Is TeaJoy Any Good? The Awards, Press and 800 Places That Serve It
Ning MaThe short answer, from outside sources: TeaJoy, a UK bubble tea brand selling cans and kits, won London Food & Drink Startup of the Year at the UK StartUp Awards 2025, was twice a finalist at the UK Soft Drinks Awards 2025, and had its Milk Tea Kit ranked first of eight in TeaTrade's Best Bubble Tea 2026.
"Is TeaJoy any good?" has our name in it, so our own answer counts for less than most. What follows is what other people have decided or written about us: the judges at two awards, eight publications, a review site's 2026 round-up, and the chains, venues and campuses that put TeaJoy on their menus. Every outside source is linked and dated, so you can read each one for yourself. We last opened every link on 30 September 2026.
Where a figure is ours, we say so. We have not turned any of this into a star rating.
The short version
| Who decided | What they decided | When |
|---|---|---|
| UK StartUp Awards 2025 | London Food & Drink Startup of the Year: a win | Reported 3 to 16 July 2025 |
| UK Soft Drinks Awards 2025 | Finalist for Best in can, finalist for Best premium drink, commended for Best low/no alcohol drink | Results 13 May 2025 |
| TeaTrade, Best Bubble Tea 2026 | Milk Tea Kit first of eight, five stars, Editor's Choice; Fruit Tea Kit Best Fruit Tea; Matcha Bubble Tea Kit Best Matcha | Updated September 2026 |
| Chains and venues | Rosa's Thai, Las Iguanas, Black Sheep Coffee, TGI Fridays, Center Parcs, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and more | On our where to buy page |
The 2025 awards
UK StartUp Awards 2025: London Food & Drink Startup of the Year
TeaJoy won London Food & Drink Startup of the Year at the UK StartUp Awards 2025, at a ceremony at Vue Cinema in London's West End. The judges said TeaJoy "stood out for its bold innovation, rapid growth, and joyful approach" to ready-to-drink bubble tea, as Inside Croydon reported on 3 July 2025. Tea & Coffee Trade Journal (16 July 2025) and Garden Centre Catering (10 July 2025) carried the same news.
UK Soft Drinks Awards 2025: two finalist places and a commendation
The UK Soft Drinks Awards are run by FoodBev Media, and the 2025 results were announced at the UK Soft Drinks Conference. TeaJoy Bubble Tea, in both can flavours, was shortlisted in three categories on 29 April 2025. The results, published on 13 May 2025: finalist for Best in can, finalist for Best premium drink, and commended for Best low/no alcohol drink.
What the press has written
Nine pieces in eight publications, each linked to the original, with our own short write-up beside it.
| Publication | Date | What it covered |
|---|---|---|
| Bread & Jam Fest | 31 January 2024 | Interview with Ning on the road from MamaLan into foodservice, naming Steak & Co, Las Iguanas, Black Sheep Coffee and Brakes (our write-up) |
| Inside Croydon | 3 July 2025 | The award win, with the judges' words (our write-up) |
| Garden Centre Catering | 10 July 2025 | The award win (our write-up) |
| Tea & Coffee Trade Journal | 16 July 2025 | The award win, and the cans due that August (our write-up) |
| Delicious Ideas Food Group | 26 August 2025 | Covered our 20-second commercial kits (our write-up) |
| Tea & Coffee Trade Journal | 9 September 2025 | The home kits launching on Amazon UK (our write-up) |
| ChannelX | 10 September 2025 | The Amazon launch, and a foodservice business supplying more than 800 outlets (our write-up) |
| Eat. Drink. Sleep. | 12 September 2025 | The Amazon home kit launch (our write-up) |
| The Caterer | 18 March 2026 | The cans in its best new foodservice products round-up (our write-up) |
By September 2025, Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, ChannelX and Eat. Drink. Sleep. all reported that TeaJoy supplied more than 800 outlets across the UK.
A review site's 2026 round-up
TeaTrade published Best Bubble Tea 2026, updated September 2026: eight bubble teas across three brands, TeaJoy, Bubbleology and OMG. It put our Milk Tea Kit first, Best Overall with five stars and its Editor's Choice, and named our Fruit Tea Kit Best Fruit Tea and our Matcha Bubble Tea Kit Best Matcha, four stars each.
The 800 places that serve TeaJoy
800+ UK locations is our figure, and the September 2025 reports above said more than 800 outlets too. Most of what we sell goes through wholesalers, so we cannot list every café that serves it, and the chains serve TeaJoy in their own packaging. The names below come from our where to buy page, which lists them branch by branch, and from our commercial kit guide.
| Type of place | Named on our site |
|---|---|
| Restaurant and café chains | Rosa's Thai, Las Iguanas, Black Sheep Coffee, TGI Fridays, Creams; You Me Sushi (30 branches), Sushi Handroll (12), Cuppa Chaii (8), Angus Steak House (4), Steak and Company (4), Inamo (3) |
| Waffles and dessert | Wafflemeister (19 sites, Heathrow Terminal 4 and Alton Towers among them) |
| Leisure and attractions | Center Parcs (all five UK villages), Oxygen Freejumping (13 sites), Paultons Park, The Donkey Sanctuary, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium |
| Universities and workplaces | University College London, Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Glasgow, Tokio Marine Kiln |
| Forecourts | Selected Harvest Energy forecourts |
| Contract catering | Compass Group |
| Wholesalers, for trade customers | Bidfood, Delicious Ideas Food Group, Savona Foodservice, Hunt's Food Group, Epicurium |
Restaurant owners: our guide to bubble tea for restaurants covers the can, the kit and how the chains order.
What we claim ourselves
Two figures are ours: TeaJoy is in 800+ locations around the UK, and we have sold 2.5 million drinks. Two claims about taste are ours too: our bubble tea has been voted best tasting in blind tastings at customer meetings, trade shows, pitches and buyer meetings, and in taste tests 10 out of 10 people preferred our popping boba over others on the market. We stand by all four.
The can itself: 330ml, 30% fruit juice, 10% popping boba, a paper straw attached, 8.8 kcal and 2.0g of sugars per 100ml, and VEGAN, GLUTEN FREE, ALLERGEN FREE and HALAL printed on it. TeaJoy is female-founded: Ning Ma started it in the kitchen of her Brixton restaurant, MamaLan, during the first lockdown, and her co-founder is Jack Gaskin. Every ingredient list is on our bubble teas page.
Questions people ask
Has TeaJoy won any awards?
Yes. TeaJoy won London Food & Drink Startup of the Year at the UK StartUp Awards 2025. At the UK Soft Drinks Awards 2025 we were a finalist for Best in can and Best premium drink, and commended for Best low/no alcohol drink.
Has anyone outside TeaJoy reviewed it?
TeaTrade's Best Bubble Tea 2026 round-up put our Milk Tea Kit first of eight with five stars, and The Caterer included our cans in its best new foodservice products in March 2026. The full list of coverage is above, with links.
Is a TeaJoy can the same as bubble tea from a shop?
No. It is a 330ml fruit green tea with popping boba and a paper straw, ready to drink once chilled and shaken. A shop drink is made to order, often with cooked tapioca; our Milk Tea Kit is the closest we come to that, with instant tapioca that needs no cooking. What does bubble tea taste like describes each flavour, and canned bubble tea vs bubble tea shops weighs the two.
Where can I buy TeaJoy?
Online from us, with UK delivery free on orders of £25 or more, on Amazon UK, and at the places on our where to buy page, among them Center Parcs, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Wafflemeister. Cafés, restaurants and shops can order through our wholesale page.
Try a can before you buy a case
The fairest test is your own. Our 4 pack mixed flavour has both flavours in one bundle at £11.20, and the full range is in our cans collection. Sign up to our emails for 15% off your entire order. Buying for a café, restaurant or shop? Our wholesale page has free samples, a £200 minimum order and free delivery.