Everyone has that one food or drink that they obsess over and physically could not live without. It’s that one item that they will drop basically anything they are doing to make or buy, and for me this is bubble tea.
In my sophomore year of high school, I tried bubble tea for the first time when I was in Boston’s Chinatown with my friends, and I was instantly hooked. If you don’t know what bubble tea is or have never tried it before, it’s an iced drink either composed of milk or iced tea, with tapioca pearls that are the chewy “bubbles.” Bubble tea is often also referred to as boba tea, and in the Burlington area we have a few places to get this delicious beverage, such as Fresh Bubble Tea and Juice in UMall and Pho Son downtown.
Something that I learned after going to my first bubble tea shop is that you can adjust both the amount of ice and sweetness level of the drink, which is a great way to customize your drink to meet a specific taste. For me, a lot of the milk teas are super sweet so I always get the lowest amount of sweetness since I like the natural taste of the teas without all the added liquid sugar. There are millions of flavors for the bubble tea liquid (being either milk or iced tea), such as taro milk, thai milk, and peach, however my personal favorite is matcha bubble tea. Matcha is a type of green tea and in my personal opinion is the superior flavor of bubble tea and I highly recommend it if you love green tea.
Over the summer I made my first bubble tea at home. I believe it is the most cost-effective way to have bubble tea because often you can find yourself spending $5 on a small drink, which is pricey. I started going to my local H-Mart (an Asian grocery store) and bought both matcha powder and tapioca pearls so I could start making my tea at home. Although making the beverage can be a time consuming process–making the tea, chilling the tea, and making the bubbles to then add it to the tea can take upwards to 30 minutes–the process is so worth it. In Burlington at the Asian Market or even online, you can purchase the tapioca pearls which are typically the hardest part of making the tea at home by yourself because they can be hard to find. When making bubble tea at home, you can also adjust the sweetness of the tea through adding the sweetener yourself, and my personal favorite to use is blue agave (which is my favorite addition to hot tea as well)!
Personally, I do believe that everyone should try bubble tea at least once, however I know it is not for everyone. If you are ever given the chance or stumble upon the bubble tea shop at UMall or downtown I highly recommend that you try this delicious treat.
**Edited by: Amanda Hutson