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https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/16/its-going-gangbusters-how-britain-fell-in-love-with-bubble-tea>
"On a sunny Thursday afternoon, the Covent Garden branch of Gong cha is doing a
roaring trade. Staff behind the counter are busy preparing drinks for a string
of customers, all ordering from an electronic pad in the corner. One leaves
with a purple concoction flavoured with the root vegetable taro; another sips
on a milky tea laced with brown sugar “pearls”. A third grabs a bright drink
tasting of passion fruit and adorned with floating coconut jelly.
It’s a scene being played out more and more as bubble tea shops like Gong cha
pop up around the UK. Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, has just got its first (called
Just Poppin); in Canterbury, Kent, there are six shops to choose from; and a
new branch of American bubble tea brand CoCo recently had dozens of people
queueing down Glasgow’s Bath Street.
Alongside the specialists, high-street stalwarts are also turning their
attention to the drink. After dipping its toe in the water last year, Costa
Coffee has put three bubble tea frappés on its summer menu (in addition to the
two more-conventional versions it sells under “iced teas”), while supermarkets
have added DIY kits to their shelves. After decades of bubbling under the
surface, this intriguing drink appears to be getting its time in the spotlight.
The exact origin of bubble tea (or boba tea, as it’s also commonly known) is
disputed – but all of the stories take us back to Taiwan, and usually to the
1980s. It’s widely agreed that the first iteration was a shaken iced tea with
an added fruit flavouring, and that it was named after the froth that floated
on the top. At some point, someone had the bright idea of adding round pearls
of tapioca (a starch that comes from the roots of the cassava plant and was
already popular in desserts) to the mix. Typically sinking to the bottom, these
are the “boba” of boba tea – the word means “balls” in Cantonese.
It may seem extraordinary to anyone who can remember being dished up tapioca
pudding – AKA frogspawn – at school, but the combination of refreshing milky
tea, sugar and these slightly chewy little orbs proved a hit. Taiwan’s
consumers embraced the drink and there are tens of thousands of boba outlets in
the country today. China boasts hundreds of thousands, and the drink has made
millionaires (even billionaires) out of some of the big chains’ founders."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
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mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
