Bubble Tea An Asian Street Food with Pearls

Bubble tea is a tea-based drink invented in Taiwan in the 80s and has become an integral part of pop culture since early 2000. It has now become one of the most iconic Asian street food. 

Traditional bubble tea drinks contain tea, sometimes milk, sugar, and chewy tapioca balls. While coffee is necessary in Melbourne, and tea relaxes me, bubble tea brings me copious amounts of joy.

I can’t remember the first time I tried the Taiwanese-born drink. It must have been during my Uni year, but I don’t remember loving it then as much as I do now. Initially, it was just a rare treat of a sugary drink, and I never craved it in those years.

Koi – The Best Bubble Tea Brand in Asia

Fast forward to my life in tropical Singapore. I bought bubble tea occasionally, usually when my friends initiated it, to fight the humid weather. Then some years later, I moved to Bishan and tried KOI for the first time. KOI is a premium brand of bubble tea. It has smaller bubbles, a tastier base, and more varieties. Granted, it’s more expensive, but it tasted much better than any other brands I have had. It has loyal customers surrounding it like a beehive in every neighbourhood stall.

Eventually, after a few trials, KOI’s premium milk tea with large regular sugar normal with vanilla ice cream became my go-to choice. It also caused my bubble tea addiction. A true and tested stress reliever, it soothed heartaches and cured headaches.

On the weekdays, I would queue for it past 8 PM and take the bus home while juggling it between two grocery bags. Other times, I would walk miles in heels with boba tea in my hand. Meanwhile, Fafa has been responsible for being my bubble tea supplier on the weekend, usually as a bribe for something or another.

I realized I was addicted to bubble tea on the day when I couldn’t contain my jealousy seeing my colleagues bring it back after lunch, which they bought in the mall quite far from our office. I was pissed because they didn’t offer to get me one (they were from another department and most probably didn’t know that I existed, nor how much I love bubble tea). Still. Not cool. I sat there for an hour, boiling in this weird rage, until I snuck out, took a taxi, and smuggled my bubble tea back to the office. After some time, I nonchalantly took it from the fridge to my desk and told my teammates that the other team had offered to get one for me earlier.

Hot Boba

When I finally moved to Melbourne, I didn’t have too much thought of leaving bubble tea yet again. There were more precious things I had to leave behind, like my parents, super cute nieces, and ex-colleagues who had become like family to me. One day, though, due to work stress, I told Manda, my then-new colleague, how I wished I could drink bubble tea. And to my then-newbie delight, she brought me to ChaiTime near our office and bought one for me without ordering anything for herself. Ever since, we have been frequenting ChaiTime regularly, and my work-stress level has become more manageable.

Then Melbourne got colder and officially entered the winter season. I stopped drinking bubble tea, and Manda noticed. I told her I am not a fan of cold drinks in the winter, and she told me that ChaiTime might have hot options. Oh, Manda, you were a Godsend! Hot bubble tea made me cry tears of joy. Its heartwarming hugs were multiplied by a thousand.

Follow me on Instagram @KultureKween for more recent updates.