Aura Tea & Coffee is a health and wellness boba shop that focuses on better-for-you boba tea and coffee. As a Black, Asian and female-owned business, Aura Tea’s Founder Kashish Juneja said she has defied the odds to explode onto the Bay Area, Calif., cafe scene.
To make a splash and to stand out amongst the crowd, she partnered with top local artists Dmac and Nef the Pharaoh, San Francisco 49ers wide-receiver Austin Mack, and other influencers to create a unique space – and boba – for everyone.
From a Health-Inspired Mission to Boba Shop Success
Born in the dorm room of a U.C. Berkeley Haas School of Business grad, Juneja’s health-inspired business and mission was defined after she gained 30 pounds in college drinking sugary boba teas and coffees daily.
She said she wanted to enjoy boba beverages and take back her life, so Juneja partnered with Major League Baseball draftee Cinque Holliday during the pandemic to make her dream a reality.
Juneja raised a small seed fund from an investor at a startup she'd previously worked for to open a storefront right across Google and San Francisco’s Embarcadero, the eastern waterfront and roadway of the Port of San Francisco.
At that popular location, Juneja said exhausted programmers and drained tourists alike gather together for her brand’s refreshing, delicious and healthy boba options.
Brewing Teas to Order for Boba Beverages
Aura Tea offers a variety of drinks, all crafted to be sugar-free, dairy-free, keto-friendly and vegan. Their drinks are sweetened with natural sugarcane derivatives, and also from the inclusion of real herbs, ginger and hemp – which can offer functional benefits, such as improving autoimmune health, moods and more, according to Juneja.
Juneja noted that they also use the innovative Teaspresso brewer from Taiwan to brew all of their teas to order. Menu highlights include the lusciously blue “Karl the Fog” made with butterfly pea, the velvety “Milky Way” infused with cacao, and the taro-licious “Purple Rain” made rich with coconut milk.
With Aura Tea & Coffee, Juneja hopes to inspire the future of the already-brewing health and wellness movement with her original and energizing beverage brand.
Juneja said she agrees with Andrew Chau, the co-founder and CEO of Boba Guys, who said that boba tea can be a gateway drink for tea, a session he presented at the 2022 World Tea Conference + Expo. “I absolutely love that statement,” she said. But she noted that she wants to take that one step further, noting that boba can also be a gateway to wellness, as she’s proving with her low-calorie, health-inspired boba beverages.
Juneja said customers can look forward to her upcoming signature wellness tea series, co-signed by National Basketball Association and National Football Association athletes, filled with electrolytes, antioxidants and real ingredients. She’s also planning to open future Aura stores, which will pop up across the Bay Area and beyond.
Recently, Aura Tea & Coffee hosted its inaugural BOBALANDS, a weekend packed with exciting, health-conscious activities, July 22 -24, to celebrate the brand’s first storefront opening in San Francisco.
For the event, the brand attracted boba drinkers with RnB duo THEMXXNLIGHT, discounted drinks, Bollywood Zumba, yoga classes from local coaches, the Auraverse VR experience, a TikTok-inspired drink menu, and prizes like local gym memberships and bottle service at some of San Francisco's hottest clubs.
Indeed, with innovative ideas like that, this boba tea and coffee entrepreneur is certainly on the rise.
To learn more about Aura Tea & Coffee, visit AuraTeaCoffee.com.
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World Tea Conference + Expo, March 27-29, 2023
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