National Bubble Tea Day

The story

The origin story of bubble tea has two main contenders. In one version, Tu Tsong-He, the owner of the Hanlin Tea Room in Tainan, had a genius idea in 1986 when he saw white tapioca balls at a local market and decided to add them to tea, creating a drink with a fun, chewy texture.

Another version credits Liu Han-Chieh of Chun Shui Tang in Taichung. Around the same time, he was experimenting with serving tea cold, a bold move in a country that traditionally drank it hot. His product manager, Lin Hsiu Hui, took it further, adding sweetened tapioca pudding to iced tea during a meeting. The result was an instant hit.

By the late 1980s, bubble tea had taken Taiwan by storm, and by the 1990s, it had spread across Asia. It made its way to California’s Asian communities, eventually becoming a global sensation. By the 2020 bubble tea emoji, the drink was firmly a cultural phenomenon.

Bubble tea’s magic lies in its versatility. Starting with tea—green, black, oolong, or white—add milk (dairy or non-dairy), sweeteners, fruit syrups, or powders, and top it off with chewy tapioca pearls or other adventurous options like popping boba or pudding.

In 2018, Kung Fu Tea, based in Queens, New York, established April 30 as National Bubble Tea Day, celebrating all things boba.