Where did boba come from? How did we get to the boba we know and love today?
Let’s take a look at how boba has evolved over the years.
The Origin Story of Boba
In the lifetime of all drinks, boba, also known as bubble tea, is actually still pretty young. The origin story of boba is highly debatable among the boba community, but what we know for sure is that boba began in the 80’s in Taiwan. The most common story is that the shop owner of Chun Shui Tang visited Japan and encountered cold coffee, which inspired him to sell cold tea, the basis for our typical milk tea drink today. As for the tapioca topping itself, the generally accepted version is that his product manager poured tapioca pudding in her drink for fun during a meeting, and it ended up being a hit with everyone there. Following suit, the tapioca pudding soon evolved into the little spheres of starch that we know and love today.
The Spread
Boba was something new and fun - no one really expects to be chewing something while drinking tea. Following its creation, boba slowly spread throughout Asia, specifically in mainland China and other parts of southeast Asia. This is why many people try boba whenever they visit Taiwan and China; the older boba shops have had many more years of experimenting and trying to perfect a boba drink, so it is often agreed that some of the best boba is evidently at the heart of the home of boba.
Boba in California
Boba was something new and fun - no one really expects to be chewing something while drinking tea. Following its creation, boba slowly spread throughout Asia, specifically in mainland China and other parts of southeast Asia. This is why many people try boba whenever they visit Taiwan and China; the older boba shops have had many more years of experimenting and trying to perfect a boba drink, so it is often agreed that some of the best boba is evidently at the heart of the home of boba.
Boba Evolution
There’s a lot of versatility and creative freedom you can have with boba. Boba started out as just milk and green tea with some tapioca spheres, maybe some more sugar or ice, however, people started innovating. Suddenly, it wasn’t just milk tea anymore. There were so many different options such as jasmine milk tea, taro milk tea, wintermelon milk tea, and then later, you didn’t even need milk tea to enjoy boba; people started putting boba in regular teas and even slushies. In addition to all the flavors of drink, there were also more toppings and variations of boba: mini boba pearls, popping boba, lychee jelly, and even egg pudding!
Boba Traction
Although more boba shops were popping up, boba still wasn’t that popular until this past decade. It just wasn’t well known, and the way you’d know what boba was mainly through word of mouth or if it’s already part of your family’s culture or habits. It was weird to have something chewy in your drink, and newcomers were barely starting to get used to the idea. As mentioned before, boba drinks evolved beyond the basic milk tea, and that same versatility and creativity comes into play as different boba stores started packaging or presenting their drinks to produce particular aesthetics. As time passed, boba gained traction initially through social media. There are many factors that come into play when we examine the appeal of boba, but what’s changed from the past is that people had more ways to share their drink. The boba aesthetic combined with the cultural appeal shared on social media attracted many people to just try boba for fun, and with the internet, the easy outreach possibilities were more than anyone prior to the era could have imagined. Suddenly, boba was no longer a weird drink; it was more weird if you didn’t know what it was.
Boba Now
Boba remains popular today, and it’s not a trend that goes away. In the past, boba was new and could be seen as weird, but with social media and the constant creativity, boba shops and drinks have established a name and image for themselves.
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