If you visit Taiwan or Hong Kong you can't help but notice the unique bubble milk tea shops on every corner. Bubble milk tea to Taiwan is what ‘teh tarik’ is to Malaysia. One would think bubble milk tea is the national drink by its popularity.
Bubble Milk Tea originated in Taiwan in the early 1980's at a small tea stand
Elementary school children would look forward to buying a cup of refreshing tea after a long, hard day of work and play. Tea stands were set up in front of the schools and would compete for business with the best selling tea. One concession owner became popular with her tea when she started adding different fruit flavouring to her tea. Because of the sweet and cool taste, children loved the taste. Soon, other concessions heard about the "unique" and popular tea, so they started to add flavouring to their teas. When adding flavour, the tea and flavouring needed to be shaken well for a good all around taste. This formed bubbles in the drink, which came to be known as "Bubble Tea."
In 1983 Liu Han Chieh introduced Taiwan to tapioca pearls. The new fad was to add tapioca pearls into a favourite drink. Most of the time tapioca pearls were served in cold infused tea. After the tea and flavour were shaken well, it topped tapioca pearls that were sitting on the bottom of a clear cup. The tapioca pearls also looked like bubbles, thus also became to known as "Bubble Tea." Bubbles floated on the top your drink and bottom of your drink.
Different names of Bubble Milk Tea
Bubble Milk Tea originated in Taiwan in the early 1980's at a small tea stand
Elementary school children would look forward to buying a cup of refreshing tea after a long, hard day of work and play. Tea stands were set up in front of the schools and would compete for business with the best selling tea. One concession owner became popular with her tea when she started adding different fruit flavouring to her tea. Because of the sweet and cool taste, children loved the taste. Soon, other concessions heard about the "unique" and popular tea, so they started to add flavouring to their teas. When adding flavour, the tea and flavouring needed to be shaken well for a good all around taste. This formed bubbles in the drink, which came to be known as "Bubble Tea."
In 1983 Liu Han Chieh introduced Taiwan to tapioca pearls. The new fad was to add tapioca pearls into a favourite drink. Most of the time tapioca pearls were served in cold infused tea. After the tea and flavour were shaken well, it topped tapioca pearls that were sitting on the bottom of a clear cup. The tapioca pearls also looked like bubbles, thus also became to known as "Bubble Tea." Bubbles floated on the top your drink and bottom of your drink.
Different names of Bubble Milk Tea
Bubble tea is also known as boba drink, pearl tea drink, boba ice tea, boba, boba nai cha, zhen zhou nai cha, pearl milk tea, pearl ice tea, black pearl tea, tapioca ball drink, BBT, PT, pearl shake, QQ (which means chewy in Chinese) and possible many others.
Bubble drinks are usually cool, refreshing, and a sweet drink with tapioca pearls sitting on the bottom of a clear cup. Sometimes the drink is made with fresh fruits, milk, and crushed ice to create a healthy milk shake. You can also find drinks that are made of powdered flavouring, creamer, water, and crushed ice. And if you like it like the Asians do, the cool drink usually includes a healthy tea, infused by a flavouring.
Tapioca pearls are black, but can sometimes be found to be white or transparent. Depending on the ingredients of the pearl, the colour varies. I've been told that the white and translucent pearls are made of caramel, starch and chamomile root extract. The black pearl includes sweet potato, cassava root and brown sugar, which add the black colour. The consistency of tapioca pearls are somewhere between jell-o and chewing gum. They are the size of a marble.
A clear cup with black balls on the bottom can easily identify bubble Tea drinks. Another obvious trait is a huge fat straw. The fat straw is needed so that the tapioca pearls can be sucked up with the drink and eaten. Bubble Tea's appearance definitely makes it unique.One thing is for certain. Bubble Tea is not a fad. It's a trend. This drink is addictive. If you've had a good one before then you know what we're talking about.
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