Hidden away in the bunker-like Muma College of Business is the Tampa campus’ newest hot spot, USF alumni-owned Naga Tea.

Bustling with students meeting up with friends or getting some work done between classes every day, the Tampa-based tea shop has become a student favorite less than a month after its opening on Aug. 26.

Grace Dumas, senior integrated public relations and advertising (IPRA) major, said she visited the shop frequently at its North 56th Street location before it opened on campus.

“I was walking around after the first day of class and I saw the signs sticking up,” she said. “I was like, ‘No way, Naga Tea on campus.’”

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To Carl Yen and Min Zheng, the alumni who co-own Naga Tea, coming back to USF feels like coming home. 

“USF is pretty much my home on the East Coast,” Yen said. “…It’s all here. It’s all Tampa.”

Yen, who can be found making students their drinks from behind the counter, moved to Tampa from California to study for a masters degree in medical science at USF. 

As he was about to graduate in 2013, he and a group of friends had the idea for Naga Tea. However, none of the members of the friend group believed it would actually turn out to be a business in the future, according to Yen.

“We’ve got to give [students] something to relate to, so they remember what Taiwan is,” he said. “So we tell them about boba tea. That’s why we wanted to bring that here, that’s what started it all.”

The drinks, which include classics like oolong and earl gray as well as trendier options such as cookies and cream and brown sugar, are powder free, which is what makes them taste better than boba from other places, according to Zheng.

In February, Naga Tea was one of the 15 local restaurants selected to receive Aramark’s National Local Restaurant Row award.

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Sophomore health science major Kimora Morris said she was happy when Naga Tea replaced Java City, because she was sad when it left the Marshall Student Center (MSC).

“I think it’s good because a lot of people want boba and it’s just a fun place to meet with friends as well,” Morris said.

Naga Tea first came to the Tampa campus in Sept. 2023 at the Local Restaurant Row in the MSC.

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The choice to replace Java City with Naga Tea came from a demand from the USF community for a boba place. 

Students communicated this wish through consumer surveys, emails and social media comments asking for a permanent boba spot on campus, according to USF dining spokesperson Jessica Cicalese.

“We always listen to students and their feedback,” she said. “We felt that there was a need for boba tea on campus and with great partners, such as Naga Tea, and we wanted to make it possible this fall.”

Dumas said she comes back to Naga Tea because it’s both affordable and tastes better than other boba tea options.

“The tea tastes really good, because if you go to other tea places, either it’s too sweet or the boba is really mushy, but this is the best I’ve had, ever,” she said. “It’s the best of the best.”

Yen and Zheng maintained their relationship with USF even when they were not an official restaurant on-campus by participating in events and working with organizations.

Zheng, who was an international business major, joined the company a few years after it opened.

Originally from China, Zheng moved to Venice, N.Y., as a child, and came to Tampa to USF when she was an undergrad.

She said being on campus so often because of Naga Tea brings back memories from her time as a student, when she would often pass by where the tea shop is now located on campus. 

“It’s like my second home,” Zheng said. “All my friends are from USF, and all the people that I know around me, all from USF, and coming back here, I feel like I’m a student again. I don’t feel like I left 10 years ago.”