Bubble tea is a drink that is traditionally tea-based with chewy tapioca pearls/balls known as boba (what the slang term literally means). The drink was invented in Taiwan during the 1980s, with two famous teahouses staking claim to the invention: Chun Shui Tang (in Taichung) and Hanlin Tea Room (in Tainan). To this day, it is still disputed in Taiwan, but no one really has any proof or evidence as to who did it first. The traditional form of bubble tea is served cold (and with ice) by using black tea with milk as the liquid base, while a generous scoop of black or brown sugar tapioca pearls are thrown into the liquid. Over time, bubble tea evolved into the many different variations, flavors, and drinking styles the world holds today. Now, you can drink bubble tea either warm or cold. Some bubble tea you can even choose to not have tea in it! You can choose instead to have it juice-based or milk-based! Some tapioca pearls also have different flavors (though we believe brown sugar is best)! And especially the liquid base, there are a plethora of flavors you can choose from today. (Plus, there are even different toppings like grass jelly, pudding, red bean, etc., etc., etc. that you can choose from!!!) Even though this drink started as something small in Taiwan, it has spread globally around the four corners of the world and captured the hearts and minds of many today, while also allowing it to be a cultural icon to Taiwanese culture.