Last October, TAP-ATX held their 3rd Annual Boba Labs at SiteATX, the event space for local whiskey distillery Still Austin Whiskey Co., in South Austin. Boba Labs is a popular yearly TAP-ATX event that features a unique menu of curated boba cocktails. TAP-ATX wanted to try something different this year and find a way to get the Austin community to experience boba cocktails along with boba themed art installations. The inspiration for the 3rd Annual Boba Labs came from many of the amazing immersive pop-up experiences like FOMO Factory, The Museum of Ice Cream, Meow Wolf, and Bubble Lab.

The theme for the event was Mad Science, since Boba Labs was closer to Halloween this time around, instead of during the summer. TAP-ATX members worked tirelessly planning logistics, building installations from scratch, and designing the event space starting in early August. Each board member led a different event committee. The main committees that were established for the event included sponsorship, marketing, logistics, artistic design, and day of/volunteer coordination. Weekly meetings and calls were held to make sure all committees were on track and to establish any crucial details before the event.

 

To build buzz about the event and to boost ticket sales, TAP-ATX contacted local social media influencers and invited them to secret sneak peek events to share two of the drinks and boba labs installations with their followers. These influencer events were a great way to see how positive social media could help influence the Austin community to come out and support Boba Labs!

 

Boba Labs was also featured in Eater Austin! Check out the article here: https://austin.eater.com/2018/10/22/18008694/boba-labs-atx-boozy-boba-cocktails

A total of five installations were built for the event, these included life-size hanging boba, a black light science lab/photo booth, a boba ball pit, a life-size boba cup, and a large periodic table of boba elements. Entertainment for the evening included a costume contest, raffles, and dancing.

 

Instead of having TAP-ATX create all of the boba cocktails this time around, they partnered with local sponsors to curate and help craft some unique drinks for Boba Labs attendees. The boba cocktails for the night included:

• TAP-Mi Cocktail: Tito’s Handmade Vodka, color changing butterfly pea flower tea, tonic water, lychee syrup, lemon juice
• Triple Threat Cocktail: Chameleon Cold-Brew, Cafecito Coffee Liqueur by Revolution Spirits, Liber & Co Almond Orgeat Syrup
• Tequila Lab Margarita – Ambhar Tequila, Sharetea mango-passionfruit green tea
• Daydreamer Lemonade – Still Whiskey Daydream Whiskey and homemade lemonade

There was also a DIY boba toppings bar, which included egg pudding, boba, lemon aiyu, mini boba, lychee jelly, and grass jelly all provided by Sharetea. Other sponsors for the event included Sway Water, SnoMo, Pour Choices, Dripping Springs Vodka, Coco’s Cafe, Melody Dancefit, 101 by TeaHaus, Waterloo Sparkling Water.

TAP-ATX also had merchandise for sale which included Boba Labs shirts, an exclusive Boba Labs milk tea scented candle created by Classy Smashed Co., and TAP-ATX pins, stickers, and magnets.

Overall Boba Labs 2018 had over 200 attendees and TAP-ATX was very happy to be able to share this unique boba pop-up experience with the Austin community, it could not have been done without an amazing team of dedicated volunteers and board members! We can’t wait to see what they come up with for Boba Labs 2019!