Part drink, part snack and all-around tasty treat, bubble tea might be the most versatile drink ever invented — and it’s having a moment right now. The best bubble tea shops in Toronto are growing in number, and Toronto's cutest cafés and even big coffee chains have ventured into offering bubble tea-inspired boba drinks. Plus, there's even cross-over between bubble tea hype and Toronto's obsession with matcha drinks and treats.
Bubble tea originated in Taiwan in the 1980s, but only recently surged in popularity in Canada. Though its precise inception is unclear, several shops claim to be the first to add chewy tapioca pearls to milk tea.
Kenton Chan, Chatime co-founder and CEO
Bubble tea originated in Taiwan in the 1980s, but only recently surged in popularity in Canada. Though its precise inception is unclear, several shops claim to be the first to add chewy tapioca pearls to milk tea.
After discovering a Chatime shop while he was on holiday in Australia, Kenton Chan connected with the Taiwanese global bubble tea brand and opened the first Canadian instalment at Yonge and Dundas in 2011, followed by over 100 locations across Canada in the coming years. The Chatime Canada co-founder and CEO chatted with us about the buzz around bubble tea, how to drink it and why this dessert snack is the perfect “choose-your-own adventure.”
Why is it called bubble tea?
“Everybody calls it bubble tea — they assume that the bubbles are the tapioca in the drink. The bubbles actually refer to the bubbles when you shake the tea, and then when you pour the tea into the cup, the top layer. That's how the name was derived.”
Boba is another name for the tapioca pearls, and that's why bubble tea is sometimes called boba tea.
What should it be called, bubble tea or boba tea?
“The original name was bubble tea, but I think boba originated from the Western U.S. They started calling it boba, and that's been the big dilemma in the bubble tea industry: Is it bubble tea or is it boba tea? It really depends on where you come from … I'm on the east and west coast often. Depending on where I am, I’ll call it different things.”
What is bubble tea?
“The original boba, or bubble tea drink, was a milk tea base. That's usually black tea mixed with milk, or, back in the day, a non-dairy creamer, to give it that extra creaminess. And then you add the tapioca, which is made from a plant called cassava root. It's a root vegetable, so they grind it down into a powder form. They roll that into the pearl shape that you see. Then the tapioca, or pearls, as we call them, are boiled down. At Chatime, we cook those fresh every single day … if you walk into the store, you probably smell tapioca. It's got a pretty sweet aroma when we cook it down in sugar ... In-store, our teas are all freshly brewed throughout the day. Many of them are actually brewed to order.”
What are some of the toppings?
“We've got over 10 different topping options. The core ones that we've had since we opened are tapioca, of course, the grass jelly, coconut jelly. We have a pudding that's really popular as well. And recently, we've introduced popping bobas … We've got a mango and lychee flavoured popping boba. Those are really good. There's also a passion fruit jelly.”
How to order
Choose your base
To make your perfectly customized bubble tea, start by deciding between a milk tea, a fruit tea or a slush. If you’re ordering a milk tea, select green or black tea — whichever one you normally drink. “We have our signature Black Milk Tea. We've got our Roasted Milk Tea … the roasted tea is actually a green tea. The tea leaves themselves are roasted, to give it an extra smoky roasted aroma, so it's very flavourful; it's a very robust green tea … It's not like a jasmine green tea, where it's floral,” says Chan. For fruit teas, “we recommend either our mango, which is really good, or lychee or passion fruit are all very popular.”
Add a milk option
With a black or green milk tea, choose your milk or non-dairy alternative. “We have our oat milk option. We've recently introduced the coconut milk option, which tastes awesome. It's been extremely popular. But then you can also get it with fresh milk, or, if you prefer a creamier texture and taste, you can get it in the traditional way, which is with the non-dairy creamer.”
Choose the temperature
Milk tea can be served hot or cold. With cold drinks, you can choose more or less ice if you have a preference.
Adjust the sugar level
If you normally drink tea without any sweetener or if you’re looking for a more refreshing drink, you can ask for low or no sugar in your bubble tea. At Chatime, you can also swap sugar for organic honey.
Add the toppings
“We recommend different toppings depending on the drink. Usually with the milk teas, it's either tapioca or grass jelly, because you can't go wrong with those. It's a classic combination. With the fruit teas, we recommend tapioca or coconut jelly. Those always pair well together. With the slush, we recommend tapioca.”
How do you drink it (without choking on the pearls)?
“Take your time. Don't just stab the straw in and start drinking. Because if you drink it too quickly, there's a chance that you might choke on the tapioca ... Make sure to shake it before you drink ... Start with the tea, so you get the full flavour, then work your straw down to the bottom of the cup, so you get your topping and the tea.”
Why is bubble tea so popular?
“One of the reasons it’s so popular is that there are so many things that you can do with that drink. It's so versatile … We've got more than 70 drinks on our menu, and they can all be customized. I think the total number of permutations is over a million, so certainly many, many different options on the menu.
“...[And] I think it's because it's such a fun drink. During COVID, people flocked to drink bubble tea because it was kind of a luxury in your day … Anytime you're down, just get a bubble tea and your day immediately feels better."
