Brookfield is now home to its own one-stop shop for bubble tea.
Fans of the drink can get their fix at Milk & Manna Boba and Cafe, which opened at 3738 Grand Blvd. on Jan. 5.
Owner Joan Ferencz said she opened Milk & Manna, which also sells baked goods, savory snacks and other drinks like coffee, to capitalize on the popularity of bubble tea.
Also known as boba, the Taiwanese, tea-based drink is known for featuring sweet and chewy tapioca pearls at the bottom. Milk is often used to sweeten the drink, which can have many flavors, like mango, coconut, coffee and black or green tea.
“It’s just so popular. Everybody likes boba, and I’m from China,” Ferencz told the Landmark. “When I first opened my boba shop, there [weren’t many], only Kung Fu Tea, maybe … Boba with dessert, they are a very good combination together.”
Ferencz said Milk & Manna is her third bubble tea shop. She previously opened Le C’s Patisserie & Tea House in Madison, Wisconsin, and Autea Sweets & Eats in Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood.
She said she sold her other restaurants in order to open Milk & Manna near her home in LaGrange Park, where her family has lived since 2023.
“I feel God sent me here. I didn’t try hard to find a location. I wanted to open one, but I was looking around, and someone introduced me to my landlord. Everything just went well,” she said. “The right thing comes at the right time.”
She said the area felt like a great fit for her two children, who attend S. E. Gross Middle School and Brook Park Elementary School. One of her children, who has a learning disability and is autistic, didn’t like school until the family moved to the area, she said.
“She didn’t want to go to school until we moved here,” she said. “She really enjoys school here, and I feel OK now. I don’t need to move anymore. I found the right location.”
While the store has had some irregular hours to start, Ferencz said she hopes to keep a consistent schedule going forward, opening from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays. She said she’s still working to finalize the store’s menu offerings, too, to ensure everything tastes as good as possible.
The initial draw to this line of business, Ferencz said, was her propensity for baking.
“I always wanted to open a bakery. I’m a baker. I can make pastries, bread, and I make birthday cakes, too,” she said. “It’s all made here from scratch.”
While Milk & Manna sources its coffee locally, Ferencz said the ingredients for its milk tea make a longer journey.
“All my tea is fresh brewed. They are not tea powders,” she said. “[They are] authentic from Taiwan. We have a Taiwanese supplier.”
So far, she said the Brookfield community has been supportive of the shop.
“I got a lot of people from church that will come. The schools are also very supportive, like S. E. Gross and RB,” she said. “Our door was broken, so I had people come in, and one tried to fix it for us for free. [Business] owners from across the street, they will come over to give us information and talk to you.”
For the future, Ferencz said her goal isn’t to expand operations but to foster a community in Brookfield. To that end, Milk & Manna features a free play space for young children and Wi-Fi so customers can work from the store if they want.
“Money is not my goal. I feel it’s my ministry: I just want to serve the community, maybe help more families with us that have kids with disabilities,” she said. “This is the only shop I want to have, just one, and work until I retire.”
