While we were in Denver a few weeks ago, I found myself totally clueless about bubble tea. We had been looking for houses (my least favorite thing to do) and it was suggested that I reward myself by having a bubble tea. Yes, please! Due to Covid, we had to use the drive thru at the bubble tea shop named Mini Moo’s Tea Shop because the walk-in or dine-in options were not available. Looking at all the options on a billboard, while in a car, knowing that there were cars behind me, made me panic. I didn’t know what to order because I didn’t know what bubble tea was. Everyone else in my car knew exactly what to get. I ended up getting a watermelon flavored milk tea with bubbles.

I decided to write about National Bubble Tea Day because I don’t know much about this beverage and I thought it would be fun to learn about it. National Bubble Tea Day is celebrated on April 30th and was officially celebrated in Taiwan, the country of origin, in 2020 even though it has been celebrated in the US since 2018.

Wikipedia informs us that there are two kinds of Bubble Tea - tea with milk and tea without milk. I learned that the biggest misconception of why the tea is called bubble tea is that people assume the tapioca pearls are shaped like bubbles. But the term “bubble” actually refers to the bubbles that occur when the hot tea and the milk are shaken up. Other names for bubble tea are: pearl milk tea, boba milk tea, or boba. In general, there are three kinds of tea that are used for bubble tea: black, green and oolong. Whatever tea we prefer to use is mixed with milk (or not) plus fruit flavors and then toppings are added.  In case you didn’t know, “toppings” don’t stay on top or float, they sink to the bottom of the cup.

Moving on to what makes bubble tea so popular. It’s all about the choices. Ordering this type of tea is similar to ordering coffee at Starbucks - anything goes when we order our tea. There is no right or wrong way to get what we want because all tea drinks are made to order. The basics elements are: 1. Choose the type of tea - black, green or oolong. 2. Choose to have it with or without milk. 3. Choose how we want our drink prepared:

A. Milk - milk and tea plus ice.

B. Punch - no milk but tea and fruit juice or lemonade plus ice.

C. Classic - no milk but tea poured over ice

And then the last step 4. Choose the “toppings”. The most popular topping is Tapioca “bubbles” or “boba” which include the ingredients tapioca starch and brown sugar. I equate these tapioca balls to the tiniest raw dough balls I’ve ever seen. Since the boba/bubbles are chewy, I consider their part in the bubble tea experience to be the sweet mini meal that tides me over until dinner. Other toppings include but are not limited to: pudding, Nata jelly (coconut pulp + pineapple flavoring), red bean, herbal jelly, aloe jelly, popping bubbles in lots of flavors such as grape, mango, coffee etc. I believe tapioca is the only topping that has a chewy/squishy texture. The rest of the toppings burst once you bite into them releasing more sweetness into the drink.

All of this sounds super easy when it is laid out this way but it’s much more complicated than that because nowadays there are many venues that offer bubble tea. Whether it is a dedicated bubble tea venue or a coffee house/tea shop that offers some bubble tea in addition to the other styles of tea, each venue offers something unique. They also have different ways of saying the same things; like Grande instead of Small. For instance, Kung Fu Tea is a popular tea shop and is considered the Starbucks for bubble tea (that’s a quote on their website). They offer the same three variations of how to have the tea prepared (see above) but in addition they also have a “slush” version which is blended ice (think instead of a margarita on the rocks it is blended - this can be blended with milk, without milk or fruit juice), “milk cap”, “milk strike”, yogurt and espresso. Meanwhile Mini Moo’s offers a Snow Bubbles and places like Happy Lemon just take things in a whole other direction with Salted Cheese. There are two ways to approach a new tea spot - we can be adventurous by figuring out all the different bells and whistles or we can go back to the basics elements and order something that we know we will like.

According to nationaldaycalendar.com , the company Kung Fu Tea founded National Bubble Tea Day on April 30, 2018 because the company itself was founded on April 30, 2010. Their story is great, feeling homesick for their childhood drink from Taiwan, they decided to bring it to America, specifically to NYC. Bubble tea was invented in Taichung in the 1980’s and by 1990, it was super popular in Japan and Hong Kong. Nowadays, having a bubble tea is as common as having coffee, soft drinks, Acaí bowls, smoothies, Kombucha etc.

Ok, this is when I am going to get all tea nerdy on you. I read that some bubble tea venues use kung fu tea. I wanted to learn what kung fu tea was because of course I thought it was just a catchy Americanized name for the bubble tea company. I Googled it and learned that kung fu tea is actually a blanket term that incorporates brewing style, quality of tea and way of life. Many of us think of Bruce Lee when it comes to kung fu. I may not do this justice but the way I interpret it is that kung fu means practicing something over and over in order to be good at it. Making tea takes time and energy to do it well. To support this concept, this article talks about tea trees, tea leaves and the processes. While this article talks about the origin of kung fu tea and talks about the difference between the Mandarin phrase which refers to skill and effort while …”the Chaozhou phrase refers to something more like ‘the proper way of doing things.’ “ In this article I learned that kung fu tea comes from the original phrase gong fu tea and again, it is a broad term to cover all aspects of tea - brewing style, serving style, quality of tea used, philosophies, tea consuming styles. Interestingly, the article goes into detail about the whole Chaozhou tradition and how gong fu tea is prepared and served. After learning this, I understand why venues like Kung Fu Tea want to bring the tea experience to its consumers. They hope that their tea will have an effect on the body, mind and spirit. In other words, taste and smell of the tea is not their only concern. Kung Fu Tea uses kung fu tea because they strive to remain the leading bubble tea venue in the US. Always trying to stay relevant, they were the first bubble tea brand to have a mobile app.

While still in Denver, after my bubble tea experience, we were talking on the phone with my sister-in-law’s bestie who happens to live in Taiwan. She mostly grew up in Southern CA and she is the one who had introduced my sister-in-law to bubble tea many years ago. They both talked about the quality of bubble tea back in the day and how much it has changed so much. Some changes for the good and some not so good. I thought it was interesting how bubble tea - mostly known as boba over in Taiwan - is a way of life. The competition is intense in Taiwan and so the standards must be high. Learning about the effect that tea can play on our spirit, I can see why people would take it seriously. I’m pretty sure the older traditions of kung fu tea were not thinking about Oreos or lemonade playing any part in their tea experiences.

Sorry if you already knew all this information about bubble tea; I’m a late bloomer. My hope is that even if you didn’t learn something new, that I at least pumped you up to celebrate a refreshment that is fun for all ages to enjoy. Get out there and have some bubble tea on April 30th. Gift cards to a bubble tea place, a big metal bubble tea straw or two, bubble tea stickers, a night light like the one below, recommendations on your favorite combos or the ultimate - bringing a bubble tea to someone - all would make wonderful thoughtful pinches.

Pinches,

Barb