By: Shannon Schaefer

Wash your hands, get your lab coat on and prepare to conduct your own flavour experiment at Toronto’s first do-it-yourself bubble tea store – Labothéry. Located on 717 Bay St., Labothéry is a unique bubble tea store that allows customers to craft their own signature drinks.

When customers walk into the store they are greeted by a mural, created by local Toronto artist Angela Chung, that explains the process:

There are six steps in the science of crafting a tea at Labothéry: grab a tray, pick a drink – hot/cold, milk tea, fresh tea, or slush base ($3.25), select a sugar syrup ($1 per vial), choose your dairy option and grab any extra toppings for additional costs.

The sixth step? Enjoy your signature tea.

With 16 syrup flavours (ranging from passion fruit and peach, to lemon and lychee) and 12 powders (including taro, matcha and red bean), it is unlikely that any two customers will design the same tea consecutively.

Sticking to their science lab theme, the store has an overall stainless-steel look completed with syrup in syringes, powders in vials, petri dishes, beaker light bulbs and employees in lab coats. Employees, known as lab technicians, are more than willing to walk each customer through the process.

Russell McLean visited the Labothéry for the first-time and said his experience “was easy,” and that “the employees offered advice on which flavours mixed well, which flavours to avoid mixing and what the next step was.” This made the experience stress free — even for first-time drinkers.

Labothéry is a place you have to experience yourself – conduct an experiment and create your very own bubble tea formula.

Currently, this is Labothéry’s only location. However, it was announced last week that the store will be expanding to a second location in the PATH at Richmond Adelaide-Centre on 120 Adelaide St. West. In the meantime, you can follow them on Instagram.