What is bubble tea?

What is bubble tea?

Bubble tea is a delicious, unique looking drink, made by blending a tea base with flavoured milk powder or fruit syrup. What makes bubble tea special is the toppings – traditionally chewy black tapioca balls, ‘boba’, added to the drink to create additional flavour and texture! Now choose from a range of popping fruit bubbles, jelly and flavoured tapioca. The toppings actually sit at the bottom of the glass and are sucked up using a special wide straw. It is typically served ice cold.

Where does the name come from?

The name comes from the frothy bubbles formed on the surface of the drink after vigorously shaking it when being made, although now the toppings are also referred to as bubbles.

How was it invented?

Bubble Tea originated in Taiwan in the 1980s and has since grown in popularity worldwide. Bubble tea is said to have been discovered by the product development manager of a teahouse called Chun Shui Tang in Taiwan. She was allegedly bored in a staff meeting and decided to drop her tapioca pudding into her iced tea. It tasted so good that the teahouse decided to add it to their menu and it became the top selling product! After seeing the success of this drink, teahouses all over Taiwan started adding tapioca pearls and different fruit flavours to their iced teas, and so began bubble tea as we know it today!