Sweet Success: Joyce's Bubble Tea Story

Starting a New Chapter

Joyce was born in Tianjin, a major port city in northeastern China bordering Beijing, and lived there for over thirty years. Comparing Charlottetown to Tianjin, a city of over fifteen million people, she says, “You can get anywhere in ten minutes. Living in Charlottetown is more convenient for me.”

Arriving in PEI in the first pandemic year slowed new connections. In the first few months of establishing Panda Sugar, the first bubble tea shop in Summerside, Joyce would drive back and forth between Summerside and Charlottetown to find the right location. This was in addition to learning English. She had not owned a business before this time. Back in China, she worked in a bank. “I did not know how to run a business. But I loved bubble tea so I thought I would open a bubble tea shop so that I could make one for myself every day,” she says.

In her home country, Joyce had little time to stop and smell the roses. One day, she asked herself what kind of life she wanted and began the journey to Prince Edward Island. The landscape furnished with trees the colour of fire greeted her when she arrived in the autumn. Joyce recalls the loveliness of the people upon first meeting, and even now that they are her neighbours.

The Power of Community

She has drawn from her professional experience at the bank and modifies her products to suit local tastes. Listening to her customers and experimenting with her products have been her keys to reaching important milestones in business. The Strawberry Milk Tea and the Brown Sugar Milk Tea are bestsellers. “I learn a lot from my customers. I chat with them, and they give me very useful suggestions,” she says.  

Joyce says that her business settlement officer first introduced her to PEI Connectors. She credits her program officer with providing her with useful advice both in her business and in her personal life, especially when she first arrived. “The help she provides is exactly what I need,” she says.