Beyond bubble tea: five creative boba treats sending Taiwanese fans wild

Thanks to the Asian diaspora, bubble tea, or boba, has become a global phenomenon.

The original milk tea drink features chewy tapioca “pearls” – also known as boba – but people these days are getting creative with the recipe and are taking it beyond the beverage.

Invented in Taiwan in the 1980s, unsurprisingly, it is also here where you find the most diverse range of boba treats.

We sampled five of them in Taipei.

1. Boba pizza

Internet users were divided when pictures of tapioca balls on a cheesy crust started popping up last year. But worry not, this is not fusion cuisine gone horribly wrong.

The TW Bobba Pizza (NT$160/US$5) at Italian restaurant franchise, Tino’s Pizza Cafe, is a dish you can get behind.

Intended as a dessert, it is sweet, not savoury. The toppings – boba mixed with fruits and milk tea mousse – are served cold on a crust that is fresh out of the oven.

Tino’s Pizza Cafe, various locations in Hong Kong and Taiwan including No.9 Guangfu North Road, Songshan District, Taipei.

2. Boba and cream wheel pie

Not far from Taipei’s Liaoning night market is a tiny shopfront which serves freshly-made wheel pies, or wheel cakes, as some call them. Uncle Wheel Pie gives the classic Taiwanese street food a modern spin.

While the pastry is commonly filled with red bean and cream, here you have the option of a boba and cream filling in a black charcoal bun (NT$18). Customers can also pick from an eclectic mix of ingredients including tuna and corn with cheese as well as potato salad.

Uncle Wheel Pie, 106 Liaoning Street, Zhongshan District, Taipei

3. Braised pork rice with boba

We tried this so you don’t have to. Bubble tea shop Babo8abo is known for its creative drinks that mix coloured tapioca pearls and milk with strawberry, matcha, peanut and sesame sauces.

History of bubble tea: how boba became a global phenomenon

But it has taken things too far by adding boba to Taiwanese braised pork rice. What a way to ruin a perfectly good savoury dish. The dish is too dry and the boba only adds to the difficulty of swallowing it. Word of advice – stick to the drink options.

Babo8abo, various locations including 464 , Zhongmei Street, West District, Taichung City, Taiwan, tel: +886 4 2328 0205

4. Boba shaved ice dessert

Since its launch, boba milk tea sensation (NT$200) has become one of Ice Monster’s bestselling dishes. Its creator experimented with more than a hundred tea combinations to find the perfect blend.

Unlike the popular drink, the Taiwanese shaved ice dessert is not excessively sweet and has a surprisingly strong taste of tea. It comes with a generous portion of tapioca balls cooked in black sugar syrup and home-made panna cotta that balances the flavours.

Ice Monster, various locations including 297, Section 4, Zhongxiao East Road, Da’an District, Taipei, Taiwan, tel +886 2 8771 3263

5. Boba soufflé

The bustling Raohe Street Night Market in Taipei’s Songshan district is one of the best places for Taiwanese street food, and Wu Liao’s made-to-order soufflé is a treat you cannot miss. The soufflé is pan fried, not baked, so you don’t have to wait too long to get your hands on it.

The boba, which is served on the side, adds a nice chewy texture to the fluffy and light dessert. The stall only opens late in the evening, so make sure you visit at night.

Wu Liao, Raohe Street Night Market, Raohe Street, Songshan District, Taipei. Instagram: @wuliao6666