Bubble tea
 A cup of bubble tea | |
| Alternative names | Boba Pearl milk tea Boba milk tea Boba tea Boba nai cha Tapioca tea |
|---|---|
| Course | Drink |
| Place of origin | Taiwan |
| Region or state | Worldwide |
| Invented | 1980s |
| Serving temperature | Hot or cold |
| Main ingredients | Tapioca, milk, creamer, brewed tea, sugar, flavorings |
Bubble tea (also known as pearl milk tea, bubble milk tea, tapioca milk tea, boba tea, or boba; Chinese: 珍珠奶茶; pinyin: zhēnzhū nǎichá, 波霸奶茶; bōbà nǎichá) is a tea-based drink most often containing chewy tapioca balls, milk, and flavoring. It originated in Taiwan in the 1980s and spread to other countries where there is a large East Asian diaspora population.
Bubble tea is most commonly made with tapioca pearls (also known as "boba" or "balls"), but it can be made with other toppings as well, such as grass jelly, aloe vera, red bean, and popping boba. It has many varieties and flavors, but the two most popular varieties are pearl black milk tea and pearl green milk tea ("pearl" for the tapioca balls at the bottom). Some of the largest global bubble tea chains include Chatime, CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice, Gong Cha, and Kung Fu Tea.
Two Taiwanese tea rooms, Chun Shui Tang in Taichung, and Hanlin Tea Room in Tainan, claim the invention of bubble tea in 1988 and 1986 respectively; litigation between them resulted in a 2019 ruling that bubble tea was non-patentable. Introduced to the United States in the 1990s, where it is more commonly called boba, the drink gained popularity in the 2010s and became a symbol of Asian American cultural identity, including the terms "boba life" and "boba liberal".
There are ongoing debates over the drink's impact on health. While the drink most often contains green or black tea, which offers many health benefits, it also has a high sugar and caloric content, which could exacerbate chronic diseases when consumed daily.