Does bubble tea have a significance in asian cultures?!
Does bubble tea have a significance in asian cultures?
Answers:
Bubble tea is a tea beverage that originated in Taiwan[1] in the 1980s. The term "bubble" refers to the tapioca balls in the drink. These chewy tapioca balls, or "pearls," are consumed along with the beverage through a wide straw (pictured). Bubble tea is extremely popular in Asia, Europe and Canada. It has only recently started to gain popularity in the United States.
Bubble tea is generally split into two types: fruit-flavored teas, and milk teas. Milk teas may use dairy or non-dairy creamers. Bubble tea is especially popular in many East Asian regions such as Taiwan, China (including Hong Kong and Macau), South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Brunei.
Bubble tea is a mixture of iced or hot sweetened tea, milk, and often other flavourings. The distinctive characteristics of bubble tea are the black gummy balls made of tapioca (or, more commonly in East Asia, yam starch), called "pearls" or "boba" or balls that sit at the bottom of the cup. The pearls are larger than those found in tapioca pudding, with a diameter of at least 6 millimetres, but smaller ones are occasionally used. They are generally translucent brown with a darker brown centre, although pearls of other colors have also recently become available.
The original bubble tea consisted of a hot Taiwanese black tea, tapioca pearls, condensed milk, and honey. As this drink became more popular, variations were created. Initially iced versions with a hint of peach or plum flavoring began to appear, then more fruit flavors were added until the tea was removed entirely in favor of real fruits. Today you can find shops entirely devoted to bubble tea, similar to juice bars of the early 1990's. They usually contain beautifully colored pearls that accent whatever fruit juice is used, in addition to brightly colored oversize straws for sucking up the pearls.
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When ordering, customers may be asked whether they want 'pearls' or 'boba' in their drinks, and both terms refer to the tapioca balls. The tapioca pearls require an hour for preparation, and they expand considerably when cooked. After they are cooked through but before they become too soft, the pearls are drained and poured into a sugar-water solution, and are ready for use.
Some cafes use a non-dairy milk substitute instead of milk, which adds a distinct flavour and consistency to the drink.
As time has moved on new generations of bubble drinks have come into being, such as, the 'Snow Bubble.' This 'Snow Bubble' drink is a slushie-like drink where you choose one of many fruit flavours and it is mixed in with shaved ice to make a smooth refreshing drink, after that the boba balls can be added from their assorted types, black boba which are the original, coloured, lychee bubbles, and rainbow boba; some of the many that are offered today.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bubble_tea...
i am chinese, and i love bubble tea. so does most of my asian friends. i would say that a lot of asians enjoy drinking it.
No it does not. The trend for drinking tapioca pearl tea (later called boba (because of their larger size than the regular tapioca) or bubble tea) was started in Taiwan nearly 2 decades ago.
It spread like "wildfire" across to Hong Kong and then across the Pacific to the US.
Orbitz marketed by Clearly Canadian Beverage copied the trend and tried to bottle the drink and sell it in 1996 but failed.