2. It’s everywhere in Japan and even more popular in Taiwan.

What do I mean by “everywhere” in Japan?

I’m so glad you asked. Please follow me down the rabbit hole.

Recently, it seems like every store I walk by is serving bubble tea. And every place that serves it had a huge line. So after spending way too much time trying to research it, I was able to find some information. It’s a little incomplete, but it will work for our purposes.

Here are the numbers.

142 restaurants

There are 142 restaurants that serve bubble tea in Tokyo. That is, 142 different companies. I’m not even talking about individual stores yet.

This doesn’t even include some of the major franchises that added Bubble Tea to their menu to capitalize on the craze. (i.e. Mos Burger, Lotteria, Wendy’s, etc)

4 stores

To be honest, this is a guess. It was difficult to get specific information for all 142 restaurants (also that would have taken way too much time).

Some companies have only one location. But other have a lot.

For example:

Gong Cha - 17 stores

Coco - 9 stores

Chatime - 10 stores

If we assume that each restaurant has only 4 stores. That’s 568 stores in Tokyo alone.

I feel like this is a reasonable guess since some of the major chain stores weren’t included in the numbers.

8 people

Almost every time I walk by a bubble tea store, there’s a line. Especially if you go during a peak time.

For example, this was the line I saw last weekend (near Yūrakuchō Station.)