Set off of Highway 50 is Salida’s newest and first mobile drink trailer: Boba Dream. The food truck has been operating for about a month and has been working to expand the items on the menu and get a solid start to the business.
The owner of Boba Dream, Watunyuta Seaman, had worked in restaurants for about a year and a half, as well as having previous experience in hospitality, tourism, schooling, HR and marketing. Seaman explained that she wants to be self-employed because restaurants often don’t provide as many opportunities for taking off on holidays. Seaman also wanted to bring true boba to the community. “I love boba, so I know how it should be, how it should taste,” she said. She doesn’t sell popping boba because she wants to bring something new and refreshing to a community that already has opportunities to get popping boba. With the support of her husband, Frank Seaman, she began working to open the business.
Seaman said that the most difficult part of opening Boba Dream so far has been finding a way to price her drinks while also staying afloat as a business. She wants to keep her prices affordable because she believes that everybody should be able to afford quality drinks, but she is also learning how to manage a business. “I’m still learning. Adjusting. Experiencing. Collecting data,” Seaman said.
After about a month of being open, Seaman has been incorporating new drinks into the menu. “I’m still experimenting. Some recipes, some drinks that maybe one day I can add to the menu.”
She also aims to keep her drinks less sweet, because she wants her customers to taste the tea, not just sugar. “I have sweet tea, but not all my drinks are super sweet. But if you want extra sweet, I can make it extra sweet for you or make it less sweet.” In general, Seaman wants to make sure her drinks have a good balance of sweet and not-sweet.
Currently, her most popular menu item is matcha with strawberry chunks, closely followed by mango fruit tea with boba and Italian soda. Seaman’s favorite item on the menu is the Taiwanese black tea with boba. She has a variety of jelly cubes, tapioca boba and drink flavors for customers to choose from, and she is working to expand the list. Boba Dream is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10AM to 6PM, and has a dedicated Facebook page. If you happen to be close by, consider stopping by Boba Dream to grab a drink!
