The Synergy Project Magazine - September 2020

THE HISTORY OF
BUBBLE TEA
By: Jacqueline Chen
Over the past few months,
the world has seen more Asian
representation in every industry around
the world. BTS and BlackPink continue
to top the charts with their latest hits,
Mulan is preparing to make a splash
at a box-office hit after Crazy Rich
Asians paved the way and bubble
tea has taken the food industry
by storm. The drink has become
extremely popular among the current
generation—and amongst all ethnic
groups—as people across the globe
sample flavors that are often found in
Asian treats.
The exact origins of bubble tea
still remain a mystery, with multiple
locations and backstories claiming to
be its true origin. The two competing
origin stories come from two different
tea rooms in Taiwan during the 1980s:
The Hanlin Tea Room in Tainan and
the Chun Shui Tang tea room in
Taichung. According to the Hanlin Tea
Room, the teahouse owner at the time,
Tu Tsong He, invented the drink after
purchasing tapioca balls in the Ya Mu
Liao market and adding them to his
black milk tea. The beverage was so
delicious that the Hanlin Tea Room
switched from white to black tapioca
pearls, the main difference being that
the black pearls are mixed with brown
sugar and honey. However, the real
inventor is credited as Lin Hsiu Hui,
who was the product development
manager at the Chun Shui Tang
teahouse in 1988 after dumping her
fen yuan, a confectionary dessert of
sweet tapioca balls, into her cold tea.
Regardless of its origins, the
drink became a huge success in its
country of origin, Taiwan, and later
spread first to southern China, then to
Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. The
pairing between cold tea and sweet,
chewy pearls made it a perfect drink
to enjoy in the hot and humid climates
of these regions. Today, bubble tea
is found all over the world in different
venues and under different aliases
including pearl milk tea, bubble milk
tea, and boba tea. Various additions
to the customary pearls have been
added over the years, including
grass jelly and red beans. As society
becomes more health conscious and
companies strive to adopt healthy
beverage options such as green tea,
black tea, oolong tea, and white tea,
bubble tea has become a popular
choice. As the demand for new
flavours and blends from the young
population, the variety is expected
to provide ground for more lucrative
opportunities to expand markets.
No other country could rival
Taiwan for one’s love for bubble tea.
For the people of Taiwan, bubble tea
is a literal representation of embracing
age-old cultural traditions with a touch
of modernism: the fusion of the ancient
tea-making process with the newer,
current tapioca pearls. It became a
sense of Taiwanese self-confidence
and an integral part of their identity.
In fact, in 2004, in hopes to convince
the public that a proposed weapons
purchase was not costly, the island’s
defense minister decided to distribute
leaflets stating that if every Taiwanese
skipped one glass of bubble tea each
week for the next 15 years, there would
be enough money left over to pay
for military expenses. The campaign
massively backfired and stirred heated
oppositions while simultaneously
bonding bubble tea makers and
drinkers from across the country.
Bubble tea has been and
continues to remain a popular
beverage among all age groups.
The rich, silky and satisfyingly chewy
bubble tea still remains the perfect
beverage for all hours of the day and
any occasion. But the best thing about
bubble tea is its variation. It boasts
an astonishing number of flavour
and blend combinations and topping
selections. So whether you’re with
your friends at the amusement park
or on your way for another study cram
session at your local library, consider
picking up a drink of bubble tea from
your local tea store and customizing
it to your liking. Your bubble tea, your
way.
Works Cited
1. Esa, Jessica. “The History of Bubble Tea + How
to Make It at Home.” Books and Bao, 28
Apr. 2020, booksandbao.com/history-ofbubble-tea-make-it-at-home/.
2. Krishna, Priya. “A Brief History of Boba.”
Food & Wine, Meredith Corporation, 6
June 2017, www.foodandwine.com/tea/
bubble-tea-taiwanese-street-drink-turnedamerican-addiction.
22 THE SYNERGY PROJECT MAGAZINE