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Today we're talking about bubble tea. Bubble tea or as some call it Boba or Tzinsu Naitzah
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excuse my tones, has made its way all around the world. Any place you can find a Starbucks these
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days you can probably find a bubble tea shop. Even though this drink has made its way all around the
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world for some people it can still be shrouded in mystery. What the hell is going on with your eggs
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which is really sad because in my opinion it's delicious and wonderful so today we're going to
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try to spell and dissect what bubble tea is and maybe you'll even feel empowered to try it yourself
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we're in Taichung, Taiwan which some people claim is where bubble tea was invented now that claim
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is disputed but we're not going to get into that for today let's just say that it actually was
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invented here because I'm being hosted by people from Taichung and they're nice so let's get some tea
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Okay, so I bought a whole bunch of teas for this video, but for some reason, 50Lan, which
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is like really famous, they put all their teas in these paper cups, so I don't know if
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I'm going to be able to show anything to you. So I found this other place that makes Snoopy teas
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Unfortunately, my cheese Snoopy, I'm going to show them to you now, he's been a little
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bit mangled but let's begin. So many people walking past and staring at me. I must look like one of those ASMR eating
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youtubers right now. I'm doing this for education okay. I'm actually having a great time. This is seriously some of the best bubble tea I've had
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So their brown sugar is very nice, very subtle. In this park drinking too much bubble tea and people are so nice here in Taiwan Nobody is laughing at me
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Okay, guys. That didn't go so well. I drank too much bubble tea
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And it got really hot and I got really sweaty. So we're back in Taipei
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So to help us dispel the mystery of bubble tea, I'm going to break it down into four parts
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Teas, other liquids, bottomings, and toppings. So the first thing you need to know is that the tea culture here in Taiwan is very strong
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Because of its Chinese heritage, Taiwan has more of a tea culture than a coffee culture
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The island is a heaven for tea trees. The tropical and subtropical climate and the high mountains produce some really good, strong
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concentrated tea. The Dutch found wild tea growing in Taiwan back in 1717
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but when the Qing Empire got here, they really started to cultivate teas in Taiwan
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And by the end of the 19th century, tea was the main export of Taiwan. Even though Taiwan is an export economy, by the 1970s, tea imports were way exceeding tea exports
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Tea houses were on the corner of every neighborhood, and a culture of tea mastery was born
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By this time, Taiwan was kind of seen like a mecca for tea. So today we're not talking about expertly fermented, ritualistically brewed tea from the highest slopes of Alishan
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Bubble tea shops probably happened when Starbucks came to Taiwan and flouted their culture of convenience and oversized servings
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And the tea industry adapted. And the result is this. The friendly neighborhood Taiwanese takeaway tea shop
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So these shops are more than just bubble tea. Their menus are usually very extensive
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They feature many different teas, chewy things inside the teas, creamers, fruit juices
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cheese toppings the list is wild You find young Taiwanese queuing up to these shops with their tea slings in hand waiting to get their daily fix So Taiwan is really famous for its oolong teas
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which if you don't know what that is and you're more of a coffee person like me
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oolong is almost like a medium roast. It's tea that's only been partially fermented
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The stuff you find in standard Western teabags is black tea. It's completely fermented and has a slightly different taste
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There's even a bunch of tea cultivars within the Camellias and Nansen species that you only find on Taiwan
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There's actually an institute to fund the research and the extension of tea
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And besides black tea and oolong tea, you can also find green teas, puer tea and even stuff like rooibos tea
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Now we're getting into grey zones and a category that I'm calling other liquids
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Listen, I'm sorry, but categorizing this stuff is hard. It's like the tea wild west out here
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So milk tea is a classic all over Asia and mixing milk with your tea isn't really groundbreaking
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But over here, it's really, really good. And you can also find all kinds of other things to mix with your tea, like fruit juices, this kind of drinking yogurt called your cult
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or even taro powder, which is powder that's made from this root vegetable
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It gives the tea kind of like a sweet potato taste and also a very nice purple color
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there's also this wonderful Taiwanese staple that's called brown sugar syrup which is very
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unrefined sugar and it has this very deep molasses flavor and it's super comforting
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okay so those are other liquids on to our next category which I'm going to call bottoming
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because obviously they're not at the top they're the bottom the bubbles is where Taiwanese tea
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culture really starts to stand out. So what are tapioca pills? Tapioca pills are
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made from a flower that is derived from the cassava root which is a plant that
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originally came from South America but is all over Asia Southeast Asia and they dehydrate it they turn it into a flour which then gets turned into a dough The dough gets rolled into tiny little balls and then cooked
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in brown sugar until it turns black and chewy and delicious. The texture of these balls is referred
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to as QQ. They invented this term because it's a texture like no other but if I had to not use
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use kukyu i'd say it's like gooey and chewy threatening to stick between your teeth but it
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doesn't actually get there there's also other bottomings that you might find some of them are
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stuff you might know like chia seeds but there are other things as well a lot of jellies based
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on agar which is a seaweed that you find in asia that are custard or coconut or fruit flavored you
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can also find actual fruit or even stuff like red and mung beans which sound like they should be
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savory but in Taiwan they're used as dessert. Okay so that's bottomings so let's move on to the actual
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toppings. The most notable topping that I want to talk about today is cream cheese. It's like this
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layer of foam that they make from salt, whipped cream and cheese powder that's like drinking a
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cheesecake. It brings a salty umami balance to a drink that can be very sweet. There's also other
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stuff you can put on top of your tea like pudding or ice cream or Oreos. It really is the wild west
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out here people are just trying to see who can be the most wild so that's my breakdown of bubble tea
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for today i'm probably only scratching the surface there's so much out there and lastly when you
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stab your bubble tea just be confident okay if you hesitate too much you'll probably spill and
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you'll probably end up messing up your nice white t-shirt thanks for watching this video be sure to
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go to brighttrip.com we've got a guide on tokyo and we've probably got a map explainer on taipei
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coming out pretty soon, which is going to be dope. Stay curious and have a drink
