bubble tea/milk tea

[Indigo Som]

>Has "bubble" tea been going around?  It's tea and milk and sugar and
>tapioca balls about half an inch in diameter.  One drinks it through
>a very large straw, big enough to suck up the tapioca balls.  There
>is an Asian mall near me that sells a lot of it - but since it's a
>Pan-Asian mall, I think it's Taiwanese primarily, but I'm not sure.

Bubble tea, aka tapioca tea, aka pearl tea is Taiwanese in origin. Here in
the SF Bay Area I think it hasn't quite caught on among non-Asians, except
in places like Berkeley near UC campus where there is such a massive Asian
influence. (Within a couple blocks of campus are at least half a dozen
shops selling tapioca.) Also it seems like mostly younger people are into
tapioca. Anyway, the most common forms involve tea -- "pearl milk tea" --
but you can also get fruit &/or ice cream versions. Sort of like a smoothie
or a milkshake w/ tapioca. Some places sell drinks w/ or w/o pearls, so
when ordering you'd say, "& I'd like pearls (or tapioca) w/ that". I think
"pearl" and "tapioca" are both much more common than "bubble". There are
also hot pearl drinks, but those are significantly less common than cold
ones.

Indigo, who prefers a lychee pearl drink with no dairy

Indigo Som
indigo at well.com

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