Bubble tea shops became a non-essential business yesterday (April 21), when the Covid-19 Multi-Ministry Taskforce announced that it was tightening restrictions on F&B outlets. Starting from April 21, 11.59pm, standalone bubble tea outlets will be closed in light of the ongoing circuit breaker. They were previously allowed to remain open as essential businesses.

But an update on the government's GoBusiness website clarifies that these tighter measures will be in place minimally for a two-week period from 21 April 2020 until 4 May 2020 (inclusive) . Which means BBT shops may be authorised to reopen on May 5, though this would depend on the circuit breaker's progress.

Naturally, this devastated Singapore’s BBT addicts, who were still able to tapow the beverages or order delivery while the circuit breaker is in place. On the night of April 21, bubble tea chains saw long queues of customers, while orders poured in via delivery apps like GrabFood, Deliveroo and Foodpanda. “People were rushing for one last drink,” Tiger Sugar’s managing director Trevor Fong tells us.

If you can’t bear the thought of going without BBT, take heart. While the restrictions apply to standalone bubble tea outlets, it excludes “stalls in hawker centres, coffeeshops and food courts”. According to guidelines set by the Ministry of Trade & Industry, the stalls are “allowed to continue with their operations”, even if they sell food that has been deemed non-essential. Stalls operating at hawker centres, coffee shops and food courts will remain open in entirety as they provide food for the mass public .

This means that hawker stalls selling bubble tea will still be open, so you don’t have to rush down to guzzle one last cup of pearl milk tea and risk flouting safe distancing rules. BBT brands are also allowed to sell their wares online (through food delivery platforms, for instance) if the drinks are made in a licensed central kitchen or approved manufacturing facility. So some brands, like Liho and Gong Cha, have teamed up with eateries and delivery aggregators to continue offering their bubble tea.

Below is a list of hawker stalls and eateries selling BBT that you can still support during this period — and they offer home delivery, too.

A friendly couple runs this cutesy dessert stall in Toa Payoh, which offers affordable ice cream cups with customisable toppings, mod chendol and soy milk bubble tea like the Pearly Soy Milk ($2) with tapioca pearls and gula melaka (main pic, right). There is free delivery within the Toa Payoh vicinity for orders of $30 and above, and towkay Rick tells us he’s currently in the process of signing up for GrabFood delivery, which “will probably be set up in a week’s time”.

Call or text 8118-4347 to order. #01-26 Toa Payoh Lor 8 Market & Hawker Centre, S310210. Open daily 9am-11pm. www.facebook.com/pg/dessertmonstersg.

Professor Brawn is a two-outlet social enterprise cafe chain run by the Autism Resource Centre (ARC), and employs staff with special needs. One of its partners is Gong Cha, which also serves its drinks at the cafe to provide jobs and training opportunities for the employees. Both outlets (one at Enabling Village in Redhill and one in Ang Mo Kio) are still open during circuit breaker, Now, the bubble tea drinks are only available at the Enabling Village branch for island-wide delivery, and due to popular demand, you have to order at least a day in advance. The selection is decent, though. There are some 17 drinks with customisable toppings available, including Earl Grey Milk Tea with 3J ($4.30), Milk Foam Oolong Tea ($3.10) and QQ Passionfruit Green Tea ($4.20). Delivery charges are at $8 (within 15km of the outlet) and $15 (beyond 15km) for minimum orders of $30 to $50. Free delivery (within 15km) for orders above $50, and $15 (beyond 15km).

Order via WhatsApp at 8321-2204 at least one day in advance (last order at 5pm for next day delivery) or via GrabFood. #01-17 Enabling Village, 20 Lengkok Bahru, S159053. Open daily except Sun. Mon-Fri 11am-9pm, Sat 9am-9pm. www.facebook.com/professorbrawn,

Photo: Professor Brawn

Good news, you can still guzzle on Liho during the circuit breaker period as it has starting offering nine of its drinks like Classic Milk Tea ($3), Earl Grey Milk Tea ($3.60) and Brown Sugar Milk Tea ($3.60) via GrabFood delivery only. But here's the catch — since it can't open its standalone outlets, Liho has partnered the eateries under its parent company Royal T Group to sell the drinks along with an order of the eateries' meals. The restaurants include Woo Ricebox, Paik's Bibim, Tino's Pizza and Gong Yuan Ma La Tang.

Order via GrabFood. www.facebook.com/lihosg.

UPDATE: Liho has also started selling its bubble tea via delivery platform Boss Happy Delivery (no food order required). A minimum order of $30 and delivery fee of $5 applies (free delivery for orders above $45). Place your order here.

Photo: Liho

Tiger Sugar has an outlet within food enclave Pasarbella at Suntec City, whose stalls were allowed to continuing operating. You can still drop by the stall for takeaway orders, or better still, use its GrabFood delivery service (but only within a 3km radius). For customers outside of the Suntec City vicinity, Tiger Sugar has island-wide delivery till May 5 (no minimum order required; delivery fees vary according to your location).

For island-wide delivery, fill in the order form here between 10am and 3.30pm for next day delivery. Tiger Sugar Pasarbella Suntec City is open daily 11.30am-9.30pm.

Popular BBT brand R&B was one of the shops ordered to close, as they operate numerous standalone kiosks across the island. But there’s one outlet, located within a Koufu food court in Thomson Plaza, that could technically still be classified as a food court stall (R&B Tea is owned by the same folks behind Koufu, and we’ve ranked their brown sugar pearl milk third in our ranking of the best BSPM in Singapore).

Available via Foodpanda and takeaway. #01-106 Koufu Thomson Plaza, 301 Upper Thomson Rd, S574408. Open daily 11am-9pm. www.facebook.com/rbteasg.

Chicha Sanchen is known for its robust tea brews, and it is now offering delivery via GrabFood for its island-wide outlets (except for its Fusionopolis branch, which uses Foodpanda).

For more info, go to www.facebook.com/chichasanchen.sg.

Hong Kong cha chaan teng Honolulu Cafe's Westgate outlet is still open during circuit breaker, and they have BBT on the menu too. There are three types available, Brown Sugar Bubble Coffee, Brown Sugar Bubble Milk and Brown Sugar Bubble Milk Tea (all $5.15 each). Other than takeaway, they also have home delivery for postal codes starting with 12, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63 and 64. Delivery fees are at $3 for addresses within 2.5km of Westgate (free with minimum order of $15), and $5 for addresses within 2.5km to 5km of Westgate (free with minimum order of $20).

View menu and order via WhatsApp by clicking here. #02-06 Westgate, 3 Gateway Dr, S608532. Tel: 6250-3858. Open daily 11am-9pm. www.instagram.com/honolulucafesg.

Photo: Honolulu Cafe

It is technically not a bubble tea shop, so Taiwanese snack chain I Love Taimei is resuming its business as per normal. But! It also sells bubble tea alongside finger food like fried chicken, sweet potato fries and fried squid. To avoid crowding at their outlets, the chain is only offering the BBT via delivery through its own website, GrabFood and Foodpanda. Each customer can also order only two combos (two food items and two drinks).

Nine outlets islandwide. www.ilovetaimei.com.

Can't travel to Taiwan now? There's a Taiwanese-style cafe in MacPherson that offers nosh like what you'd get in the popular holiday tourist destination. Think rice boxes like Taiwanese Crispy Salted Chicken Rice Bento ($6.80) washed down with gigantic 700ml cups of bubble tea. There are nine BBT flavours available, like Jasmine Milk Tea with Color Jelly ($5.50) and Grapefruit Green Tea with Aloe Vera ($5). For delivery orders (a minimum order of $25 is required), the drinks are served without ice to prevent your BBT from being diluted during the journey to your gob. The shop is also one of the few places to deliver to Sentosa, Tuas and Jurong Island for $25. Otherwise, it charges $8 to deliver to Serangoon, Tai Seng, Geylang, Ubi and Potong Pasir, and $15 to other areas in Singapore.

Order via WhatsApp at 8828-3463. #01-29 The Commerze Building, 1 Irving Pl, S369546. Open daily except Sun, Mon-Fri 8am-9pm, Sat 11am-10pm. www.facebook.com/hookydd.

Photo: Hook Your Daily Dose

Singapore’s hunkiest bubble tea hawker runs popular BBT stall Beautea at ABC Brickworks Market & Food Centre. While his stall is technically allowed to operate during circuit breaker, it’s currently closed as the market is undergoing a revamp till May 15. Though Zhen Yang tells us that renovations are delayed due to Covid-19, and he reckons it “won’t be done” by the slated date. So you may have to wait a while more to guzzle on his BBT again (8days.sg exclusively learns that the enterprising young towkay is also opening a new Beautea outlet and a chain of soy beverage shops later this year).

#01-43 ABC Brickworks Hawker Centre, 6 Jln Bukit Merah, S150006. Open daily except Sun, 11am-3pm; 5pm-9pm. www.instagram.com/beauteasg.

Dot Sugar, Dessert Monster & Beautea Photos: 8days.sg (Please do not reproduce without permission.)