origin of bubble tea
Bubble Tea originated in Taiwan in the early 1980's at a small
tea stand.
Elementary school children would look forward to buying a cup of
refreshing tea after a long, hard day of work and play. Tea stands
were set up in front of the schools and would compete for business
with the best selling tea. One concession owner became popular with
her tea when she started adding different fruit flavoring to her
tea. Because of the sweet and cool taste, children loved the taste.
Soon, other concessions heard about the "unique" and popular tea,
so they started to add flavoring to their teas. When adding flavor,
the tea and flavoring needed to be shaken well for a good all
around taste. This formed bubbles in the drink, which came to be
known as "Bubble Tea."
In 1983 Liu Han-Chieh introduced Taiwan to tapioca pearls. The new
fad was to add tapioca pearls into a favorite drink. Most of the
time tapioca pearls were served in cold infused tea. After the tea
and flavor were shaken well, it topped tapioca pearls that were
sitting on the bottom of a clear cup. The tapioca pearls also
looked like bubbles, thus also became to known as "Bubble Tea."
Bubbles floated on the top your drink and bottom of your drink.
