Bubble‑tea’s Origin

Sweet and delicious, bubble tea came out of Taiwan, China, in the 1980s. It's usually made from tea mixed with syrup(糖浆), with the bottom of the cup filled with balls of tapioca(木薯淀粉)—called“pearls”,“bubbles” or“boba”— that are drunk through a wide straw (吸管). Bubble tea is popular all over the world, but who invented it?

There are actually two tea houses that say they invented bubble tea: Hanlin Tea Room in Tainan, in southwestern Taiwan, and Chun Shui Tang in Taichung, about 140 kilometres to the north.

In a 2020 interview with CNN, Hanlin founder, Tu Tsong He, said he saw tapioca balls at a market and decided to add some to his green tea. These tapioca balls were white, and looked almost like pearls, so he called the drink“pearl green tea”.

He later also tried using larger, black pearls—the colour comes from adding molasses.“The black bubble tea balls were bigger than the straws the market had then,” Tu told CNN. “Our customers had to use spoons to scoop out the tapioca balls. We had to work with a plastic factory to customize straws just for our tea.”He opened his first bubble tea shop in October 1986.

Meanwhile, Taichung's Chun Shui Tang says it started selling its own drink, called“bubble tea”, in 1987. In a 2017 interview with CNN, Chun Shui Tang's product development manager, LinHsiu Hui, said the drink was created when she tried pouring tapioca pudding into her iced tea in a meeting—and everyone loved it.

The two tea houses sued (起诉) each other to decide who really owns bubble tea. After 10 years, a court decided in 2019 that bubble tea is a type of drink, not a patented(专利的) product, so anyone can make it—and it doesn't matter who created it.

So we may never get an answer!