Bubble tea

Bubble tea
A cup of bubble tea
Alternative namesBoba
Pearl milk tea
Boba milk tea
Boba tea
Boba nai cha
Tapioca tea
CourseDrink
Place of originTaiwan
Region or stateWorldwide
Serving temperatureHot or Cold
Main ingredientsTapioca, milk, creamer, brewed tea, sugar, flavorings

Bubble tea (also known as pearl milk tea, bubble milk tea, tapioca milk tea, boba tea, or boba; Chinese: 珍珠奶茶; pinyin: zhēnzhū nǎichá, 波霸奶茶; bōbà nǎichá) is a tea-based drink that originated in Taiwan in the early 1980s.[1][2] Taiwanese immigrants brought it to the United States in the 1990s, initially in California through regions including Los Angeles County,[3] but the drink has also spread to other countries where there is a large East Asian diaspora population.

Bubble tea most commonly consists of tea accompanied by chewy tapioca balls ("boba" or "pearls"), but it can be made with other toppings as well, such as grass jelly, aloe vera, red bean, and popping boba. It has many varieties and flavors, but the two most popular varieties are pearl black milk tea and pearl green milk tea ("pearl" for the tapioca balls at the bottom).

  1. ^ Wu, Jiayi (2020). "What Makes Bubble Tea Popular ? Interaction between Chinese and British Tea Culture". The Frontiers of Society, Science and Technology. 2 (16): 97–102. doi:10.25236/FSST.2020.021614 (inactive 31 January 2024). Archived from the original on 26 September 2021.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2024 (link)
  2. ^ Yip, Lynnett (1 January 2020). "How Boba, or Bubble Tea, Went Global". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 2 May 2021. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  3. ^ Zhang, Jenny G. (5 November 2019). "How Bubble Tea Became a Complicated Symbol of Asian-American Identity". Eater.