A Taste of Tapioca

story by Gabby Kutch | photos by Jakob Burnham | design by Sandra Rivera

A look into bubble tea and what hot bubble tea people are drinking

Bubble tea has been making waves all across the internet, from new tea shops popping up around towns, to the many reviews and recipes found all over social media. You’d struggle to find someone who doesn’t know about this viral drink. The sheer amount of bubble tea-themed plushies, charms and other knick-knacks shows just how popular the drink has become.

But what exactly is bubble tea?

Bubble tea is a Taiwanese drink that is traditionally made with black tea, milk, ice and black tapioca pearls known as boba. As the drink became more popular, tea shops began to offer more variety to customize the drinks: offering many flavors of tea, adding different types of boba, jellies, pudding and even substituting milk tea for smoothies.

This delicious drink has become quite popular over the last few years, so it may surprise you to find out that bubble tea has been around for quite a long time.

According to the article “A Brief History of Boba” by Priya Krishna, bubble tea was created in Taiwan around the 1980s and became well-liked across Taiwan and East Asia. The boba tea craze then spread to America during the 1990s when many Taiwanese people immigrated to the US.

Now, thanks to social media, the already well-known drink has exploded in popularity becoming a viral and trendy drink all over the world. Bubble tea fever has even made its way to Ellensburg through tea shops and drinks menus in restaurants, becoming a fast favorite for many CWU students.

With its cool, refreshing tastes, fun chewy textures, wide variety of customization and combinations and simple yet appealing look, it’s no wonder that this tapioca treat has become such a hit.

Instagram Poll Results

FAVE FLAVE

According to Ronnika Rath, CWU student and part-time manager at local tea shop Young T and Tea, the most popular non-seasonal drink they serve is called the Tiger Fresh Milk Brown Sugar Boba. The drink is a brown sugar milk tea with brown sugar syrup drizzled on the side of the cup.

TEA 62%

SMOOTHIE 38% BOBA TYPE

TAPIOCA PERARLS - 22 VOTES

POPPING BOBA - 10 VOTES

CRYSTAL BOBA - 8 VOTES

PUDDING - 5 VOTES

FRUIT JELLIES - 3 VOTES

SMOOTHIE OR TEA?

TOP TEAS

Taro Milk Tea - 3 votes

Signature Milk Tea - 2 votes

Jasmine Milk Tea - 2 votes