Bubble tea....what actually is it and why is it so popular?

[Yankydoodledandy]

Have just past a bubble tea shop and people are literally queuing outside. Ive googled it but just dont get it 😝

You have to be careful of the balls as some people don't digest them properly and they get seriously constipated!

Popping balls? Cheese tea? 🤮

Fruit tea with popping bubbles - lush

Milky tea with chewy boba - bleuch

I love bubble tea. I drink both but do prefer the ones that pop.

I LOVE cheese tea. It’s not actually cheese. Discovered it in Korea a few years ago. I’m so happy it’s available here now.

I had one last month to the enormous amusement of my kids. It was a weak fruity 'tea' (water) with little fruit balls in which popped in your mouth. I quite liked it but not enough spend £4 on another ever again. The fruit balls all ganged up in the straw then zoomed into my mouth at once making me slightly hysterical. It was very funny.

Honestly all the drama about how vile it is! I think it's really important to remember you're talking about something from another culture and all this drama about it makes you seem a bit small minded. People can enjoy different things. It might not be for you but calling it frogspawn or vile is just cringe. Bubble tea is also such a varied thing, a bit like hot tea or coffee. It comes in so many forms I'm not sure it's something you can write off after one try.

I quite like the juicy popping ones. Reminds me of giving the bath pearls a good squeeze in The Body Shop when I was young.

I tried Mogu Mogu on the recommendation of Filipino colleagues when I was over there and that has quite an unpleasant texture - you have to chew big mouthfuls of jelly. Gagged a bit down to look polite and then blocked a sink trying to sneakily dispose of it 😄

Yep. Very milky, overly sweet tea with tapioca?!!

I love it, but I really like jelly.

I get fruit tea with fruit popping boba and jelly if available. Usually either a lychee or mango tea, with the reverse option of popping boba and tropical jelly.

I've never tried a milk tea. Had tapioca boba in Hong Kong and wasn't keen but might try again.

There's queues because it's a bit of a faff to make. It's expensive though.

It's very common throughout East Asia and not at all new.

I clicked on this thinking it was going to be about bubble and squeak for tea, god I'm out of touch!

Bubble tea is something that sounds like a texture nightmare for me, the idea of those lumps in a drink that you have to chew 🤢

My DD(9) loves these. We found one on holiday in Jan as well and she had one there too.
she seems to like the strawberry milk tea with boba. Everytime we go into town for something (luckily very few and far between!) she asks for one!

It's been around for years, DD was obsessed (probably via Snapchat - that dates it! Definitely pre Tik Tok era). Usually sold from stalls in shopping centres.

Is it having a resurgence?

I love a fruity bubble tea....either lychee or passion fruit. Haven't tried a milky one yet...maybe one day.

There’s so many different varieties and customisations (more or less sweet, hot or cold) it’s hard to say you love or hate it. I like the milk teas (honeydew or coconut or taro, something like that) with popping fruit flavoured boba. Its quite like a milkshake. Really refreshing on a hot day. The chain Bubbology do alcoholic ones in their Soho branch, then it’s more like a cocktail. I don’t really like the tapioca or anything really sweet.

There is a bubbletea shop round the corner and we get it on special occasions like birthdays.
The variety is fun, i like the fruity ones with the popping balls.
My son likes the fruity kind that is blended with ixe so its more like a fruity slushie with the balls in.
My dad has a hot one with no sweetners at all. Its fun and there are so many kinds.

It’s delicious if made right , but I find some of the shops that have spring up here go overboard with the options which seriously puts me off, and apart from the faff of ordering I doubt they taste great either. I prefer the basic, classic kind which you find and became famous throughout Taiwan, China etc, not the OTT varieties.

It’s often on good to go on the time I finish work so do enjoy it.. but it is over priced to pay full price imo

I love it but I stick to one flavour - mango with lychee balls.

My DS is somewhat obsessed with everything Japanese and this is one of those things he sees as a real treat.

There are much worse things.

Exactly this - the fruit variety is lush.

I do not play with the weird milky variety.

I adore bubble tea. Not the milky one, but the fruit flavour tea. The popping boba and the tapioca are amazing! Full of sugar though!

Was good ten years ago when it first hit the UK, now bad versions of it are everywhere!!

We like the green tea with fruit syrup and fruity popping balls.

Not tried or remotely interested in milky teas or chewy tapioca.

I buy a bundle once in a while as a treat for the family. It's harmless fun really as long as it's a treat not an everyday thing due to the sugar content. Much like a hot chocolate.

I have always been curious about it too OP