Bubblelement is an adorable new spot in the heart of the Galle Dutch Fort. People in Colombo have been craving bubble tea ever since the untimely demise of Bubble Queen (RIP). If you're keen enough to drive down to Galle for your fix, Bubblelement has got you covered.
Service & Ambience
Both were actually impeccable. There was just one friendly chap at the counter handling everything, but he was very friendly, knew a lot about the tiny menu, and was quick. Our teas came out in like 5 minutes, and he was more than happy to answer all my nosy questions.
The ambience is definitely the big draw of the spot, with a charming "village flower shop" sort of vibe to it. White-washed walls, white locally made furniture and swivelly chairs, lovely ruched lamps, and plenty of adorable nic nacs and bric a brac strewn about to add to the charming pseudo-country vibe. It opens out right onto the Fort's lovely cobblestoned streets, so your view is as quaint as your ambience. It was raining incessantly when we went, so the cosy atmosphere was accentuated.
Drinks & Snacks
They get almost all of their ingredients and nibbles from Bahrain, so it's pretty high-quality stuff. They're very specialized with just 9 bubble drink flavours on offer, and gummy worms/sour tape, Oreos and Barbican as edibles. They have 5 tea flavours (strawberry, mint, blueberry, peach, lime & lemon), 3 milk flavours (chocolate milk, rose milk, milk tea), and coconut water. Each drink is Rs. 350.
They also had the choice between usual, chewy, tapioca bubbles and some cool new "fruit pearls" filled with juice. Obviously, we went for the fruit pearls, and didn't regret it at all.
We tried the Peach and the Coconut Water, both with the fruit pearls. Aesthetically, they were absolutely twee. We dawdled over our drinks with a game of noughts and crosses and slurped away happily at our over-sized straws. The fruit pearls were a cool twist to your usual bubble tea, filled with stawberry juice. They gently pop in your mouth, and the sweet strawberry juice adds to the flavour. The Peach Ice Tea used was nice, icy, and not too sweet at all. It also avoided that gross synthetic taste that ice tea sometimes has. The Coconut Water used actual bottled thambili (those orange bottles you see at shops and the supermarket), which was great but perhaps not as cost-efficient or sustainable as using actual thambili.
Overall
Essentially, this is a great spot. The ambience is absolutely lovely, and I'd personally love to bring a book and a bottle of wine in (no, they won't let you do the latter) and lurk for an hour or so. We'd strongly recommend it for all the Bubble Tea fans out there.
FYI: I've been mistakenly calling Bubblelement (bubble·element) "bubblement" thinking it was misguided French for bubbly, but it's not. We still don't know how to pronounce it, but inquiring after "that new bubble tea place" got us results.
