Bubble tea with tapioca pearls
Té de burbujas con perlas de tapioca (bubble tea)
- Date
- c. 1983-1990 · confidence low
- Place
- Taichung, Taiwan
- Credited to
- Tea houses of Taichung and Tainan (disputed)
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A drink of cold tea with milk, sugar and chewy tapioca pearls, served with a wide straw. It was born in Taiwan in the 1980s and spread across Asia and the world as a fashionable drink.
Two tea houses claim the origin: Chun Shui Tang (Taichung), whose manager Lin Hsiu-hui is said to have added the pearls around 1988, and Hanlin (Tainan), where Tu Tsong-he says he devised them in 1986. No documents settle priority.
What it led to
- bubble-tea shop chains worldwide
- fruit, cheese-foam and milk variants in Asian drink culture
- export of Taiwanese food culture