https://www.scmp.com/rss/328580/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Wasabi, mochi balls, and cheese — these are all ingredients for…bubble tea. In China, at least.  How did bubble tea turn from just plain ol’ milk tea and tapioca balls, into a psychedelic-looking cup beyond your wildest imagination?  This is the ninth episode of our new season of “Eat China: Back to Basics,” where we answer burning questions you might have about Chinese food. https://www.scmp.com/travel/bubble-tea-going-wild-china-heres-how-eat-china-back-basics-s4e9/article/3200718?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/travel/bubble-tea-going-wild-china-heres-how-eat-china-back-basics-s4e9/article/3200718?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Nov 2022 09:30:42 +0000 Tan Jou Teng Tan Jou Teng Freshly baked bread with a cup of tea might present a cosy image indeed, but Chinese entrepreneur Peng Xin’s tea appreciation vision was more ambitious than that. Her high-end tea brand, Nayuki, offers a double whammy that most competitors in the saturated milk tea drink market don’t: comfortable spaces to relax in, and fresh ingredients. Perhaps this blend is why the brand has dominated China’s tea-drinking scene in just a few years, with over 350 physical stores across over 50 Chinese cities.... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3131615/did-nayuki-make-bubble-tea-millennial-must-have-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3131615/did-nayuki-make-bubble-tea-millennial-must-have-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Apr 2021 09:00:54 +0000 Your favourite bubble tea shop may not be serving its signature drink for a while as shipping delays are keeping some retailers from getting the supplies to make the sweet beverage. The shortage started about a month ago, according to Oliver Yoon, the vice-president of sales and global marketing for Boba Direct, a Chicago-based nationwide supplier of bubble tea products.  US ports on the East and West Coasts have been overwhelmed for months as consumer spending has increased along with a bevy... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3129439/bubble-tea-shortage-boba-supplies-dry-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3129439/bubble-tea-shortage-boba-supplies-dry-us?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Apr 2021 23:24:22 +0000 It’s been an annual tradition at Goldthread to look back at some of the weirdest and most popular food trends n China. But 2020 has been a unique year, to say the least, and the trends we saw reflected our new quarantine normal. Takeout was all the rage, and it wasn’t just the usual suspects like pizza and fried chicken. One bubble tea chain offered giant 5-liter jugs of boba for people to take home, and Haidilao figured out a way to package its famous hot pot soup. On social media, we saw the... https://www.scmp.com/food/top-chinese-food-trends-2020/article/3114969?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/food/top-chinese-food-trends-2020/article/3114969?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 24 Dec 2020 00:00:20 +0000 In the realm of fusion food, there are things that people think should not go together, like pineapple and pizza—or durian and pizza. Enter Lay’s milk tea-flavored potato chips. The new concoctions were released in China last week...and immediately sold out everywhere. Desperate posts on Chinese social media complained of store shelves bare of the new Lay’s flavors as soon as doors opened. “Never imagined they would be sold out after 10 am,” wrote one person on the social media site Weibo. The... https://www.scmp.com/food/lays-now-has-milk-tea-potato-chips-china/article/3102823?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/food/lays-now-has-milk-tea-potato-chips-china/article/3102823?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 24 Sep 2020 04:17:59 +0000 Found in cafes across Taiwan, papaya milk is like the wayward cousin to its more famous counterpart, bubble tea. Topped with a slight froth, this creamy and mildly sweet drink is a refreshing treat. While those who relish the floral fragrance of papaya would love the combination, others might find it pungent and intolerable. In Taiwan, papaya milk has long been a staple, its origins tied to the island’s geographic location as well as agricultural and industrial development in the 1970s. The... https://www.scmp.com/food/taiwan-papaya-milk-bubble-tea/article/3080892?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/food/taiwan-papaya-milk-bubble-tea/article/3080892?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 21 Apr 2020 10:16:37 +0000 For bubble tea fanatics who can’t let go of their favorite drink while stuck at home practicing social distancing, shops in China have come up with an answer: 5-liter boba. With restaurants, bars, and cafes forced to close during the coronavirus pandemic, many businesses have shifted to takeout and delivery—and bubble tea shops are no exception. (Read more: China’s delivery drivers are now basically first responders because of the coronavirus) Popular Chinese chain Nayuki started offering a... https://www.scmp.com/food/coronavirus-essential-5-liter-jugs-bubble-tea/article/3075574?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/food/coronavirus-essential-5-liter-jugs-bubble-tea/article/3075574?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 17 Mar 2020 08:28:48 +0000 At some point, you have to start asking whether you really should put boba in everything. Just in time for Halloween, Domino’s Pizza in Taiwan has released a Frankenstein creation called “black sugar pearl pizza,” complete with mozzarella cheese, tapioca pearls, mochi balls, and a generous dose of honey. Not to be outdone, Pizza Hut in Taiwan at the same time began sales of its own boba pizza. Along with the standard bubbles and mozzarella cheese, its version comes with a drizzle of... https://www.scmp.com/food/dominos-and-pizza-hut-release-boba-pizza-taiwan/article/3035309?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/food/dominos-and-pizza-hut-release-boba-pizza-taiwan/article/3035309?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 29 Oct 2019 06:09:41 +0000 Whenever a bubble tea shop becomes Instagram-trendy in China, you can count on scalpers to be there reselling a drink for many times its retail price. Like paid line-holders in the States, scalpers—known in Chinese as 黄牛 (huangniu), or “yellow cattle”—have become ubiquitous at limited-edition pop-ups, from White Rabbit bubble tea stands to just regular bubble tea stands that have inexplicably become famous. And the latest shop to be besieged by these “yellow cattle” is a Taiwanese chain that was... https://www.scmp.com/food/jay-chou-machi-machi-bubble-tea/article/3030936?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/food/jay-chou-machi-machi-bubble-tea/article/3030936?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 30 Sep 2019 08:01:37 +0000 Apparently you can have too much of a good thing. The parents of Karry Wang, a member of the Chinese pop sensation TFBoys, tried to capitalize on their 19-year-old son’s fame by opening a bubble tea shop earlier this month. But they were forced to close it just three days later after fans mobbed the tiny store in Wang’s hometown of Chongqing. Reports said that more than 1,000 fans—mostly young girls—had lined up outside the store, Chaforu, on opening day. Some had to wait up to four hours to... https://www.scmp.com/culture/chinese-boy-band-bubble-tea/article/3019958?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/chinese-boy-band-bubble-tea/article/3019958?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Jul 2019 12:37:05 +0000 Elton Keung is the owner of Labobatory, a Los Angeles-based boba shop with quirky offerings such as green tea mixed with cough syrup and Kit Kat-flavored drinks. He’s also one of few people who makes alcoholic bubble tea beverages—and he’s also a magician. If you’re interested in bubble tea, you can find more stories on our site, including the disputed history of who invented boba. https://www.scmp.com/videos/labobatory-cough-syrup-green-tea-menu/article/3003275?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/videos/labobatory-cough-syrup-green-tea-menu/article/3003275?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 26 Mar 2019 04:27:36 +0000 Whether you call it bubble tea or boba, the drink has caught on around the world. But its origin remains hotly contested. The chewy, gooey tapioca drink first took root in Taiwan in the 1980s. There are two rival chains that lay claim to coming up with the beverage: Hanlin Tea Room in Tainan and Chun Shui Tang in Taichung. Hanlin Tea Room claims its founder, Tu Tsung-ho, created the drink in 1986 after he spotted some white tapioca pearls at a market and decided they would go well with milk tea,... https://www.scmp.com/videos/who-invented-bubble-tea/article/3001018?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/videos/who-invented-bubble-tea/article/3001018?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 01 Mar 2019 10:05:09 +0000 The Goldthread team has traveled all over China this year, sampling some of the best food the country has to offer, and one thing we’ve noticed is a growing appetite for very pretty and photogenic food. It’s not too different from the Instagram-driven food crazes of the West. But in China, the app effect is far greater. For example, Dianping, a user-generated food review site that doubles as a food delivery service, is now the largest on-demand delivery platform in the world. And almost every... https://www.scmp.com/food/instant-hot-pot-ice-cream-puppies-and-other-chinese-food-trends-you-might-have-missed-2018/article/3000361?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/food/instant-hot-pot-ice-cream-puppies-and-other-chinese-food-trends-you-might-have-missed-2018/article/3000361?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Dec 2018 09:38:29 +0000 Photos by Ashley Yue, graphics by Dolly Li and Skyler Rodriguez Drinks are a serious business in Hong Kong, where lines at famous bubble tea joints can snake around the block just from word of mouth. This is the city that gave birth to its own milk tea, a blend of Ceylon and evaporated milk that reflects the former British colony’s unique mix of Eastern and Western culture. Hong Kong-style milk tea isn’t the only legacy of colonialism. Many locals grew up with drinks that blend together... https://www.scmp.com/food/boiled-cola-beef-juice-and-other-eccentric-hong-kong-drinks/article/3000184?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/food/boiled-cola-beef-juice-and-other-eccentric-hong-kong-drinks/article/3000184?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 Oct 2018 11:16:35 +0000 Welcome to Taipei, the bubble milk tea capital of the world. Here, reusable boba cup holders swing from shoulders, and a stubborn two-cup-a-day habit is a common gripe. Born in the bustling city of Taichung, this popular drink in Taiwan is known by different names around the world—boba tea, pearl tea, tapioca milk tea. A mouthwatering mix of fresh milk, black tea and springy, caramelized tapioca pearls shaken together like a martini and served with a comically fat straw is what unites them... https://www.scmp.com/food/boba-sandwiches-and-pizza-pushing-limits-milk-tea/article/3000156?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/food/boba-sandwiches-and-pizza-pushing-limits-milk-tea/article/3000156?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Oct 2018 11:09:17 +0000 Seasonal food creations aren’t necessarily special, but when a pastry shop in Shanghai released a bubble tea pastry puff, we had to try it. Choux pastry specialist Shi Lifang (诗立方) released the hybrid last month, in celebration of mid-June’s Dragon Boat Festival. Traditionally during the festival, people eat zongzi, a leaf-wrapped rice dumpling that often comes in a triangular package. (More on that in our exhaustive list of zongzi variations across Asia.) The Chinese zongzi is a meat-filled... https://www.scmp.com/food/someone-thought-bubble-tea-pastry-was-good-idea/article/2153952?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/food/someone-thought-bubble-tea-pastry-was-good-idea/article/2153952?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Jul 2018 10:42:38 +0000