TAIWANESE BUBBLE TEA

Bubble Tea Photo by lukevu / CC BY Tapioca Balls/Pearls/Boba Photo by kattebelletje / CC BY Different Variety of Bubble Tea Photo by 83626281@N00 / CC BY

OTHER NAMES: pearl milk tea, boba milk tea, 珍珠奶茶(in Chinese)    Bubble Tea is a Taiwanese milk tea with chewy tapioca balls/pearls/boba. (Tapioca balls/pearls are made mostly from tapioca starch.) These drinks are usually served cold in large see-through plastic containers with an extra-wide straw to sip the pearls.  HISTORY Bubble tea first appeared in Taiwan around the late 1980's. [1] The older recipe was made by mixing black tea with sweetened condensed milk, small tapioca pearls, and syrup or honey. [2] Bubble tea has so many variations such as cold or hot, size of cup, tea selection, fruit or non-fruit flavor, plain or with different toppings. You can basically customize your own bubble tea. [3] The most common recipe today is bubble green tea, which uses jasmine-infused green tea instead of black tea, uses large tapioca balls rather small ones.    The drink became well-known in most parts of East and Southeast Asia during the 1990s. A worldwide bubble tea franchise called Quickly (found in 1996) had helped spread the culture of bubble tea. [4] Over the last decade, it gained popularity across Asian countries such as China, Hong Kong, and Korea. Bubble tea shops also can be easily found in Asian communities worldwide such as the San Francisco, US, Vancouver, Canada, and Europe. In June 2012, McDonald's McCafé locations in Germany and Austria also began offering bubble tea. [5]