Opening a bubble tea shop is easier to stock than it looks, because most of the menu runs on the same short list of ingredients. Your first order comes down to six groups: base teas, tapioca pearls, non-dairy creamer, a sweetener, a flavour base, and toppings. At Doking by-the-case wholesale prices the core of that list is black tapioca from $3.75/kg in Ontario ($3.50 in Québec), non-dairy creamer at $7.95, and fructose syrup at $7.75, with a base black tea and green tea from $8.95 a bag. Buy those and you can already pour classic pearl milk tea, taro milk tea, and a fruit tea or two. Quantities scale to your volume, so size the first order to the cups you expect to sell in your first few weeks, not to a round number. Everything here is shelf-stable, which means a light first order and a quick reorder once you see your real mix.
The starter checklist, priced by the case
Here is the first-order list with Doking by-the-case unit prices for Ontario and Québec, and why each item earns its spot. Prices are the wholesale per-unit price by the case; the single-unit column on our product pages is a national retail reference that shows how much the case saves.
| What to buy | Doking SKU | By-case unit (ON / QC) | Why it is on the first order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base black tea | Assam Black Tea (450 g bag) | $8.95 / $8.50 | The foundation of every milk tea. Strong, clean, holds up under milk. |
| Base green tea | Jasmine Green Tea (450 g bag) | $8.95 / $8.50 | Carries fruit teas and green milk teas, the other half of the menu. |
| Tapioca pearls | Black Tapioca Pearl (1 kg) | $3.75 / $3.50 | The topping the category is named for. Your highest-volume item. |
| Milk base | Non-dairy Creamer (1 kg) | $7.95 / $7.75 | The milk in milk tea. Shelf-stable, consistent, no fridge risk. |
| Sweetener | Fructose Syrup (1.6 L) | $7.75 / $7.50 | Dissolves cold, sets house sweetness, used in almost every drink. |
| Flavour base | Taro Milk Tea Powder (1 kg) | $8.95 / $8.75 | A no-brew bestseller. One popular flavoured milk tea from day one. |
| Toppings | Coconut Jelly, Crystal Ball, Mango Popping Boba | from $3.95 / $6.75 | Variety and upsell. Small quantities, big menu effect. |
Base teas: the foundation you brew everything on
Two tea bags carry most of a bubble tea menu. A black tea (Assam is the classic milk tea base) and a green tea (jasmine green covers fruit teas and lighter milk teas). At $8.95 a bag in Ontario, tea is one of the cheapest lines on your first order relative to how many cups it pours, because a brewed base stretches a long way. Start with one bag of each, taste your brew standard, and only scale the tea order once your milk tea versus fruit tea split settles. You can see the Assam black tea and jasmine green tea pack details on their product pages.
Pearls: your highest-volume single item
Black tapioca is the one ingredient you will go through fastest, so it is also where by-the-case pricing matters most. A single 1 kg bag sits at a retail reference of $6.50, but by the case it drops to about $3.50 to $3.75 per kg, close to half. The recipe card uses about 80 g of cooked pearls per 500 ml cup, and because dry pearls expand as they cook, 1 kg of dry pearls pours roughly 30 to 50 drinks depending on your scoop (our tapioca cost guide walks through the dry-weight math). Either way it is the item you go through fastest, so a busy shop turns it over quickly. Order enough that you never run out mid-service, but remember cooked pearls are best used within a few hours, so the goal is steady turnover, not a giant standing pile.
Creamer and sweetener: the two lines in nearly every cup
Non-dairy creamer is the milk in milk tea. It is shelf-stable, which removes the fridge-space and spoilage headache of dairy, and it pours a consistent cup every time. Fructose syrup is your house sweetness. It dissolves cold, so it blends cleanly into an iced drink where table sugar would not. Both show up in almost every milk tea and many fruit teas, so they are safe to order with confidence on the first round. At Doking’s card ratio of about 30 ml of fructose per cup, a 1.6 L bottle covers roughly 50 cups.
A flavour base: one easy win on day one
You do not need a wall of flavours to open. One powder base like taro milk tea powder gives you a second signature drink with no extra brewing, just mix. It is a reliable seller and a simple way to widen the menu before you know which house specials will stick. Add more flavour bases and syrups later, once real orders tell you what your customers reach for.
Toppings: small quantities, big menu effect
Toppings are where a short list starts to look like a full menu. You do not need much of each, which keeps the first order light:
- Coconut jelly at $3.95/kg in Ontario for a soft, mild texture option
- Original crystal ball at $4/kg for a lighter, translucent pearl alternative
- Mango popping boba at $6.75 per 1.25 kg unit for a fruit-forward burst that upsells fruit teas
Buy these in small amounts to start. A few well-chosen toppings let you offer “add pearls,” “add jelly,” or “add popping boba” upsells that barely move your cost per cup but let you charge more.
How much to order for your volume
There is no single right number, because it scales to how many cups you expect to sell. The honest way to size a first order:
- Estimate the cups you will pour in your first two to three weeks.
- Split them by drink type (milk tea versus fruit tea) using a rough guess, you will correct it fast.
- Work back to quantities using real pours: about 30 ml of fructose per cup, your own dry-pearl scoop (our tapioca guide covers dry-weight yield), plus your brewed-tea and creamer usage.
- Order a little light on the first round. Everything here is shelf-stable, and a quick reorder is far cheaper than dead stock.
The point of a starter order is to open cleanly and learn your real mix, not to stock a year in one go.
What this order actually makes
Tie it back to the drink customers judge you on. Doking’s official recipe card for a 500 ml classic pearl milk tea is 30 ml fructose, 70 ml milk base, 150 ml brewed Assam tea, and about 80 g of cooked pearls, and the ingredients come to roughly $0.70 a cup. At a $5 to $6 menu price that is about an 88% gross margin on ingredients, before cups, labour and rent. The starter list above is built so that this drink, the one your reputation rides on, is fully covered from your very first order, with a taro milk tea and fruit tea within reach of the same short list.
Order the starter list by the case
Everything here is sold by the case and stocked locally, so you skip the multi-week wait and minimums of overseas import. Doking supplies the full opening list by the case in Toronto (3802 Victoria Park Ave) for the GTA and Ontario, and in Montréal (7320 Rue Cordner) for Montréal, Laval, the South Shore and Québec, with local delivery. There is no online checkout: send a purchase order or request a quote, and ask for free samples so you can dial in your recipes before you commit. Tell us your city and your rough opening volume, and we will put together current by-the-case pricing for your province.
