The popular, posh, and Instagram-post-worthy drink, boba tea, has come to Bayport at The Whale Tea Bakery, making it one of the few bubble tea spots on the South Shore of Suffolk.

Allen Zhang, from Flushing, Queens—the epicenter of the boba tea world in New York City—said, “I have a friend in Bayport who told me there was no place close by to get bubble tea and I was scouting for a new location out east.” Zhang is the proprietor of a few boba tea shops in the Northeast.

With dozens of local community members posting on social media about their delightful experience sampling boba tea from Whale Tea’s expansive menu, Zhang said he has felt welcomed by Bayport and the surrounding area.

Many customers have come in who are curious about boba tea and tried it for the first time at Whale Tea.

“We have had so many people be open to trying something new, and it has been a great way to start the business,” said Zhang. “It’s been very busy and we’re trying to hire more people. We would like to hire local students so I can teach them the art of boba teamaking.”

Boba tea, also referred to as bubble tea, is a tea-based drink that originated in Taiwan in the early 1980s.

It most commonly consists of tea accompanied by chewy tapioca balls (“boba,” or “pearls”), but it can be made with other toppings as well, such as grass jelly, aloe vera, or red bean.

Bubble tea has many varieties and flavors, but the two most popular varieties are black pearl milk tea and green pearl milk tea.

At Whale Tea, the most requested and conventional versions are the brown sugar tea and fruit tea, made of jasmine green tea.

The younger crowd that has been frequenting Whale Tea has found an affinity for the fun “Poppin’ Boba,” a clear, juice-filled tapioca ball that comes in mango, strawberry, and yogurt varieties.

The Whale Tea Bakery is part of a group of boba shops that originated in China and are part of an exclusive market of upscale, freshly made teas.

There are over 20 locations in the United States, with shops as far as Arizona.

What makes Whale Tea’s concoctions more luxurious is that they use only top-shelf ingredients for their bubble tea, which is home-brewed and never from powders.

“People will ask why our taro tea isn’t purple,” said Zhang, “but that’s because the powder is purple. We actually make our taro tea from the vegetable, which resembles a sweet potato. We peel it and boil it and make almost a mashed potato from it that serves as the base for the tea.”

Whale Tea imports tea leaves directly from high-end suppliers in Taiwan and Japan.

Unlike other locations, the Bayport Whale Tea store has a full bakery, which Zhang has been using to turn out delectable American and Chinese pastries.

“We have made cupcakes and cake pops a lot, because we want to slowly introduce Chinese-style cakes to the community who may not have tried it before,” said Zhang.

The egg tart, a type of custard tart found in Hong Kong-style cuisine, is derived from the English custard tart and Portuguese pastel de nata, and the latest pastry to come out of the Whale Tea Bakery.

It is often served at dim sum restaurants and consists of an outer pastry crust filled with egg custard.

“We hope to popularize the egg tart and think that since it’s a type of fusion dessert, it will come off as familiar to people,” said Zhang.