What is Boba?

"Boba," also known as "Pearl Milk Tea," "Bubble Tea," "Tapioca Tea," "zhenzhu naicha (珍珠奶茶),"and "sago" among its multilingual nicknames, is a beverage consisting of the following five core ingredients: tea (with or without milk, and/or a non-dairy milk substitute), ice, sweetener, a topping (often tapioca pearls), and flavoring (natural ingredients, syrups, or powders). Boba, a milk tea beverage which originated in Taiwan in the 1980s, made its U.S. debut in the late 1990s when Taiwanese American entrepreneurs aimed to emulate Taiwan's unique boba shop experience in their American hometowns. Over the past 20 years, boba within the United States has morphed into a distinctly Asian American cultural phenomenon.

Work Cited: Trazo, Talitha Angelica. (2020). "Wanna Get Boba?": The Bond Between Boba and Asian American Youth in San Jose, California.