Ami Tea & Sub Saint John (St. John, NB) — Restaurant in Saint John

I was very excited to see a new bubble tea shop open up in Saint John, so today I went to check it out! Unfortunately the experience wasn’t the best. Please take what I have to say as constructive criticism, I know they only opened up last week, and I want to them to succeed. Just so you know where I am coming from, I have had plenty a bubble tea in my life, having grown up in Vancouver. I have had bubble tea from many different franchises - Big Orange, Happy Lemon, Cha Time, and Gong Cha among them.

First let me start with the good points about Ami Tea:

Cute and welcoming interior Staff were friendly Their small sizes were actually small, about 12 oz or so (in my experience bubble tea shops only have one size, or their “small” size is huge and their large size is gargantuan, which is annoying when you want to get one for your kids).

Now for my critiques:

When I first came into the shop, there was only one couple ahead of me in line placing their order. When it was my turn, I got three different small drinks in their “smoothy” category. You get to pick how much sugar and ice to put in your drink so I chose 30% sugar and no ice. The total price for 3 smalls with tax was $18.

20 minutes later, they finally finished the order for the couple ahead of me. They ordered 5 drinks.

Then (20 minutes after I ordered), the lady taking the orders called me back up to tell me that because the drinks I ordered were smoothies, they HAVE to have ice in them, so she asked me if I wanted 50% or 100% ice. First of all, when you ask how much ice someone wants in their drink, this normally implies ice CUBES. So of course when I originally said zero ice its because normally you don’t have ice cubes in a smoothie. So what she was really asking was how much ice do I want blended in my smoothie. How am I supposed to know? It’s your recipe. And not only that, smoothies are not ice based, slushies are. So the product is mislabeled.

If you want the launch of a new Saint John Bubble Tea shop to be successful (a city where quite a few have never heard of bubble tea), you need to make the ordering process straightforward and not confusing. I would suggest a) change the labeling from “smoothy” to “slushy” and b) don’t ask how much ice the customer wants in their already ice-based drink.

From the time I walked in the door it took 30 minutes for me to actually get my drinks. I would describe them as watery, under-flavoured, and uninspired. My matcha “smoothy” was literally blended ice, matcha, and sugar. The other two drinks were basically the same. For the same price I have had larger, better quality, and more interesting bubble tea drinks elsewhere.

It looked like the two baristas did not have an efficient workflow of any kind. Were they only working on one drink at a time? Taking 5 minutes per drink? You guys really need to come up with a system to make drinks much faster, because nobody is going to come back to wait 30 minutes for mediocre drinks. Take a page from the Starbucks assembly line - they make a huge variety of drinks with infinite customization options - I don’t think I’ve ever waited more than 10 minutes at Starbucks and that’s including being in line.

I do want to give some of your other, non “smoothy” drinks a chance, but I certainly do not want to wait 30 minutes for them. I will come back in a few weeks with the hopes that you guys have found your stride and made some improvements, because I would love write you a great review. Let’s show Saint John how great...

Found this cute place for bubble tea that I have been looking for quiet sometime in Saint John. Staff was friendly and helpful. Their menu has a wide variety of options to choose from. Very cute and cozy ambiance that I completely loved. If you are looking to hang out with your friend or partner and looking for a quiet place with good ambiance I would recommend this place. With spring upon us and looking forward to summers, this should be your go to place to grab some...

Found this cute place for bubble tea that I have been looking for quiet sometime in Saint John. Staff was friendly and helpful. Their menu has a wide variety of options to choose from. Very cute and cozy ambiance that I completely loved. If you are looking to hang out with your friend or partner and looking for a quiet place with good ambiance I would recommend this place. With spring upon us and looking forward to summers, this should be your go to place to grab some...