MELTED MAGIC: Local food truck finds success merging cheesy concoctions and boba tea

A local food truck has recently found success with a unique combination — savory meals oozing with cheesy goodness and silky sweet boba tea.

Fittingly named Melted Magic, the food truck features the creations of Pocatello resident Vickie Santiago, who was inspired to leave behind her 9-to-5 and share her love of cooking with the masses of the Gate City area.

“Surprisingly I was in finance before this,” Santiago said. “For 23 years, I worked for a finance company and worked my way up the ladder to reach the vice president position. I enjoyed it, but my passion is cooking. That is what I would do on my days off. I loved cooking big family dinners and cooked every free chance I could.”

So last July, Santiago took the plunge, along with her daughter Amanda who helps to run the truck with her, and left the corporate world behind, trading in a stock portfolio for a spatula.

“We started off at a tent setup and then upgraded to our truck,” Santiago said. “We got the truck in the beginning of October right before we had to shut down for the winter and we are just getting going again this year as the weather warms up.”

Initially, Santiago said she wanted to open a business that offered boba drinks to the community. Also known as bubble tea, boba is a Taiwanese drink made with milk, tea, fruit, water, sugar and tapioca pearls. The drink is shaken vigorously and served in a see-through cup with a fat straw, with the tapioca balls sitting at the bottom. As you sip, the tapioca balls come shooting up and can be chewed.

At Melted Magic, selecting your boba is a four-step process. First, you choose between a 12-, 16- or 24-ounce serving size, then you choose between three drink bases of lemonade, frozen lemonade or unsweetened iced tea. Melted Magic offers five different boba variations — the traditional tapioca pearl as well as passion fruit, mango, peach and strawberry. The last step is to choose a drink flavor, with options that include blue raspberry, blood orange and huckleberry.

Other specialty drinks available at the truck include milk tea, Thai tea with milk and your choice of boba and drink flavor; Tiger Tea, a caramel milk drink with brown sugar tapioca pearl boba; and strawberry cream tea, sweet cream, strawberry puree, iced tea and your choice of boba.

Soon after drumming up the idea to offer boba tea, Santiago quickly realized she could put years of cooking experience to good work.

“People have always liked my food and asked me to make food for them or their events so I thought, ‘Well, let’s start some food stuff, too,’” Santiago said. “When I was looking at different food businesses and what people really wanted, the top options were tacos, barbecue and grilled cheese. We have a lot of taco trucks around and several barbecue trucks but we really didn’t have much for grilled cheese.”

With her research completed and the idea to merge grilled cheese and boba tea fully incubated, Melted Magic was born.

Currently, the business offers three delectable specialty melts and the option to build your own grilled cheese sandwich. The TBA features oven-roasted turkey breast, bacon, avocado, the special melted magic cheese blend as well as mayo or ranch. The Philly is loaded with premium steak, grilled onions and bell pepper, American cheese and the Melted Magic cheese blend. The Chicken, Bacon, Ranch comes with the three staple ingredients as well as the Melted Magic cheese blend. Sandwiches cost about $12 or $13.

But soon after launching the grilled cheese sandwiches, Santiago quickly learned that queso aficionados can never have enough cheese, so she added both mac and cheese and loaded home fries to the menu.

Melted Magic offers three varieties of mac and cheese — the original with nothing but cheesy noodles, a version topped with just bacon and another topped with chicken, bacon and ranch. Santiago even recommends adding a portion of the mac and cheese to the inside of your grilled cheese for an overload of gooey goodness.

You could also add the Melted Magic cheese sauce over homemade french fries and top it with chicken, bacon and or ranch if that’s what your heart desires.

“We added the mac and cheese and loaded home fries and they’ve been widely popular,” Santiago said. “I source all the ingredients myself from either Costco or a restaurant supply store. We also have a local distributor that we’re going to try and get some products from.”

You can find Melted Magic at the Portneuf Valley Farmers Market at Lookout Point in downtown Pocatello from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays, the Chubbuck Farmers Market at the Chubbuck City Hall on Linden Avenue from 4 to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays, Lamb Weston in American Falls from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Fridays and Vision Collision on Yellowstone Avenue in Pocatello from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursdays. Melted Magic also participates in the Metaphysical Market, which is held in conjunction with the First Friday Art Walk in Historic Downtown Pocatello.

“We are also available for catering by request,” Santiago said. “Last year we did a back-to-school night at Tyhee Elementary and they were very supportive. When we do things like that we really like to give back, so last year we gave back 15 percent of our sales to the elementary school.”

To see Melted Magic’s schedule, which varies from week to week or to keep track of its new menu additions, follow them on Facebook by visiting facebook.com/Meltedmagic2023 .