A taste of Asia has come to the UK city of Colchester in Essex with the opening of the Bubble T Bar in the former Levi’s Denim City shop.

Selling fruit and milk tea with flavoured bubbles and tapioca balls, the venture is the brainchild of Jamie Milleare, who also owns Darcy’s Sweet Shop four doors away.

“It’s something nobody else is doing in the town,” he says, gaining his inspiration after a holiday in Singapore.

“I was going through the shops and wondering why there were queues of people. I went up to one of the shops and saw it was called bubble tea. I ordered an original one and thought it was the most unusual thing I have ever tasted.”

The 31-year-old then spent a year securing enough money to open his own bubble tea bar.

Evolving from street vendors in Taiwan in the 1980s, bubble tea first reached the UK with an outlet in Soho, London, in 2011.

“At the moment we are only offering simple flavours as we don’t want to confuse people, although we do have this one ingredient called taro, which makes your drink purple,” says Milleare.

“In the future I’d like to offer Oreo tea-and-cinnamon teas in the winter. I’d like this shop to be the first of many.”