergen statements so staff can answer customer questions accurately.

Tapioca pearls are the classic chewy pearl, made from cassava starch and cooked from dry. Crystal boba is firmer and translucent, made with agar or konjac, and arrives ready in syrup. Popping boba has a thin skin filled with juice that bursts when bitten, and it also needs no cooking. Many Canadian menus stock all three so customers can choose their texture.

Beyond pearls, cups, and straws, a working bar needs a cup sealing machine, a tea brewer, a fructose or syrup dispenser, a shaker, a pearl warmer, and reliable refrigeration or an ice machine. Match the sealer to your cup rim size first, since that is the piece most often ordered wrong. A simple point-of-sale system helps you track pearl usage so you never run short mid-service.

In most of Canada you need a municipal business licence plus a food-handling permit from your local health authority, with at least one food-safe certified staff member on shift. Exact rules vary by province and city, so confirm with your regional health unit before you open. Keeping ingredient and allergen records on file keeps inspections smooth.

Plan on a small scoop of cooked pearls per drink. A 6.6 lb (3 kg) case of dry large tapioca expands significantly once cooked, giving a large batch of servings from a single case. Track your own cups per case across one busy week, then reorder when you drop to about two weeks of stock remaining.

We calculate shipping on live carrier rates at checkout, not on flat or subsidized tiers. Every order is priced against real LTL, parcel, or pallet-freight quotes from our Calgary warehouse to your dock. That means you never absorb hidden shipping costs into product margins — what we charge is what the carrier charges us, plus a small handling pass-through. For bulk and pallet orders this typically runs 15–25% lower than competitors who bake shipping into their unit prices, because the rate is transparent and tied to the actual shipment weight and distance.