Bubble Tea
By: Caitlin C.
Bubble tea is a tasty Taiwanese drink many people love. This drink, made up of milk tea with black pearls called bubbles at the bottom of the cup, is slowly making its way from continent to continent and hopping from country to country around the world. This special drink, bubble tea, has an interesting past, many names, and its own culture.
In the 1980’s, two teahouses in Taiwan claimed to be the first creators of bubble tea. The first was the Chun Shui teahouse, owned by Liu Han Chie, in Taichung City. He used fruit, syrup, candied yams, pearls, and cold milk tea. The milk tea was Chinese black tea, condensed milk and honey mixed together.
The second teahouse was the Hanlin Teahouse, owned by Tu Tsong He Hanlin, in Tainan City. The owner made bubble tea with white pearls. Not long after, he changed it to black pearls. Not very many people know what he used to make the milk tea though so it is a secret!
In the 1990’s, bubble tea gained popularity in North America where many Asians live. From there, others started to experiment by replacing the milk tea with smoothies, the creamy kind and icy kind.
There are many versions about how bubble tea got its name. I have only heard of three so far. Some people say that someone shook the bubble tea and there was a layer of bubbles at the top. Another version was that the pearls fall to the bottom of the drink for some like bubbles going downward instead of going up. The last version I have heard of is that some bubble tea drinks made with smoothies have the pearls at the top of the cup so it is like bubbles at the top of the cup, so it is similar to the first theory.
The best places to sell bubble tea are at coffee shops, espresso carts (in big cities), snack shops, night markets (especially in Taiwan), typical restaurants (mostly Chinese ones, but sometimes Californian cuisines too), smoothie shops, juice bars, and obviously bubble tea cafés. Bubble tea cafés are usually small because well they mainly sell bubble tea so people do not need much space. However, to get more business, these stores also serve other foods or meals or have a TV with the latest pop Chinese music videos. Sometimes the stores with the TV’s have karaoke so you can sing too but they do not let you sing until it is quite late because they usually open late. These cafés are popular for people to hang out.
The popularity of bubble tea has made many cafés compete. This leads to café s not telling their secret recipe so usually different cafés have their different bubble tea. They do not even tell you how long they cook their black pearls! Because of the “secret recipes”, different countries also have a certain taste that has to do with the country, such as Thailand.
There are quite a few reasons why café owners like selling bubble tea. Bubble tea is easy to make, prepare, and for staff to learn how to make it. Selling this drink can also tempt more customers to come and buy a cup. Therefore, with this advantage, most of the time you will see restaurants or cafés with a big bubble tea poster at their front window if they sell bubble tea!
There are many places to get bubble tea in the world. In Taiwan, the original bubble tea country, there are bubble tea stands at every corner when you are shopping. Not only is it popular in Taiwan but also in Eastern Asia, and Southeast Asia. Many times you will also find some places that sell bubble tea near colleges because students love getting bubble tea at night and hanging out there or just to simply get some bubble tea! Usually the prices for bubble tea around the world have the prices $1-$4. Where there are many Asians, the prices seem to be cheaper. An example would be California. Since there are so many Asians living there, you can get bubble tea for $1 at a bubble tea café called Quickly.
Lately, many people have been spreading the news about bubble tea to their friends. It makes their friends a bit curious about how it tastes. Because of this, bubble tea is getting popular in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Cambodia, South Africa, and countries in Europe. Many more countries are starting to discover bubble tea.
Normally when people try bubble tea, they either love it or like it. People under 30 tend to love bubble tea more than liking bubble tea. Sometimes people see the black pearls and freak out though so they get too scared to try bubble tea.
When people drink bubble tea, they typically do it when they are with friends, are eating a meal, are studying, as take out, or when they just feel like it. It is one of those “anytime of the day” kind of drinks you can have.
There are many reasons why people like bubble tea. The most obvious reason is that they like the taste. Other reasons are that the pearls are chewy (which Asians love). You suck them up in a big straw, and it takes stress away from chewing on them. Others also like to drink it to reconnect to the Taiwanese culture or if they are homesick and they used to drink bubble tea a lot where they used to live. Some also like it because if you have braces on, the black pearls are not usually stuck in your braces so you can still chew on the pearls.
Bubble tea has more than 30 flavors. Cafés commonly have fruity flavors, such as strawberry, green apple, passion fruit, mango, lemon, grape, lychee, peach, pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew, banana, kiwi, coconut, and jackfruit. They also have a few flavors you would think it might be odd to drink with pearls, such as taro, chocolate, coffee, mocha, barley, sesame, almond, ginger, lavender, rose, violet, cucumber, avocado, and avocado cucumber.You could also put other things in your drink instead of just black pearls, such as green tea pearls, rainbow pearls, small black pearls, coconut jelly, lychee jelly, lychee, grass (not real plant grass!), mango, kiwi, konjac, rainbow (fruits), red bean, mung bean, and Chinese pudding. I would suggest any of the pearls, jelly, or the fruits to go with whatever flavor you choose as the drink because they are the ones that do not matter as much what flavor as you as the drink because they are the ones that do not matter as much what flavor as your drink it with.
Making homemade bubble tea is an easy project to do. The tools you would need are:
o A big spoon
o Measuring cups
o 2 medium sized pots
o Bubble tea straws
The ingredients you will need are:
o Condensed milk
o Red Lipton tea bags
o Coffee
o Sugar
o Water
o Black pearls
Note: It depends what kind of pearls you have to see how long you cook them. Some need 5 min., some need a few hours to get it perfect.
This is the recipe:
1.) Boil two pots of water (fill each of them half way)
2.) When done boiling, put 10 tea bags in one and wait 10 min. Put as many black pearls as you want in the other.
3.) Put 3/8 of a cup of sugar into the pot of black pearls. Now you need to wait 5 more min.
4.) Put ¾ of your cup with tea, 1/8 of your cup with coffee, 1/8 of your cup with condensed milk, as many pearls as you would like, and stir. Put ice if you want to drink it cold.
5.) You can drink you bubble tea with a spoon, bubble tea straw, or you could just drink it (which would be harder to get the pearls).
Cafés do not normally cook bubble tea like this way though. They normally use power or syrup flavoring. Instead of stirring, they have a martini shaker to shake the bubble tea well. They have special cups such as a plastic cup with a half of a sphere cap, a plastic cup with a cap you poke a hole in with your straw, a tall glass cup, a wine glass cup, a tea cup, or a milk shake glass cup.
Do not drink bubble tea too often! Only about once per two weeks. It is actually not very healthy. For some cups of bubble tea, there are about 300 calories, 5 grams of fat, and it is high on sugar. Usually there are about 80 calories per seven pearls and usually there are about 25 pearls in a cup. There is also some nutrition, which is 4-6 grams of protein though!
Bubble tea has many different names. Some other English names are boba tea, boba drink, pearl milk tea, pearl tea, tapioca tea, tapioca milk tea drink, milk pearl tea, milk pearl drink, bubble cup, bubble milk, and bubble milk tea. Other names for bubble tea in other languages are泡沫紅茶"bubble red tea", 泡沫奶茶"bubble milk tea",珍珠奶茶 or 珍奶"pearl milk tea",波霸奶茶"large pearls milk tea",黑珍珠奶茶"black pearl milk tea", (奶)茶珍珠"(milk) tea pearl",보바 드링크 "boba drink"(Korean),보바 티"boba tea"(Korean), 버블티"bubble tea" (Korean), タピオカティー "tapioca tea" (Japanese), Trà sữa trân châu "pearl milk tea"(Vietnamese), ชาไข่มุก, ชานมไข่มุก "pearl tea" (Thai), Ságo at Guláman "tapioca pearls and agar" (Tagalog), Teh Mutiara "Pearl Tea" (Indonesian), Té de burbujas "bubble tea" (Spanish), and Suco de Pobá "Poba juice" (Portuguese).
Like I said before, bubble tea has an interesting past, many names, and has its own culture. It has two teahouses fighting over who originally made bubble tea first, names from around the world, and it’s a Taiwanese drink. Bubble tea has its own life and will be well known for future generations.
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