Fun Facts about Boba Tea

First, there was the traditional way of drinking tea that has taken the form of ritual in many cultures. Then, there was ice tea, a simple tea drink with ice cubes and a splash of fruit juice or slices of fruit. The ice tea was invented in the World Exposition in St. Louis in 1904 as go-to refreshment during the hot days. There are other popular iterations of the world-famous tea drink such as the Thai tea and India’s Masala chai. The most recent addition to the tea family is the boba tea, a blend of brewed tea, milk, sugar, and tapioca pearls called boba. Here are some facts about Boba Tea!

Boba tea, also known as bubble tea, is a widely appreciated, but at times misunderstood, beverage that had captivated Southeast Asia and many parts of the West. Here are some fun facts about boba tea that many people probably are not aware of:

• Boba tea drink was developed in 1988 in Taiwan where tea houses are as common as coffee houses in the U.S. Lin Hsiu Hui, product manager of Shui Tang tea house playfully dumped her sweetened tapioca dessert into her ice tea during a staff meeting. The resulting beverage caught everybody’s attention and the playful action resulted to the tea concoction that made Lin Hsiu Hui more famous. The new concoction became one of the top sellers for the house and eventually, a top seller all over the world.
• Boba tea has been given different names in the different cities and countries where they become very popular but all the names refer to the same tea drink made from black or green tea, milk, sugar, and the tapioca balls, either big or small, made from cassava starch. The tapioca balls got their dark color from the brown sugar that was added in the cooking process.
• McDonald’s McCafe in Germany and Austria started offering boba tea in their stores in 2012 and the drink has widespread acceptance.
• Zhun zhu nai cha is the Chinese name for the boba milk tea. When the beverage was introduced in Hong Kong, the locals started calling it boba, a slang term for big breasts. It was in reference to the bigger tapioca pearls as differentiated from the small tapioca balls.
• The boba tea drink, while having tapioca balls as the main attraction, can come in different flavors including cantaloupe, lychee, avocado, jackfruit, almond, sesame, ginger, aloe vera, ice cream, different types of nuts, and other flavor.
• The tapioca balls, or boba, are chewy solids in the beverage could be choke hazards to small children. Parents must caution their children when they are drinking/eating boba tea.
• The calorie content of a boba tea drink depends on the brand of boba tea you drink or the tea shop that sells it. Each shop has its own way of preparing their beverage hence there is no set standard on the calorie count. One popular shop, Lollicup, claims that each glass of boba tea drink they sell contains 440 calories, with 216 of the calories derived from fat.