Pearl milk tea

Bubble tea, pearl milk tea (Chinese: 珍珠奶茶; pinyin: zhēnzhū nǎichá), or boba milk tea (波霸奶茶; bōbà nǎichá) is a tea beverage mixture with milk. Originating in Taiwan, it is especially popular in China and among overseas Chinese, though it is now increasingly popular outside the Chinese community. It is also known as black pearl tea or tapioca tea.

Origin

It is said to have originated in Taichung, Taiwan in 1983, by a Taiwanese teashop owner named Liu Han-Chieh (劉漢介), who experimented with cold milk tea by adding fruit, syrup, candied yams and, finally, tapioca balls. Although the drink was not so popular at first, publicity from a Japanese television show made businessmen take notice and it quickly became well known throughout Asia in the 1990s. In the early 2000s, bubble tea began to become popular in the Canada, spreading to ethnic Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese-speaking immigrant communities and even outside the overseas Asian community. This unique beverage has also received some attention in the mainstream media, including Morning Edition on National Public Radio and the Los Angeles Times. Bubble tea can also refer to hot Hong Kong style milk tea (港式奶茶 -- Cantonese: gong2 sik1 naai5 caa4) with tapioca balls.

Definition

Boba, a Cantonese slang, literally means the "dominatrix of breasts", connoting the image of a busty woman. "Bō" (波) is a slang for the breast which refers to the milk.

In the name "pearl milk tea," the "pearls" refers to the black gummy balls made of tapioca which sit in the mixture of sweetened ice tea and milk and possibly other flavorings.

The balls are generally about 1 cm in diameter and are sucked through a wide straw along with the drink, providing something to chew on between sips. In many cases, when ordering at the counter or a sit-down restaurant, customers are given the option whether they want "boba" or "pearl" in their beverages. Both terms refer to the tapioca balls.

The recipes for boba tea vary and so does the taste, but usually flavouring is added to hot black or green tea which is then shaken in a martini shaker with ice until chilled. Aficionados shop around for their favorite vendors. Tapioca pearls are primarily made from tapioca starch which can be found from bitter-cassava plants. The pearls are then heated with caramel into a thick mixture paste. The paste is then passed through a wet sieve to create different pearl sizes.

Instead of eating the chewy balls, some adolescents like to blow them out from the straw to shoot at targets or at each other, to the annoyance of adults and bystanders.

The tea often accompanies fried chicken steak (雞排), also a popular snack in Taiwan.

Pearl milk tea usually uses large pearls of the size 7 millimeters or above, since smaller pearls are not as good for chewing. In southern Taiwan, most pearl milk teas are known as "boba milk tea", and the name "pearl milk tea" is used mostly for small sized pearls(smaller than 1cm in diameter).

Names

Pearl milk tea has now spread internationally, mainly through overseas Chinese communities. It is also known under a number of other names, including:

• bubble tea
• pearl tea
• pearl ice tea
• black pearl ice tea
• QQ drinks - "Kiú" is a Taiwanese slang for chewy
• naicha - Literally, "Milk Tea"
• zhenzhu naicha (Mainland Chinese, Taiwanese and overseas Chinese usage) - Literally, "Pearl Milk Tea" -- Cantonese pronunciation is similar
• boba naicha - Literally, "Boba Milk Tea"
• boba drink
• pearl sago [milk] tea -- in English only; usually used for canned varieties where pearl sago (西米 -- Cantonese: sai1 mai5) is used instead of tapioca.
• tran chau (Vietnamese usage)

Availability

The tea, regardless of name, is available at small dedicated boba cafes, and at some Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine restaurants. Some Chinese restaurants and take-out delis may advertise a "boba special" promotion - for example, one cup of boba tea might cost only 99 cents with a purchase of a meal. In North America, major chains offering pearl milk tea include Lollicup (also called TeaZone), Tapioca Express [1] (http://www.tapiocaexpress.com), Ten Ren [2] (http://www.tenren.com), and Teastation. It is also sold at Quickly outlets, which is a Taiwanese-based chain with many locations worldwide (http://www.quicklyusa.com for information). Another chain offering "pearls" is Cha for Tea; it operates stores in California (United States), Taiwan, Mainland China, Japan, and Australia. The California-based Vietnanese American banh mi fast food chain Lee's Sandwiches also offers, at the option of customers, the balls in its beverages. There are also many small family-owned boba outlets. The skill in preperation, and quality of the resulting product varies widely.

The boba beverage has moved beyond an ethnic specialty and now appeals to the mainstream. Like Starbucks, boba tea is generally popular among college students. Boba shops are often found nearby or on some university campuses, such as UCLA and UCI.

Most of these chains serve a variety of drinks, including coffee, juices, and frozen juice drinks. These can include flavors which are less familiar to non-Asians, such as taro, honeydew, or lychee--as well as the familiar chocolate, Ovaltine, or strawberry--and may be available with or without tapioca pearls. These boba establishments are typically modern, trendy and sleek in design; often, they are combined with Internet cafés in order to attract a young customer base.

Trivia

In September 2004, defending a US$18 billion weapon purchase plan, the ROC Ministry of National Defense used pearl milk 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 drank one less pearl milk tea per week for a period of twenty years.

Related topic

• Taiwanese cuisine
• Lollicup - Taiwanese American fast food chain specializing in boba tea.
• Q-Cup - US cafe chain specialising in boba tea.

External link

• News article from CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2000/FOOD/news/11/27/bubble.tea.ap/)
• The Tale of "The Bubble Tea Origin" (http://www.jorbins.com/food-drink-magazine/articles/bubble-tea-origin.php)
• Claremont Courier Online - Bubbly drinks help teens have a ball (http://www.claremont-courier.com/mt/archives/000374.html)
• Picture of Bubble Tea (http://vagrantly.com/04/06/bubble_tea.php)
• US Bubble tea cafe locator (http://www.bobafind.com/)
• MSNBC - Can drinking less tea defend a nation? (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6063203/)
• NBC - Taiwanese urged to cut tea to pay for US arms (http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200409/s1204428.htm)
• Boba Fate - bubble tea fortune-tellers (http://fortune.bedope.com/boba.html)