SWEET SAVINGS. Pearly Tea Bar specialty drinks (pictured above) feature a rich green matcha tea powder, sourced directly from Japan. Its owners Pakou Thao and her daughter, Pearl, currently operate the venture at the Menomonie Farmers Market on Saturdays and the Chippewa Valley Farmers Market on Wednesdays. (Photo via Facebook)

For most parents, saving for college means extra budgeting. For Eau Claire's Pakou Thao and her daughter, Pearl, it meant starting a pop-up tea business.

Pearly Tea Bar specializes in matcha-based drinks, creative Thai tea offerings and refreshing fruit beverages. The mother-daughter team behind Pearly Tea Bar launched the venture this year with a simple goal: help fund Pearl's college education while introducing more Chippewa Valley residents to high-quality matcha.

The idea emerged after Thao spent time exploring the world of matcha during a winter break. Drawn to both the ritual of making matcha and its smooth, no-crash caffeine boost, she began researching suppliers, testing products and experimenting with recipes.

"It was relaxing," Thao said of the matcha-making process. "I thought, why can't I do with tea what coffee shops do with coffee?"

The result is a menu that goes beyond traditional offerings. Alongside classic matcha drinks, Pearly Tea Bar serves Thai tea topped with banana or ube cold foam and a honey passion fruit refresher made with passion fruit puree, lemon, and sparkling water.

A recent Pearly Tea Bar menu, pictured above. Be sure to follow its Facebook page for new additions to the drink rotation.

Quality is central to the concept. Thao sources first-harvest matcha directly from Japan and spent months comparing varieties, often recruiting coworkers as unofficial taste testers.

Rather than operating from a traditional storefront, the family-run business appears at local farmers markets, including the Menomonie Farmers Market on Saturdays and the Chippewa Valley Farmers Market on Wednesdays.

Managing Pearly Tea Bar's Wednesday pop-up is second nature for Pearl, who has been entrepreneurial since childhood; she was selling slime as young as 7 and quickly began participating in youth business competitions.

This new venture will help fund 18-year-old Pearl's college education at Hamline University, where she plans to study education (and, one day, become a teacher).

Running the pop-up business alongside a full-time job hasn't been easy, Thao admits, but customer reactions make the effort worthwhile. 

"When people come back for a second drink and tell me they loved it," she said, "that's what makes me happy."