Bubble Tea

What is bubble tea?

Bubble tea, also known as pearl milk tea, boba milk tea or boba is a Taiwanes tea-based drink invented in tea shops in Taichung, Taiwan in the 1980’s. The most bubble tea recipes contain a tea base mixed with fruit or milk. Ice-blended versions are usually mixed with fruit or syrup, resulting in a slushy consistency. 

The fruity flavours  highly requested are strawberry, green apple, passion fruit, mango, lemon, watermelon, grape, lychee, peach, pineapple, cantaloupe (a sweet melon), honeydew (also a sort of melons), banana, avocado, coconut and kiwi. Other popular non-fruity and creamy flavours include taro, chocolate, coffee, mocha, black milk tea, thai tea, lavender tea, and rose tea. Most bubble teas come with small chewy tapioca balls, called “pearls” or “boba”.

The most popular bubble drinks are bubble milk tea with tapioca and bubble milk green tea with tabioca.

What are the ingredients of bubble tea?

The drink is made with four ingredients:

-          Flavour: flavoured powder, flavoured syrup, fruit purees or fresh fruit

-          Creamer: powder creamer, half-n-half, full milk or other creamer

-          Sweetener: sugar, simple sugar syrup, fructose or honey

-          Liquid: water, tea or milk

Why is bubble tea dangerous?

German researches from a University in Aachen have found out that this famous and seemingly harmless drink is maybe dangerous.

According to the study, they discovered traces of a carcinogenic chemical in the tabioca pearls which are made in Taiwan but this pearls in the tea contain also substances that “shouldn’t be in food at all”.

The fact that the tabioca pearls could be a choking hazard is well known in media across the world, but now coupled with the tea that they could be cancer causing as well, the public health and food safety has become a forefront in nearly everyone’s minds.