The trend cooled down a little in the early years of the next decade, but then experienced a resurgence when Chatime, Koi, Tiger Sugar, The Alley and Xin Fu Tang opened up in cities across Asia, offering high-quality teas, real milk, and a comfortable, casual atmosphere. Starting in the nineties, this addictive drink became a huge craze around the world, especially Southeast Asia, presumably because of the growing popularity of cafe culture thanks to Starbucks’ rapid expansion in Asia. There's even a word for that perfect consistency in Chinese – “QQ” – which means “chewy”. Boba lives and dies by the texture of the tapioca balls. They cannot be too squishy, or all of them will stick together in the cup too hard and they’ll be impossible to chew. The perfect cup of bubble tea is determined by the texture of its tapioca balls. Most shops sell a green or black tea with milk and sweetener added those who aren’t keen on tea can opt for coffee while the lactose-intolerant can try a milk-free variant. The only prerequisite is that the bottom half of the cup is packed with jellylike pearls, or bubbles. Served with an oversized straw, this sweet and refreshing iced drink can be made with any tea. The tea became known as boba tea because “boba” is slang for “breasts” in Chinese (a reference to the spherical shape of tapioca balls). Another theory is that the drink was named after the marble-sized tapioca balls resembling bubbles at the bottom of the drink. Bubble tea reputedly gained its name as the drink forms bubbles when it is shaken up. Since then, it has spread across the globe, including the US, Australia, Europe and South Africa.Ī drink of many names, bubble tea is also fondly known as boba tea or black pearl tea. Several tea companies claim to be the creator, so it’s unclear which is the true founder of the popular drink, but Liu Hanchie of Chun Shui Tang Teahouse in Taichung claims that in the early eighties, he experimented with cold milk tea by adding fruit, syrup, candied yams and tapioca bubbles.Ī decade later, the addictively tasty drink reached most parts of East and Southeast Asia with bubble tea shops popping up in every mall and street corner. Bubble tea is said to have originated in the eighties in the city of Taichung. But who on earth came up with the idea of putting chewy tapioca balls in tea?Īs tea drinking is a robust practice in East Asia, milk tea was already a popular drink of choice in Taiwan. It’s inspiring to see how this tea preparation has become a full-blown sensation in its land of origin as well as abroad. Also known as boba, this drink has taken the world by storm, with bubble tea chains springing up like mushrooms around the world from Japan and Malaysia to the United States and Australia. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’s hard not to notice Taiwan’s long-standing cultural food phenomenon that is bubble tea.

Boba origin