Bubble Tea Story
If you visit Taiwan or Hong Kong you can't help but notice the bubble teashops on every corner. Bubble Tea to Taiwan is what coffee or soda is to the U.S. One would think Bubble Tea is the national drink by its popularity. Just like in Taiwan, Bubble Tea shops are popping up all over the world. One Taiwan based company has over 450 locations while in the Philippines another person owns over 100 within 1.5 years.
Bubble Tea originated in Taiwan in the early 1980's at a small tea stand
Elementary school children would look forward to buying a cup of refreshing tea after a long, hard day of work and play. Tea stands were set up in front of the schools and would compete for business with the best selling tea. One concession owner became popular with her tea when she started adding different fruit flavoring to her tea. Because of the sweet and cool taste, children loved the taste. Soon, other concessions heard about the "unique" and popular tea, so they started to add flavoring to their teas. When adding flavor, the tea and flavoring needed to be shaken well for a good all around taste. This formed bubbles in the drink, which came to be known as "Bubble Tea."
In 1983 Liu Han-Chieh introduced Taiwan to tapioca pearls. The new fad was to add tapioca pearls into a favorite drink. Most of the time tapioca pearls were served in cold infused tea. After the tea and flavor were shaken well, it topped tapioca pearls that were sitting on the bottom of a clear cup. The tapioca pearls also looked like bubbles, thus also became to known as "Bubble Tea." Bubbles floated on the top your drink and bottom of your drink. You can also find drinks that are made of powdered flavoring, creamer, water, and crushed ice. And if you like it like the Asians do, the cool drink usually includes a healthy tea, infused by a flavoring. Tapioca pearls are black, but can sometimes be found to be white or transparent. The black pearl includes sweet potato, cassava root and brown sugar, which add the black color.