Typically a combination of milky tea and chewy tapioca ‘pearls’, the beverage also known as boba tea is so beloved it was the subject of a years-long legal battle.
Photography by Hugh Mitton, AlamyThis article was produced by National Geographic Traveller As much a textural marvel as a refreshing drink, bubble tea is one of Taiwan’s most renowned cultural exports. The eponymous ‘bubbles’ aren’t the result of carbonation, but a pile of chewy, sweet, balls of starch that sit at the bottom of the cup and are sucked up along with the liquid through an extra-wide straw.
Bubble tea has since proliferated across the world, with dedicated shops popping up everywhere from Berlin to Brasilia, and you’ll find starch pearls in much more than milk tea. They’re served in all sorts of ways, whether that’s in rose-scented lattes or even as a pizza topping.Photography by Brent Hofacker, AlamyTexture is an important component of Taiwanese cuisine; a lot of dishes on the island exist more for their mouthfeel than flavour, such as crunchy pig’s ears and bouncy fish balls.
Over in Tainan, the founder of Hanlin Tea Room was inspired by the dessert stalls at his local traditional market. “He’d been thinking for a couple of days how to increase the value of his drink, when he suddenly noticed the starch balls in sugar water that a grandmother was selling,” says Jack Huang, an operations manager at Hanlin. “He thought: why is this only paired with sugar? So he added it to tea.
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