Bubble tea: Difference between revisions

Bubble tea from Quickly

Bubble tea is a tea beverage with tapioca (pearl) balls mixed in.

Bubble tea is generally split into two types: fruit-flavored teas, and milk teas. Milk teas may use dairy or non-dairy creamers. Originating in Taiwan, bubble tea is especially popular in many Asian regions such as mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore. The drink is also popular in Europe, Canada, and the United States.

Recipe

Bubble tea is a mixture of iced or hot sweetened tea, milk, and often other flavorings. It is shaken to mix thoroughly, which produces the small bubbles characteristic of the drink. Black gummy balls made of tapioca (or, more commonly in East Asia, yam starch), called "pearls," may sit at the bottom of the cup, although tapioca pearls are not necessary for bubble tea. The pearls are larger than those found in tapioca pudding, with a diameter of at least 6 millimeters, but smaller ones are occasionally used. They are transluscent brown with a darker brown center. The pearls are sucked through a wide straw along with the drink, providing something to chew on between sips.

The recipes for bubble tea vary, but flavoring is usually added to hot black or green tea, which is shaken in a cocktail shaker or mixed in blender with ice until chilled. The mixture is usually combined with milk and cooked tapioca pearls. Some cafes that serve bubble tea use a machine to seal the top of the cup with plastic cellophane, which a drinker pierces with a straw. Other cafes still use plastic dome-shaped lids.

The flavourings added to bubble tea can be in the form of powder, fruit juice, pulp, or syrup. Some examples of flavors are strawberry, passion fruit, chocolate, and coconut.

Bubble tea can be made with hot Cantonese-style milk tea with tapioca pearls.

Pearls

The Tapioca pearls are made from the Cassava root. The balls are prepared by boiling for 25 minutes, until they are cooked thoroughly but have not lost pliancy, then cooled for 25 minutes. After cooking they last about 7 hours. [1] The pearls have little taste, and are usually soaked in sugar or honey solutions.

Variants

An alternative to the traditional tapioca balls is coconut jelly or konjac jelly. The jelly is served in small cubes or rectangular strips, and has a pliant, chewy consistency. They may be ordered 'half and half,' in a drink with half pearls and half jelly. There are also other jellies such as lychee jelly, coffee jelly, and rainbow jelly, a fruit mixture.

Another alternative is called pearl sago (milk) tea. It is used for canned varieties in which pearl sago (西米 in Chinese; xīmǐ in Putonghua; sai¹ mai⁵ in Cantonese) is used instead of tapioca

Culture

When ordering, customers may be asked whether they want 'pearls' or 'boba' in their drinks, and both terms refer to the tapioca balls. The tapioca pearls require an hour for preparation, and they expand considerably when cooked. After they are cooked through but before they become too soft, the pearls are drained and poured into a sugar water solution, and are ready for use.

Some cafes use a non-dairy milk substitute instead of milk, which adds a distinct flavour and consistency to the drink. One possible reason for using milk substitute is lactose intolerance, although a more likely explanation is that powdered substitutes are cheaper and more convenient than regular milk.

As time has moved on new generations of bubble drinks have came into being, such as, the 'Snow Bubble.' This 'Snow Bubble' drink is a slushie-like drink where you choose one of many fruit flavours and it is mixed in with shaved ice to make a smooth refreshing drink, after that the boba balls can be added from their assorted types, black boba which are the original, coloured, lychee bubbles, and rainbow boba those some of the many that are offered today.

Availability

Bubble tea is available at small dedicated cafes and some restaurants. Most bubble tea shops serve a variety of drinks, including coffee, juices, fruit smoothies, and fruit freezes, which are sometimes also called bubble tea, though they do not contain any tea ingredients. These drinks can include flavors less familiar to non-Asians, such as taro, honeydew, or lychee, as well as the more familiar chocolate, Ovaltine, Milo (in Australia), Horlicks (in England), or strawberry. Hot bubble tea with pearls are also common, though coconut or konjac jelly are usually not added to hot drinks. In addition to tapioca (pearls), jellies such as coconut jelly, apple, etc, and puddings can be added to each drink.

History

There are two shops that claim to be the first creator of Bubble Tea. One is Liu Han Chie (劉漢介), who worked in Chun Shui Tang teahouse(春水堂), Taichung City in the early 1980s, and experimented with cold milk tea by adding fruit, syrup, candied yams, and tapioca balls. Although the drink was not popular at first, a Japanese television show generated interest among businessmen. The drink became well-known in most parts of East and Southeast Asia during the 1990s.

An alternative origin the is Hanlin Teahouse(翰林茶館) in Tainan City, owned by Tu tsong He(涂宗和). Hanlin Bubble tea is made by adding traditional white "Fenyuan"(粉圓), which have an appearance of pearls, supposedly resulting in the so-called 'pearl tea'. Shortly after, Hanlin changed the white Fengyuan to the black, as it is today.

In the late 1990s, bubble tea began to gain popularity in the major North American cities with large Asian populations, especially those on the West Coast and East Coast. The trend in the United States started in the city of San Gabriel, California and quickly spread throughout Southern California. The beverage has received much attention from mainstream American media, including covers on National Public Radio show Morning Edition and the Los Angeles Times. Bubble tea has spread internationally through Chinatowns and other overseas Asian communities.

In the U.S., franchises such as Quickly and Lollicup are expanding into suburban areas, particularly those with large Asian populations. Bubble tea can also be found in major European cities such as London and Paris.

In Canada, Waterloo, Ontario is becoming a minor centre of bubble teas, fuelled by the relatively high population of Chinese-descent, Hong Kong-, Singapore-, Mainland China-migrant-students, and the cultural awareness that the presence of these communities has raised in the non-Oriental population of the University of Waterloo. With both a currently-under-renovation franchise of Bubbletease, and Sweet Dreams Teashop offering these beverages, as well with other restaurants including Ben Thanh, the beverages are widely circulating in the UW Student market. Furthermore, the beverages, though not as yet popular enough to offer serious competition to Tim Hortons' Iced Caps, are becoming one of the many cool caffeinated beverage choices for both Waterloo residents and students.

Bubble tea is also gaining in mass popularity on the Canadian west coast, more particularly in Vancouver, British Columbia where there is a high concentration of Asian immigrants and descendants. Small independently-owned restaurants that sell bubble tea are very popular in Vancouver suburbs such as Burnaby and Richmond, where the drink is catching on with various ethnic groups.

Further to this, Winnipeg, Manitoba now has the Bubble Tea House on Pembina Highway which is open until 0300hrs and provides a place for nearby university students to study. As seen here, the bubble tea shops are generally a fixture of Chinese pop culture with this shop having two televisions playing Chinese programs, and a large selection of Chinese magazines.

Austin, Texas has also been a center of Bubble tea business, largely due to the high Asian American population of the University of Texas. Evidence of this is seen in the fact that there are seven places that serve bubble tea within a mile of the UT campus.

Names

The Chinese name for bubble tea translates to "Pearl milk tea" (Traditional Chinese:珍珠奶茶). When tea is shaken, a thin layer of bubbles forms on the surface. Because of the foaming process, any tea that is shaken during preparation can be called bubble tea. "Foam black tea" (泡沫紅茶; or bubble black tea) and "foam green tea" (泡沫綠茶; or bubble green tea) are also common drinks made by shaking sweetened tea. After pearl milk tea was brought to non-Asian countries, it was given the name "bubble tea." Since the most notable difference between bubble tea and other tea is the tapioca at the bottom of the drink, some assumed that the "bubble" in "bubble tea" referred to the tapioca. The pearls in "pearl milk tea," however, do refer to the tapioca "pearls."

Different names

Bubble (milk) tea has many other names, including:

English

• pearl (milk) tea or drink
• milk pearl tea or drink
• black pearl (milk) tea or drink
• (milk) tea pearl
• boba (milk) tea or drink
• tapioca (milk) tea or drink
• pearl smoothie

Chinese

• 泡沫奶茶 (short form 泡奶): literally bubble milk tea, used mainly in Taiwan
• 波霸奶茶 (short form 波奶) (bōbà nǎichá in Putonghua): literally " large balls (boba 波霸) milk tea", used mainly in southern Taiwan to mean pearl milk tea with large pearls; while those with small pearls are called "pearl milk tea".
• 珍珠奶茶 (short form 珍奶) (zhēnzhū nǎichá in Putonghua): literally "pearl milk tea" in Taiwanese and mainly Chinese usage
• 黑珍珠奶茶, literally "black pearl milk tea" in Taiwanese and mainly Chinese usage
• (奶)茶珍珠, literally "(milk) tea pearl" (less common)

Others

• 보바 드링크, 보바 티 (Korean): literally "Boba drink/tea"
• タピオカティー (Japanese): literally "tapioca tea"
• ชาไข่มุก, ชามุก (Thai): literally "pearl tea"
• trà trân châu (Vietnamese): literally "tea pearl"

Trivia

In September 2004, while defending a US$18 billion weapon purchase plan, the ROC Ministry of National Defense used bubble tea as an example of the overall cost of the proposed purchase. The Ministry stated that the total cost of the weapons systems would be equivalent to the money saved if all Taiwanese people had one less pearl milk tea per week, over a period of twenty years.[2]

A reference to Bubble Tea was made on the Canadian television show Radio Free Roscoe in the episode "Lil' and Grace" when Robbie brings Travis Bubble Tea during lunch. Travis mentions that the drink was popular at his old school in Hong Kong and identifies the flavor of his drink to be lychee.

See also

General info

• Taiwanese tea culture
• Cuisine of Taiwan

Bubble tea vendors

• Easy Way
• Fantasia Coffee & Tea in the San Francisco Bay Area
• Lollicup
• Q-Cup
• Quickly
• Boba-Loca
• Tapioca Express
• Bubble Island - Chain of stores in western Washington State

External links

Recipe

• Free bubble tea - boba tea recipes
• Bubble Tea - History and Recipe at What's Cooking America
• Bubble Tea at Home at Ellen's Kitchen
• Bubble Tea Recipe - Asian drinks at about.com

History and tales

• Bubble Tea History
• The Tale of "The Bubble Tea Origin"
• CNN - Tapioca milk tea creating waves as fun coffee alternative

Cafe and rating party

• Cafe Rating Bureau
• US Bubble tea cafe locator

Website

• List of Bubble Tea websites at Open Directory Project

Others

• MSNBC - Can drinking less tea defend a nation?
• NBC - Taiwanese urged to cut tea to pay for US arms