What is Bubble Tea?

Bubble Tea: a drink that will delight your taste buds!

With a global market currently valued at $5.3 billion, Bubble Tea is a drink that is enjoying growing success all over the world. It must be said that this mixture of tea, milk and tapioca pearls is both original and succulent for the taste buds! Focus on this drink invented almost forty years ago in Asia…

Bubble Tea: what exactly is it?

It is a mixture of hot or cold tea, milk and brown, gelatinous tapioca pearls which settle at the bottom of the glass and are sucked up using an extra-large straw. The drink can be flavored with flavored powders or mixed fresh fruits such as mango (a classic!), lychee, strawberry or even passion fruit.

A drink of Taiwanese origin

Also called Boba or “bubble tea”, Bubble Tea was invented in Taiwan in the mid-1980s. Upon its release, it was such a resounding success that Taiwanese middle and high school students and university students ran to buy a glass. to sip it after their long days of study... Over the years, Bubble Tea has found a place in all tea rooms in Taiwan. Today it is even considered the country's national drink! But what is its true origin? Who could have invented this tasty beverage for the first time?

The creation of a woman

Bubble Tea was born in Taichung, a town located in the west of Taiwan. Lin Hsiu Hui, its inventor, relates the genesis of the famous drink thus: “My favorite tea is milk tea, I drink it every day, and I often ate tapioca pearls when I was little. When I was responsible for product development at Chun Shui Tang, the restaurant chain for which I still work today, one day the idea came to me to buy tapioca pearls out of nostalgia, to find a flavor of my childhood. It was summer, so I wanted to make myself a refreshing drink and put some of these pearls in my milk tea. While drinking it, I found it so delicious that I shared it with my colleagues. I then started preparing it for a few clients I knew. They really liked it and asked me for it regularly. In 1986, when I became restaurant manager, I suggested to my superiors that I incorporate my drink into the establishment's menu. We then started officially serving Bubble Tea and, two months later, every other restaurant on the street was offering it on their menu. Six months later, it was the whole city and four years later, it was the whole country! This is how it spread... At first I took it badly, but then I said it was rather flattering. I have always tried to perfect my recipe so that our restaurant chain offers a tea that is different from the others. »