Bubble Tea

50 recipes for the deliciously fun and colourful Taiwanese tea drink that everyone's talking about!

Bubble tea, also known as boba milk tea, is a Taiwanese drink that has been become hugely popular around the globe. The first bubble tea shop opened in Taichung, Taiwan, in 1988 and sold milk teas with chewy boba. Since then, bubble tea fever has spread all over Asia, Australia and beyond. In 2009 bubble tea shops began opening in North America and Europe and in the past few years the trend is growing at an exponential rate.

Bubble tea is a drink made from tea and milk, and includes other ingredients such as tapioca balls, popping boba, fruit jelly or 'nata de coco' (coconut gel). It is often also finished with a whipped 'crown' topping made from cream cheese. The name bubble tea comes from the balls or boba that are added to the drink and float in the transparent cup when the drink is shaken. These are sucked up from the drinks through special oversized bubble tea straws. There are two main types of bubble tea base: the traditional black, green and oolong tea-based ones and fruit-flavoured drinks such as mango and strawberry, but you can make bubble tea from almost anything you fancy and it can also form the base of a whole range of virgin and alcoholic bubble tea cocktails too! If you haven't tried a bubble tea yet where have you been?

About the Author

Livia Abraham is a food and drink stylist and recipe writer who works on TV, film, advertising and editorial. She trained at the Cordon Bleu in London and Tokyo, at the French Culinary Institute in New York and at the Alain Ducasse School in Paris.

With a previous career in fashion and design Livia brings a unique creative perspective to her work. Livia is based in London but travels widely for work.