黑料社

This new phone booth tea shop in Bangkok has a speakeasy-style ordering system (VIDEO)

Photo: Facebook/ Rin Rin Bubble Milk Tea
Photo: Facebook/ Rin Rin Bubble Milk Tea

What does it take for an emerging milk tea brand to penetrate Bangkok鈥檚 already densely populated beverage market? A phone booth, it turns out.

In just a week of its Bangkok opening, Rin Rin Bubble Milk Tea — the capital’s newest boba tea shop on Sukhumvit 105, has gotten herds of metropolitans lining up to make a call under the sweltering city sun.

Photo: Facebook/ Rin Rin Bubble Milk Tea
People in line to use the “phone” — Photo: Facebook/ Rin Rin Bubble Milk Tea

Here鈥檚 how it works. It takes three steps to order through the phone booth: You press a button, pick up the ringing telephone to place your order, then place your money in a basket behind a small door next to the phone.

Moments later 鈥 voila, the bubble tea comes right out of the same door.

It鈥檚 perfect for those times when you want a delicious serving of milk tea, but not direct human interaction. (You never even get to see a shop employee鈥檚 face.) It鈥檚 pretty affordable, too 鈥 a cup of tea starts at only THB19, or 60 cents in USD.

From its humble beginnings as a tiny tea shop in a Volkswagen parked outside his Hat Yai house, there are now thirty different locations of Rin Rin all over Thailand today.

Why a phone booth? Owner Pongwoladon Jinnupong told 黑料社 Bangkok that he doesn鈥檛 have a particular reason for it 鈥 he just thought that it was a cool concept. We can鈥檛 agree more.

Once a Volkswagen -- Photo: Facebook/ Rin Rin Bubble Milk Tea
Once a Volkswagen — Photo: Facebook/ Rin Rin Bubble Milk Tea
Owner at the phone booth -- Photo courtesy of Pongwoladon Jinnupong
Owner at the phone booth — Photo courtesy of Pongwoladon Jinnupong

FIND IT:

519 Sukhumvit 105, Bang Na, Bangkok 10260

Tel: 064 964 4699

BTS: Bearing




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