This is a 14ft boba truck we built for Bubble Pop Market in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the cutest thing we have shipped, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Boba, matcha, Vietnamese coffee and taiyaki, out of a diesel step van that we stripped back to the shell and rebuilt as a drinks kitchen.
A drinks truck is a different build from a cooking truck. There is no fryer, no grease hood and no fire suppression system, so none of the money goes where it goes on a burger truck. It goes into water, ice, power and speed at the window instead, and those four things decide whether a boba line moves or stalls.
Walkthrough video
A drinks truck is built around water, not fire
Every drink on a boba menu is mostly water in one form or another. Brewed tea, ice, the syrup that sweetens the pearls, the hot water for matcha. So the first thing this truck has that most trucks do not is a second water fill.
There are two fill ports on the outside of the truck. One takes ordinary potable water for the sinks. The other takes purified water for the drinks. The two never mix, which means the tea tastes the same in Fort Collins as it does at the commissary, and a hard water day at an event pitch does not show up in the cup.
Ice comes from an Atosa YR140-AP-161 undercounter ice machine. It is air cooled, makes 142 pounds of ice in 24 hours and holds 88 pounds in its own bin, with a water filter cartridge on the supply mounted where it can be changed without pulling the machine out. It makes half dice cubes, which is the right shape for a shaken drink because they chill fast and do not jam a wide boba straw.
Hot water is an Avantco WB29L boiler, 7.6 gallons, adjustable from 80F to 212F. It is worth knowing that a boiler that size takes about an hour and a half to come up from cold. On a truck that means you fill it and switch it on before you leave the commissary, not when you arrive at the pitch.
Behind all of that is the ordinary plumbing every truck needs: a 30 gallon fresh tank, a 40 gallon waste tank, an 8 gallon water heater and a pump, feeding a three compartment sink and a hand sink with splash guards, soap and towel dispensers. Larimer County requires the waste tank to be at least 15 percent larger than the fresh. Forty against thirty is a third larger, so there is margin.
The bar
The centre of the kitchen is a 71 inch bubble tea workstation. It is a single stainless unit with two sinks and hot and cold water on tap, laid out the way a boba shop counter is laid out. Buying it as one piece rather than building the bar up from separate tables means the drink station is the same height and the same reach from end to end, which matters when one person is making every drink for four hours.
On the bar:
- A Vitamix 36019 The Quiet One, a 3 horsepower blender inside a removable sound enclosure. It is built for bar service where customers are standing a few feet away, and on a truck the customer is standing at the window. A normal commercial blender at full speed stops conversation at the counter. This one does not.
- A Galaxy automatic cup sealer for 88 to 95 millimetre PP and PET cups. It is the first sealer we have fitted in a build. A sealed cup travels, and a drink that travels is a drink that sells to the person who is walking back to their car.
- An Avantco IC18DB double induction hob, the only cooking surface on the truck. The two burners share 1,800 watts between them, a 1,000 watt side and an 800 watt side, and induction puts almost no heat into the truck compared with a gas burner, which on a summer afternoon in a 14ft box is the whole point.
- An Atosa MBF8519GR reach in refrigerator, 8.3 cubic feet. It is the low height model, which is the version made for trucks, because it clears the shelving above it.
One food safety point worth building the day around. Cooked tapioca pearls are treated as a time and temperature controlled food. Food safety trainers commonly teach that pearls held between 41F and 135F should be thrown away after four hours. Larimer County has not published boba specific guidance that we could find, so treat that as good practice rather than a quoted rule, and ask your inspector at plan review. What it means for the build is that the hob earns its place. On a busy day you will be cooking pearls more than once a shift, not once in the morning.
Three power sources and a transfer box
Most trucks have one way to get power and a cable for a second. This one has three.
- Shore power, for the commissary and for any pitch that has a hookup.
- A Westinghouse dual fuel generator in a lockable generator box. It is the model sold as a 12,500 watt unit. That is the starting figure on petrol. Running output is 9,500 watts on petrol and 8,500 on propane, and it is the running number you plan a truck around.
- A battery bank. On the truck it is an EcoFlow PRO power station with a second battery stacked on top, strapped to the floor under the counter, about 8 kilowatt hours between them.
A transfer box on the wall switches the truck between them. The battery is the reason this truck can trade at the places that do not want to hear a generator: a farmers market, a wedding, a pitch outside someone’s shop. On a drinks truck the arithmetic works. The two heaviest loads are the water boiler at 1,500 watts and the induction hob at 1,800, which together come to 3,300 watts. That is inside what a PRO series battery like this delivers continuously. The ice machine draws about 3 amps and the fridge about 2. The blender is the load to watch: it is a 15 amp machine, so on battery alone you run it between the boiler and the hob rather than on top of both.
Everything runs through a 125 amp panel with 12 outlets. Every piece of equipment has its own labelled breaker and all of the wiring is in conduit. The labels tell you what kind of truck this is: two outlet circuits a side, the fridge, the water system, the ice machine, the lights, the batteries and the water heater. The water heater is on a breaker because it is electric. There is no gas appliance anywhere in this kitchen. LED lighting inside and out keeps the window lit after dark without adding meaningful load to the battery.
Two windows, and why the second one pays
There are two openings in the side of the truck. One is a 5ft by 3ft service window for drinks. The other is a separate display window. Inside, behind it, there is a display case for plushies and prepackaged goods.
That second window is not decoration. On a boba concept the merchandise is a real part of the margin, and it sells best when it is visible from the queue. With two windows one person can pour drinks while the other sells, and the drinks line is never held up by somebody choosing between two soft toys.
Built for a Fort Collins winter
The shell is insulated with half inch plywood and an inch of insulation behind FRP on the walls and ceiling, with an aluminium diamond plate floor. FRP rather than stainless on the walls is a deliberate choice on a drinks truck. There is no cooking wall to protect, so the stainless budget goes into the bar and the sinks instead.
Every water circuit in the truck can be drained for a hard freeze. That is the single most important thing on a Colorado drinks truck in October, because a drinks truck has more water in more places than a cooking truck does: two fill lines, a boiler, an ice machine supply, a workstation, a heater and two sinks. Miss one of them on a cold night and you are replacing a pump or a line before the next service. There is an air conditioner for the summer and an RV door with a screen at the back.
Getting a boba truck licensed in Fort Collins
Fort Collins has three separate layers, and the order you do them in matters, because the city licence needs the other two first.
The health licence comes from Larimer County
Larimer County Health Department licenses mobile food units, not the city. The 2026 fee for a full food service mobile unit is $481 a year, or $338 for a unit that only sells prepackaged food. A boba truck is full service. Before the licence there is a plan review, at $155 for the application and $288 for the on site plan review and pre opening inspection.
Larimer expects a mobile unit to operate from a commissary or base kitchen and return to it each day it operates. For multi day events the commissary has to be within 60 minutes or 60 miles. Get the commissary agreement in writing before you submit your plan review, because the county will ask for it.
The city wants two licences
Fort Collins is a home rule city that collects its own sales tax, so you need a City of Fort Collins sales and use tax licence as well as your state one. The combined rate in the city is 8.30 percent.
On top of that, a food truck needs an Outdoor Vendor License, at $60 for six months or $120 for twelve. The city will not issue it until you have the sales tax licence, the Larimer County health licence and a Poudre Fire Authority inspection tag, and it asks for $500,000 of general liability and $500,000 of products liability insurance.
The vendor rules are where Fort Collins differs from most Colorado cities, and they shape where a truck can actually trade:
- No vending between 3am and 7am.
- Generally no more than three days a week at the same location.
- Not within 200 feet of K through 12 school property.
- Downtown vending only at the six approved concessionaire locations.
- Not in parks or on trails, not in residential neighbourhood zones, and not on Colorado State University or school district property.
- On the street, only where parallel parking is allowed, within 12 inches of the curb and at least 10 feet from a building entrance.
Poudre Fire Authority
Fire is Poudre Fire Authority rather than a city department. PFA requires an annual permit and inspection for every mobile food vehicle, at $75. It requires an ABC extinguisher on every truck, and a Class K only where cooking produces grease laden vapour. A boba truck has no fryer and no hood, so the fire inspection is one of the simpler parts of this build. Fort Collins adopted the 2024 International Fire Code in May 2025.
Working outside Fort Collins
Colorado’s HB 25-1295 took effect on 1 January 2026. A fire safety permit issued by one Colorado local government is now honoured in the others if it was issued by a certified inspector under current codes, and you give 14 days notice before trading in another jurisdiction. For a truck based in Fort Collins that makes Loveland, Greeley and the Front Range events far less paperwork than they used to be.
Where a boba truck earns in Fort Collins
Fort Collins has about 171,500 people, and Colorado State University enrolled a record 34,412 students in autumn 2025. That student number is the one that makes boba work here. But note the rule above: you cannot vend on CSU property. The student market is reached from private lots near campus, events and the places students already go, not from the campus itself.
The regular dates that matter:
- The FoCo Food Truck Rally, Tuesday evenings at City Park, which ran from 12 May to 15 September in 2026.
- The Larimer County Farmers’ Market, Saturday mornings at 200 West Oak Street from mid May to the end of October. 2026 was its 50th season. This is the pitch where a battery pays for itself, because nobody wants a generator running beside a produce stall.
- The Fort Collins Farmers Market on East Harmony Road, on Sundays and midweek in summer.
Boba is not an empty category here. There are somewhere between six and eight shops in the city that sell it. That is fine. A truck does not compete with a shop on the shop’s own street. It competes by being at the rally, the market and the event that the shop is not at, and on a concept like this one, by selling the merchandise that the queue can see through the second window.
What a build like this costs
Custom food trucks start at $55,000 and custom food trailers start at $40,000. A typical 16ft truck comes in around $72,000 and a 22ft around $110,000. A 14ft drinks truck with no hood, no fryer and no fire suppression saves real money against a cooking truck of the same size. The three power sources, the second window and the display case are where that saving goes on a truck like this one.
Build time is about six weeks from order.
Frequently asked questions
Does a boba truck need a hood and fire suppression?
Not usually. A hood and fire suppression are required over cooking equipment that produces grease laden vapour, like a fryer or a griddle. A boba truck that cooks pearls on an induction hob and serves drinks does not produce that. Poudre Fire Authority in Fort Collins still requires an ABC fire extinguisher and an annual $75 mobile food vehicle permit and inspection.
Who licenses a food truck in Fort Collins, Colorado?
Three bodies. Larimer County Health Department issues the retail food licence, at $481 a year for a full service mobile unit in 2026, after a plan review. The City of Fort Collins issues a sales and use tax licence and an Outdoor Vendor License at $60 for six months or $120 for twelve. Poudre Fire Authority issues the annual fire permit and inspection at $75.
Can I park a food truck at Colorado State University?
No. The Fort Collins outdoor vendor rules do not allow vending on Colorado State University or school district property, or within 200 feet of K through 12 school property. Trucks reach the student market from private lots nearby and from events.
Can a food truck run on a battery instead of a generator?
A drinks truck can, for most of a shift. This truck carries an EcoFlow PRO battery bank of about 8 kilowatt hours alongside a generator and shore power, with a transfer box to switch between them. The two biggest loads, a 1,500 watt water boiler and an 1,800 watt induction hob, fit inside what the battery delivers continuously. A cooking truck with a fryer and a griddle usually cannot run on battery alone.
How much water does a boba truck need?
This one carries a 30 gallon fresh tank and a 40 gallon waste tank, plus a separate purified water fill for the drinks and a 7.6 gallon hot water boiler. Larimer County requires the waste tank to be at least 15 percent larger than the fresh water tank.
How long do cooked tapioca pearls last on a food truck?
Cooked pearls are treated as a time and temperature controlled food. Food safety trainers commonly teach that pearls held between 41F and 135F should be discarded after four hours. Check with your county inspector at plan review, because Larimer County has not published boba specific guidance.
More reading
- Food truck inspection requirements in Fort Collins, CO
- How much does a coffee truck cost
- Colorado HB 25-1295 and what the reciprocity law actually does
- An all electric coffee van built for Hastings, Nebraska
Recent Colorado builds
- 14ft roasted corn food truck built for Lakewood, Colorado
- 16ft toast and iced coffee trailer built for Boulder, Colorado
- 16ft catering food truck built for Golden, Colorado
If you are working out whether a drinks concept needs a truck, a trailer or a van, call or text and we will go through the water, the ice and the power before anything gets drawn. We have built around 500 food trucks, trailers, bus conversions and van conversions, and we deliver across Colorado and the surrounding states.
Jacob Varghese
Zion Foodtrucks
719-722-2537