By April Ji
Boba Bot, a new bubble tea machine in the Centre Building, had its grand opening on 11 October. Boba Bot is a student initiative founded and entirely run by Kai Hussein.
Hussein is a second-year Geography student who was inspired by the popular bubble tea shop T4. Hussein presented his idea of opening a bubble tea shop on campus to LSE management and set it up within the span of a year.
Hussein assembled the Boba Bot machine from scratch with a machine purchased from China, coding the programme in Chinese despite not speaking Mandarin. Hussein is also responsible for preparing the ingredients; he told The Beaver that he “woke up at 5am to boil the tea” for the machine.
On the day of its opening, many curious students queued to buy a drink, using their phones to record the tea making process. However, the machine failed to produce tapioca on the day and some were disappointed.
“It was good,” said one student. “It is really convenient and affordable as well, but it would be nice if we could control the sugar level.” Another student made a similar comment and expressed her disappointment in the lack of tapioca.
Hussein was present by the machine on opening day to talk to customers and fix any issues. He acknowledged challenges in starting out: “Please have some patience with the machine. It has some issues now but it will be better in the future.”
