What is bubble tea?

The beverage bubble tea is a tea beverage which was invented in the country of Taiwan. It also goes by the names pearl milk tea, boba tea and yung-marc. The city of Taichung was the place of its’ invention in the 80’s. Bubble tea uses a tea mixture that is then stirred into some fruit or milk. Lastly, delectable tapioca pearls are added to it for some texture contrast. When the mixture is shaken, it creates foam and bubbles at the top of it, hence it is called bubble tea. The most popular add-ons to milk tea are tapioca pearls which is also called boba which, in Mandarin translates to ‘big breasts’. It also resembles the sound of bubble. So in different parts of the world, bubble tea and boba tea are interchangeable terms when ordering bubble tea. However in the land of its’ origin, the debate has not ended whether to use boba or bubble tea. In Taiwan alone, the tapioca pearls are actually simply called ‘pearls’. Bubble tea comes in iced variants that resemble a smoothie.

When it comes to flavors, variety is the name of the game. There are a lot to choose from because there are so many ingredients that can be added to bubble milk tea. However, when it all boils down to favorites and the most popular, there are two variants that come to fore. The first is bubble milk tea with pearls with green tea as base. The second is bubble milk tea with pearls with black tea as base.

In recent years, countries have seen stores open that focus only on serving one basic product – bubble tea. Some tea stores serve their bubble tea with cups covered in plastic then customers simply pop the top plastic with the huge straw. On the other hand, there are bubble tea stores that serve their bubble tea by using a dome cover plastic. The plastic covers bubble tea is spillage free and will only be popped with the straw when the customer is ready to drink it. In Taiwan and other parts of Asia, bubble tea is more popularly known as pearl milk tea with strong reference to the tapioca pearls rather than the bubble and foam formed by the shaking.

The tapioca pearls’ main purpose is to add a different texture to the drink which actually makes it more inviting. This is all because of its’ chewy nature.