Tapioca pearls, graceful decoration: how to recognize an excellent bubble tea

I don’t want to be an expert, but I still have a featured story on my Instagram called “Bubble T” where it is That picture of me with weak head and bubble tea in hand.

I won’t talk about the bubble tea “trend” here, because we’re not boomers, we know it exists, we know it’s good. Let’s just mention the history: bubble tea appeared in Taiwan in the 1980s and it seems that its cold version was invented by chance by a tea shop employee who mixed iced tea and tapioca pearls.

For the bubble tea, appearance doesn’t really matter

Bubble tea expert Empress Wu (@imperatricewu) aka Hunter Gourmet told us that she thinks there are two types of bubble tea. Those who prefer very sweet and “Western” tastes, such as bubble tea creme brulé. And the more “traditional” bubble teas with more pronounced tea flavours.

Sure, some are worth more than others. But then how do we recognize a REAL good bubble tea?

Empress Wu explains that visual appearance is not the best way to recognize a good bubble tea. “It is impossible to judge by appearance”, because many of them are very beautiful and not necessarily delicious. However, Empress Wu explains that some establishments make the tapioca pearls themselves, which may be an indication of the bubble tea’s quality.

A good bubble tea is not stingy with pearls

So of course, be careful. Too many pearls = risk of swallowing wrong = hurts the throat. But we also come for that (pearls, don’t swallow the wrong way), so we need it. No thanks to sad drinks with three pearls dueling against a backdrop of green tea.

Bubble tea: syrups or fresh fruit?

A priori, everyone knows how to mix water with strawberry syrup, so it shouldn’t cost 6 euros. The syrup isn’t a bad thing, however, as many locals use it in addition to fresh fruit.

A bubble tea containing fresh fruit is always going to be better, so watch out for chunks of strawberries, raspberries, and other melons (er, not sure if wet melon chunks are crazy).

Next to fruit, the more the taste of tea is present the better, obviously for Empress Wu who explains that black tea is better in a bubble tea. Knowing that the drink is then diluted with milk, the flavor of the tea can be lost very quickly. A clue to identify the presence of a good tea? The smell when you enter the bubble tea shop.

Make your own bubble tea?

Empress Wu explains that she has tried making bubble tea many times before and it’s not that easy or quick to make, especially tapioca pearls. For her, the pleasure of bubble tea is sharing it with her friends, so she might as well go out and buy some to enjoy together.

Here you have all the information you need to make an informed choice when looking for a good bubble tea. Finally, here is @impreatricewu’s top 9 that you can find on her Instagram page:

Photo credit: RODNAE Productions / Pexels and Unsplash

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