Since 2012
Fourteen years in the cup
American Boba is not a trading company that discovered boba last season. It is the sourcing desk of a working American tea shop — and the ministry that shop was built to serve.
Cafe Barnabas
Cultivate a life, one tea at a time
In 2012, a series of teen suicides in Topeka moved Kevin Christiansen to open Cafe Barnabas — a place young people could belong, learn a trade, and be known by caring adults. The cafe is a 501(c)(3) youth platform. Quality tea is the relational tool.
Like many tea shops, supply-chain shocks threatened the boba program the cafe had launched specifically to reach students. American Boba began as that fix.
Leadership
Lt. Kevin Christiansen, USAF
Chaplain candidate · Founder · Executive director
Kevin is a social entrepreneur and tea operator. His shop was built as a workshop for student volunteers. He was named among Topeka’s Top 20 Under 40. He is also a United States Air Force lieutenant and chaplain candidate. Wholesale partners deal with him directly.
Barnabas Student Ministries
Business as mission
American Boba is directly connected to Barnabas Student Ministries. Buying American Boba does not require sharing that faith. It does mean your supply dollars run through a company built to keep a student-facing tea bar honest, stocked, and excellent.
