Boba Tea: A comprehensive history

By Sam Bailey, ‘23

From a virtually unknown entity to a rather popular drink available throughout the United States, bubble/boba tea (珍珠奶茶) has taken the West by storm. According to Bubble Tea Supply, the drink originated in Taiwan around 1983. However, this version is not the conventional boba we picture today.

In the beginning, the unique ingredient that qualified a drink as ‘boba’ were tapioca pearls. These ingredients could, theoretically, be added to any drink of choice, however, tapioca pearls were usually paired with healthy tea or fruit juice.

In Southeastern Asia,intense 2003 price wars and fierce competition nearly drove the boba industry into the ground. According to an archived document from the Singapore government heritage and culture, the boba tea market had skyrocketed just as quickly as it plummeted. The fad faded out, and “as a result, bubble tea had lost its popularity by 2003 and many shops folded.”

Then, Melbourne, Australia opened its first bubble tea shop in 2002 called “Bubble Cup.” This would ultimately kickstart a newfound fascination with boba a decade before the drink became popular in the United States.

Finally, in the early 2000s, boba reached the US. However, the phenomenon of this influential breakthrough would not metamorphosize into the industry we know and love today until around 2015.

In many Asian communities, especially concentrated in the Northwestern and Southeastern areas of the United States, boba tea was a cultural anchor.

In a UCLA thesis by Talitha Angelica Acaylar Trazo, the author stated that “boba shops serve as nodes of connectivity that spatially unite Asian American young adults within the sprawling city and its neighboring localities.”

This idea of boba in America serving as outposts for the Eastern Asian cultural diaspora has been referenced by many Asian American writers across various works of literature.

In an LA Weekly article, journalist Clarissa Wei stated that “As a Taiwanese-American kid growing up in the early 2000s in the San Gabriel Valley, the concoction was an integral part of my social life.” The journalist added that “[boba shops were] our sacred gathering grounds.”

In an effort to further cultivate this strong sense of identity , many Asian-American entrepreneurs have begun modernizing the industry by coming up with fresh variations of boba.

Elton Keung, a bartender by trade with a passion for the drink, owned a chain of several boba shops under the name Boba 7. The idea was to infuse the popular drink with alcohol in a speakeasy-type environment. This was largely successful until the pandemic hit, leading to a devastating, unexpected consequence.

In 2021, the blocking of the Suez Canal resulted in a national boba shortage. The world waited nervously with baited breath as the week-long process of unblocking the 120-mile canal put world commerce on hold. In April of the same year, it was announced by the San Francisco Chronicle that “The Bay Area and Soon the Rest of the World May Have No Bubble for Tea.”

This has yet to come to fruition but we can only pray to the lord that this day never comes.