Can someone explain bubble tea to me please?

[TangoFruit]

I am as intrigued as I am grossed out by the thought of trying bubble tea but it seems so popular.

What do you ask for and how do you drink them?
Do you crunch the bubbles?

What on Earth are you all talking about?

Clearly I've been in lockdown too long! What else have I missed?!

the tapioca bubbles are grim - chewy glue tasting mushy & sticky.
I don't get the appeal at all.

my kids always pester me for it and there are always big queues at the mall

@PleaseReferToMeAsBritneySpears

What on Earth are you all talking about?

Clearly I've been in lockdown too long! What else have I missed?!

Kimchi? Bao buns? Velvetisers? Popit fidget toys? Wandavision? Shackets? White trainers with dresses? The Internet?

My 10 year old loves the stuff - she prefers the fruit ones, but has had the milky one too.
Even with the sweetness turned right down I find it a bit sickly.
I actually found the ones she made at home that I got online for her birthday were much nicer.
It's super popular though - we were in town on Sunday afternoon and both places had near enough run out of the tapioca pearls.

Can we calm down with the vile and disgusting comments?
You don't like it that's fine, it's an acquired tasty treat from South East Asia. A lot of people love it, myself included.

I first had bubble tea in about 2012 and I'm sure it's been around far longer than that in Asia!

GolfEchoRomeoTangoIndia

I've seen white trainers with dresses and I am online but the rest of what you said was just noise!

My daughter has made her own boba too, from tapioca flour, and it worked surprisingly well!

We, as a family, love bubble tea, choosing different flavours all the time - I'm not so keen on taro.

Isn’t it just a glass of sugar?

@pinkgin85

Can we calm down with the vile and disgusting comments? You don't like it that's fine, it's an acquired tasty treat from South East Asia. A lot of people love it, myself included.

So what? You like it. I find it disgusting. Opinions were asked and given.

DD loves it but makes it at home –you can buy frozen bags of the tapioca balls in our nearest Asian supermarket. She makes it with iced coffee, and the sight of the balls going up the wide straw (which she kept from the first and only time she bought one in a café) always reminds me of Augustus Gloop getting sucked up the pipe from chocolate river.

I've been wondering this.

The thought of bits floating about in my drink makes me want to heave

There's different types.

The dark brown balls are the traditional tapioca balls. They're a chewy punishment.

Then there's popping boba. Those are the colourful jelly-like bubbles with liquid inside. I think the shell is made from carageenan.

Jelly boba are jelly balls. Sometimes they're jelly cubes or shapes instead.

I like peach or mango ice tea with mango or lychee popping boba and jelly. I love jelly though.

The thought of bits floating about in my drink makes me want to heave
Isn't that what ice cubes do?

Never heard of this?

@notacooldad I don't do ice cubes for the same reason! I Chuck my drink out of there's a speck of fluff in it

@notacooldad I don't do ice cubes for the same reason!
I must admit I have gone off ice cubes for various reasons!!

I love bubble tea. My favourite combination is mango and passion fruit but I don't have any other fruit jellies or tapioca only because every time I suck through the straw, they shoot up to the back of my throat making me feel as if I'm choking. But the actual juice is very nice and refreshing!

Burnt sugar milk one is best
The Teens are into them but I think they are ok actually

So is it actually tea? Because it sounds like it's a smoothie?

It's not a smoothie, it's a cold kind of tea. The fruity ones are normally fruit flavoured iced tea, a bit like Lipton but with sugar rather than sweeteners.

I actually really like good iced tea but it seems hard to find in the UK. It's less sweet than Coke/Fanta, and thinner in consistency than juice or smoothies.

My Malaysian DIL introduced me to them - oh dear I thought I was going to be sick right there in the tea shop. Never again !

Bubble tea has been available in the UK for over 10 years. I'm really surprised so many people hadn't heard of it!

@starrynight21

My Malaysian DIL introduced me to them - oh dear I thought I was going to be sick right there in the tea shop. Never again !

It's just a sweet drink. Why would it make you feel sick?

I love it but it can get expensive I've bought the tapioca pearls and now make it at home (make a brown sugar syrup, add a tablespoon to cold milk, mix, add tapioca pearls). Delicious and much cheaper! You can get the popping boba (the fruit flavoured balls with juice inside) too but they're expensive and I prefer the original tapioca personally. I didn't like it the first time I tried it though, just didn't choose a good one!