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Auntie Bian

Milk Tea

An Unfading Sweet Story in Shanghai

If you rank Chinese milk tea brands by the number made, or try some bubble tea that taste a bit like milk pow-
of stores, one top place on the list must belong to Auntie der and sweet thick soup with fruit, a flavor that many
Milk Tea shops that has sprung up across the country with Shanghainese feel familiar. You can also quench your thirst
its trademark red glutinous rice milk tea. However, most of in summer by glugging a cup of icy plum juice, or warm
them are the copycats of the only real “Auntie”: Auntie Bian yourself in winter with the original and most popular red
Milk Tea. glutinous rice milk tea.
Sitting at Huoshan Road of North Bund, Shanghai, the Now in her sixties, the founder Bian Genqin continues
small store first showed up on No.69, then moved to No.88 to boil the liquid that reminds many Shanghainese of their
across the street, and later finally settled down on No. 41. home, and keeps writing a sweet milk tea story in the city
For more than 20 years, Auntie Bian Milk Tea offers a doz- that she started at a young age.
en kinds of sweet soup and snacks. Here, you can have a cup In 1990s, when Shanghai went through industry re-
of mungbean soup that reminds you of the one your mom structure, millions of workers were laid off and even senior

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