Bubble Tea 101

Bubble Tea 101

Story by Linh Lee|Photos by Linh Lee & Josie Luong| Design by Shoshanah Davis

Delicious? Chewy? Yummy? Bubbly? Yep, it's bubble tea.

According to The Daily Meal, bubble tea was created in Taiwan in the 1980s and has now become one of the most popular drinks in the world.

Whether you’re seasoned or new to the boba world, it’s time to learn what exactly goes into this drink.

First of all, what is bubble tea?

“Bubble tea is simply flavored tea [or] milk tea with yummy toppings such as boba, egg pudding, grass jelly, lychee jelly or fruits,” says Josie Luong, a boba lover and sophomore majoring in biochemistry.

Bubble tea is a sweet drink that contains tea, milk and chewy tapioca balls. It's usually served cold and has a few other names such as boba tea, pearl tea, tapioca tea or just boba.

Initially, bubble tea topping used to be only the pearl tapioca and black tapioca balls. However, as bubble tea becomes more well-known, people have a lot more options, such as popping boba (gel-like balls filled with juice), egg pudding (a smooth, thick and jelly-like dessert made out of milk and sugar), fruit-flavored jelly and many more.

The milk used in bubble tea can be half and half, fresh milk, non-dairy milk or condensed milk. For tea, any tea with strong flavor would do the job. With many of the stores that sell bubble tea, it seems that the most common tea flavors are green tea, black tea, oolong tea and jasmine tea.

There is another type of bubble tea that is also quite popular, which is ice blended. Sugar Thai is one of the few places in Ellensburg that serve ice blended bubble tea.

Dani Perez, a server at Sugar Thai, says that for their 'milkshake,' they use powder, sugar syrup, cream or coconut milk to blend with ice and then add boba in.

So, where does bubble tea come from?

Out of hundreds of stories about the origin of bubble tea, the one about Chun Shui Tang teahouse in Taichung, Taiwan is considered the most credible, according to an article published in CNN Travel.

Based on this article, bubble tea was born in 1988 when Ms. Lin Hsiu Hui, a product development manager of the teahouse, happened to bring fen yuan (a sweetened tapioca pudding and also a typical Taiwanese desert) to a staff meeting. Just for fun, she poured it in her iced tea and created a drink that everyone at the meeting loved.

To everyone's surprise, the drink quickly outsold every other drink on their menu. In the article, Lin said that even now, when Chun Shui Tang teahouse has had “over 30 teahouses in Taiwan," bubble tea still “makes up 80 to 90 percent” of their sales.

How popular is bubble tea?

In the same CNN article, writer Derrick Chang says that bubble tea shops are now in “every corner of Taiwan’s streets."

Chang adds that bubble tea has “spread to neighboring countries like Japan, South Korea, China, and the rest of the world."

According to "Eat This, Not That!," as of 2018, there are over 800 bubble tea shops in New York, California and other major cities in the U.S.

Smaller cities like Ellensburg also have a lot of bubble tea lovers. "A lot of people in the community ask for it," says Janice Schlenkeo, owner of Pho Central. "Everyone orders bubble tea, from teenagers [and] college kids to people who have retired.”

What do CWU students say about bubble tea?

Josie Luong - Sophomore - Major in Bio-Chem:

"The boba lust is real!

Whenever I need something to quench my thirst, bubble tea is always on the top of my head. Think of Starbucks in the U.S., bubble tea is similar in Asia. My favorite drink is honey black tea with boba and egg pudding. I prefer my drink to still have the original taste of freshly brewed tea. There are many bubble tea shops in WA, but in Ellensburg, I usually get my bubble tea form an online place called YoungT&Tea. They deliver to my door so it’s super convenient on nights when I’m busy with homework and need something to keep me awake."

Grace Yim - Senior - Major in Aviation Management:

I would definitely recommend people to try bubble tea if they haven’t.

"Bubble tea is an amazing drink that is both delicious and refreshing. I first learned about bubble tea when my uncle and cousins took me to a local bubble tea place when I was in elementary school. It blew my mind and I treated it as a treat I would rarely get. I get bubble tea when I crave it or when I have the chance, but I drink it more often in the summer when it is hotter. I would definitely recommend people to try bubble tea if they haven’t. I’m always down to get some!"

Tommy Fernandez - Sophomore - Major in IT:

"I love bubble tea! I have been drinking it for as long as I could remember. After my baseball games when I was little, instead of getting a blizzard from Dairy Queen, I would ask my dad for bubble tea. My favorite flavor is Taro, but I do like to get Honeydew sometimes. The first thing I look for when I try bubble tea at a restaurant is if the tapioca is good. If it sucks then I think it just ruins the whole drink."