Suzanne Morris and her husband, Julian Morris, visit the spot weekly, an outcome of frequenting an earlier endeavor of Khouvongsavanh and Huynh:\u00a0The Tea Social, a mobile boba tea shop. Since befriending Khouvongsavanh, Suzanne Morris says she and her husband have been committed to any and all of his\u00a0undertakings. As I chatted with the couple at a small table by the eye-catching leafy indoor mural, Suzanne Morris was eager to jump right into just what made this place so special for them both: Khouvongsavanh.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Tell me a little bit about yourself.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Suzanne Morris: We\u2019ve been married, what, going on 14 years this year?\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Julian Morris: Yeah, 14 years.\n<\/p>\n
Suzanne: Got a daughter, she\u2019s 13, and we live over on the east side, over by UCF in the Waterford Lakes area. And we first were introduced to Saeng \u2014 what year was it? It was five years ago? \u2026 Yeah, it was, I think it was around March or April. So, it\u2019s been literally almost exactly five years. He had his Tea Social truck, and it would sit up at Waterford Lakes. We would go, and I\u2019d be like, \u201cWhat is this Tea Social thing?\u201d Because he would just leave it there, even when he wasn\u2019t open. He would be there a couple times, and we would just kind of walk by, and I would look at the little menu or whatever. And then \u2014 I don\u2019t even remember what made us stop, but my daughter was playing basketball at the time. So every day after her basketball games \u2026 we would go get a slice of pizza, and [The Tea Social] was right across from the pizza place.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
We had never had boba before. \u2026 So we\u2019re like, \u201cLet\u2019s try this boba stuff.\u201d And [Saeng] had this one called the \u201cSeoul Strawberry\u201d \u2014 my daughter loved it. It\u2019s pretty much like strawberry milk, and she would get boba in it. \u2026 She would ask for that, like, every day. Of course, he wasn\u2019t out there every day, but it became like a thing where, after her basketball games, we would go get her boba if he was out.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
[The drinks] were very fresh tasting \u2014 always had fresh fruit in it, a perfect balance, never too sweet\u00a0\u2014 all the drinks were just so good. And we literally drank all of them, because we went so much. \u2026 But that\u2019s where the beginning of our obsession came in. It grew into more than just wanting the boba. We just really loved [Saeng]. Like, he\u2019s so sweet and so genuine, and just down-to-earth.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Julian: Yeah, you could tell that he cares about his customers, and he cares about just bringing you in.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Suzanne: It was a food truck. But the way he treated us, we felt like we were guests at his house.\n<\/p>\n
Julian: Yeah.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Suzanne: You know how someone hosts people at their house, and are hospitable and all? \u2026 The relationship kind of grew from that, and it just became like, \u201cWhatever Saeng does, I\u2019m gonna always support him.\u201d \u2026 I know as a small business owner, it\u2019s not easy. But we just know he has so much passion behind, not just his product and what he does, but serving people as well. It comes out in what he does. So when he started telling us about the coffee shop, he was still doing the truck, and I was like, \u201cWell, just let us know of course.\u201d \u2026 This was always his heart and his passion. He told us this was what he really wanted to do, was really bring that Vietnamese coffee. And so we were here, of course, regularly.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/TCP_BlackRooster-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Suzanne and Julian Morris. (NICK GEORGOUDIOU)<\/p>\n
\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
In your mind, what makes Black Phin stand out?\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Julian: What makes it stand out to me is, as she stated before, [Saeng\u2019s] compassion to not only his customers, but to his product. He just makes you feel welcome. You walk on in, and it\u2019s almost like family.\n<\/p>\n
Suzanne: I mean, the space, of course \u2026 this atmosphere, I think, definitely plays into the aesthetic. [It\u2019s] an awesome thing, that they\u2019re able to share space with [other] businesses, with the All Inclusive CrossFit \u2026 but it\u2019s actually just such a beautiful space. Like, you feel it, when you\u2019re here. And then, his staff \u2014 I love all his staff. They\u2019re super helpful.\n<\/p>\n
Like I said, whatever [Saeng] comes up with, we\u2019re gonna be like, \u201cYes, we\u2019ll try it. What do you want to do?\u201d [Laughing.] I mean, we used to \u2014 we would drive all the way from UCF to Longwood if his truck was gonna be out there.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a lot of dedication. I\u2019m sure that means a lot to him.\n<\/p>\n
Suzanne: Yeah \u2026 he would be like, \u201cWhat are you guys doing out here?\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve come to see you, Saeng!\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
What\u2019s your go-to? Do you ever mix it up?\n<\/p>\n
Suzanne: So, I do have this thing where I have to try everything.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
I got that sense when you mentioned you tried all of The Tea Social\u2019s menu [laughing].\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Suzanne: I have to, I have to! We can\u2019t get the same thing, because I wanted to try different things. But I will say [laughing], he warned us when we started drinking, because we are not regular coffee drinkers. So when we started trying out the coffee, he was like, \u201cListen. Vietnamese coffee\u2019s pretty strong.\u201d But, he was like, \u201cThe b\u1ea1c x\u1ec9u is kind of like a latte,\u201d which is more my flow. I want my milky, creamy flavoring. So we both started drinking the b\u1ea1c x\u1ec9u and we loved it.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
The Morrises told me about all the different drinks the two of them have tried, everything from matcha with rose-infused milk to coffee with orange juice. After discovering the coffee makes him jittery, Julian has gravitated toward the new monthly teas on the menu. Suzanne loves drinking a matcha latte with ube foam \u2014 affectionately calling it the \u201cHulkster,\u201d in reference to the starkly contrasting purple of the foam against the green matcha \u2014 and drinks matcha almost daily, even making her own concoctions at home. On the pastry and sandwich side of the menu, the couple has tasted everything there, too. Suzanne said Saeng has even shared some recipes with her.\n<\/p>\n
Suzanne: I love that I\u2019m learning so much about a culture that I\u2019ve never been exposed to, just from the food offerings that he has. Because he\u2019ll sit down and he\u2019ll tell us, \u201cI got this fridge for this, for this. This is a traditional Vietnamese thing, but we\u2019re doing this with it.\u201d Or, \u201cThere\u2019s this coffee shop in Chicago that does it, but we\u2019re gonna do it this way.\u201d And, it\u2019s just interesting. \u2026 To me, it shows his intentionality. He\u2019s really trying to introduce a culture to us through the offerings that he brings, and he does the research. \u2026 Aside from just being so friendly and so welcoming, it\u2019s also the heart that he has in what he\u2019s doing. To me, it makes a difference.\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe are ride or die. No matter where Saeng goes, we are ride or die until the wheels…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-217983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}