What Exactly Is Boba?

The term “boba” can actually allude to either a long list of drinks containing chunks – comprising a vast range of drinks from iced tea with tapioca pearls to fresh juice containing blocks of fruit – or the famous black tapioca pearls by themselves.

Taiwan is the unrivaled boba tea center of the universe. Here, over the past few decades, the delicious cups of sweet, chewy, creamy tea, which are also known as bubble tea and pearl milk tea, have become an amazingly popular beverage, not merely in Taiwan, but all across North America, Asia, and even Europe.

So What Is Boba Really?

All of the above mentioned names are basically different ways of referring to the same thing, it just depends on the location and the personal preference of the person discussing the tea. For instance, here in the United States, the East Coast prefers to call it bubble tea, but the West favors the term boba.

It doesn’t matter what you call it, what it all boils down to is that the drink essentially is made of a combination of black tea, milk, chewy tapioca pearls, and ice, all shaken together, not stirred, in the manner of a martini and served with a very wide straw to enable pieces of tapioca that remain in the cup to pass through.

The tapioca pearls come from tapioca starch, which is an extract of the cassava plant of South America, which arrived in Taiwan from Brazil by way of Southeast Asia at the time of Japanese rule that took place from 1895 to 1945. Tapioca pearls have a rather unpromising start, as they begin life white, hard, and pretty much without taste. Then the transformation begins, as they are boiled inside enormous, bubbling vats and soaked in a sugary blend of caramelized syrup for many hours, until they’re astonishingly changed, as if by magic, into springy, black tapioca pearls.

Amazingly, that texture is actually quite addictive, and it’s become what boba is known for. While there isn’t really a name for this somewhat rubbery, chewy texture, it is beloved in Taiwan where it is referred to as Q or QQ. It plays a key role in the texture of fish balls, noodles, and mochi. Actually, the true quality of a boba drink is determined by how how much Q power is contained in the tapioca pearls. Achieving the perfect Q is quite hard to do – boba containing the perfect Q isn’t overly soft or bouncy, but is well balanced between the two.

History of Boba

Before the 1980s hit, tapioca balls rich in Q were a routine topping for desserts such as the shaved ice found everywhere in Taiwan, while tea with milk was firmly ensconced as a well-liked local drink.

The two weren’t combined, however, until tea shop owner Liu Han Chieh started to serve cold tea at his shop in Taichung, called Chun Shui Tang, in the early part of the ’80s. Several years after this, product manager for the company, Lin Hsiu Hui, placed balls of  tapioca into her iced tea during meeting, and the drink was born.

While there are other myths about the drink’s origins, one fact that is for certain is that the name “boba” is connected to a Hong Kong goddess of sex of the 1980s Amy Yip, whose nickname, “Boba,” is Chinese slang for her, er, well, most renowned pair of physical accouterments.

Evolution

The regular tapioca iced tea drink has evolved quite a lot since its start, becoming a whole genre of drinks. The milks can vary quite a bit, you have whole milk and skim milk, and almond milk and coconut, or frequently no milk is added at all, The pearls have a vast array of sizes and colors, from the size of peas, to marbles, red, crystal clear, or square-shaped.

It is said that over 21,000 boba shops now populate Taiwan, and there are literally thousands more globally, many owned by famous international chains. Furthermore, while the term boba was originally only used to describe tea, now there is a boba tend that has spread over Taiwan and the word is now used in reference to desserts, cocktails, 

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