Taiwan is the undisputed boba capital of the world: Here, the midday caffeine hit is a boba break, not a coffee run, and a shoulder-slung boba cupholder is the must-have accessory. Okay, but what even is it? The pearls are made from tapioca starch, an extract of the South American cassava plant, which came to Taiwan from Brazil via Southeast Asia during the period of Japanese rule between 1895 tiger milk tea 1945. Tapioca pearls start white, hard, and rather tasteless, and then are boiled inside huge, bubbling vats and steeped in sugary caramelized syrup for hours, until eventually they’re transformed into those black, springy tapioca pearls we’ve come to know and slurp.
It’s that addictive texture that’s become the boba signature. Look around and you’ll see the Q plastered prominently on food packaging and affixed to shop signs. It’s also key to the texture of mochi, fish balls, and noodles. Prior to the 1980s, Q-rich tapioca balls were a common topping for desserts like the ubiquitous heaps of snow-like shaved ice found throughout Taiwan, while milk tea was already a favorite local drink.
Since its beginnings, the basic tapioca iced tea recipe has evolved into an entire genre of drinks. The pearls can be fat as marbles, small as peas, square-shaped, red, or even crystal clear. As the sheer number of boba options reaches critical mass, it’s hard for a boba slinger to stand out. The boba arms race escalated dramatically over the last decade — especially since Instagram started seeping into Taiwanese culture — and a new breed of shop has begun offering more elaborate drinks with outrageous flavors and virality-primed color combinations. Classic Milk Tea The one that started it all. Black tea is shaken with frothy milk, crushed ice, and a few generous handfuls of marble-sized, caramelized tapioca pearls.
There are versions with different milks and various teas, but the classic still satisfies. Brown Sugar Ultra-rich brown sugar boba tea has been an explosive hit in Taiwan, made popular in part thanks to the chain Tiger Sugar — a milk-heavy boba drink doused with a generous shot of cloyingly sweet brown sugar syrup, all swirling in a beautiful gradient of cocoa-browns and pearly whites. Fruit-Filled If milk isn’t your cup of tea, there are fresh fruit-based boba drinks that have the same addictive textures. Cheese Tea A Taiwanese night market stand began combining powdered cheese and salt with whipping cream and milk to form a foamy, tangy layer on the top of a cup of cold tea. The cheese-topped drink is now popular in many parts of Asia, and has found an audience Stateside as well.
Edibles, Cocktails, Skincare, and All the Rest Considering the amount of chewing already involved, it’s no surprise that boba pearls are now starring in a number of culinary applications, working their way into everything from souffle pancakes, sandwiches, hot pot soup, pizza, creme brulee, and of course the stalwart, shaved ice. For those who wish for their boba stiff, there are now boba cocktails, made with vodka, tequila, gin, rum, or bourbon. Bars throughout Taiwan and beyond are experimenting with these alcoholic boba concoctions, and Los Angeles even has a boba-centric bar dedicated to liquor-filled spins on traditional boba flavors. And then, go ahead, smear boba all over your face if you want. Order Like A Pro Boba comes equipped with its own lingo. Whichever style you choose, get your drink like a local — fully customized. Leslie Nguyen-Okwu is a bilingual journalist based in Taipei, Taiwan, and covers emerging Asia.
Sean Marc Lee is a portraiture, lifestyle, editorial, and street fashion photographer who splits his time between Taipei, Tokyo, and Los Angeles. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Notice and European users agree to the data transfer policy. Darjeeling tea is a tea made from Camellia sinensis var. The tea leaves are harvested by plucking the plant’s top two leaves and the bud, from March to November, a time span that is divided into four flushes. Tea plants were first planted in the Darjeeling region in the mid-1800s. At the time, the British were seeking an alternative supply of tea apart from China and attempted growing the plant in several candidate areas in India. Both the newly discovered assamica variety and the sinensis variety were planted but the sloped drainage, cool winters and cloud cover favoured var.
Production methods again shifted in the 1990s as Western Europe and Japan replaced the collapsed Soviet Union as Darjeeling’s principal customers and new garden managers were bringing the principles of biodynamic agriculture to their practices. In 1983 a logo was created, currently property of the Tea Board of India, consisting of the side profile of a woman holding two leaves and a bud. Environmental factors combined with a history of organized cultivation and processing has created a terroir unique to Darjeeling tea. It has been marketed as the “Champagne of teas” and been subject to undisclosed blending with other teas or purposeful mis-labelling.