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Bubblicious
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Slurping up trendy Taiwanese bubble tea
by SARAH MUSGRAVE
If Hello Kitty wanted to promote the importance of the Heimlich manoeuvre,
she’d definitely serve you a cup of bubble tea. This trendy Taiwanese
tipple is over-the-top sweet—just like her—and chockfull of
gelatinous balls that can easily get caught in your throat. The experience
is not unlike drinking liquid candy and chewing gum at the same time.
Although it’s also known as pearl tea or “boba” tea (as
in boobs), the drink doesn’t necessarily contain tea but instead
refers to a rainbow of sugary concoctions that are usually served chilled.
The bubbles are actually oversized tapioca pearls, made from cassava
root starch and caramel. They have to be carefully boiled to achieve
the right consistency: somewhere between soft and chewy. They nestle
at the bottom of the cup, and you suck them up through an extra-wide
straw.
Made popular by the teen set in Taiwan in the 1980s, bubble tea has
taken off in Vancouver and Toronto. There are a few places here at home
where you can try this dessert-drink sugar fix for around $3 to $3.50
a pop. Bao Dao Taiwan (1616 Ste-Catherine W.;
989-1532) is a great Taiwanese place located in a kitschy stall on the
third floor of everyone’s favourite food court, in the Faubourg
Ste-Catherine. It offers 28 different variations of bubble drinks (called
“jumbo” on the menu)—some made with tea, some with juice
and some with coconut pulp. When I stopped by, the surrounding tables
were full of people slurping up generous helpings of big black globs
from their cups.
The iced coffee and the rose milk tea both looked interesting, but the
lady behind the counter said the iced taro milk tea was the most popular.
The taro, an Asian root vegetable, imparted a purple glow to the cup
and tasted like melted bubble gum ice cream—pleasant but very,
very sweet. She seemed more dubious about the iced black plum in black
tea—with good reason. As saccharine as flat cola, it had an added
taste of musky, dusky fruit and a hint of molasses. However, the tapioca
balls are very large and fresh here—they’re especially satisfying
if you make lots of noise when you chew.
A second-floor space on Chinatown’s pedestrian walkway, Café
Sinonet (71 de la Gauchetière W.; 878-0572) is a treasure trove
of bubblicious beverages. It has all the ambience of an after-school
program, complete with computer terminals, Taiwanese alt-pop on the
sound system, giggling girls and the kind of waiter that high-school
crushes are made of.
The drink menu takes up two full pages and is divided into several sections.
Some of the options under “foamed teas” include tropical punch,
mint, peach and lemon. Another section offers creamy black or green
tea with different flavourings like wheat germ, red bean, egg yolk,
sesame and peanut. Then there’s a variety of non-tea drinks such
as mango, watermelon, pink lemonade and mint chocolate.
I ordered a foamed green tea, and found it extremely refreshing—for
a change, the tapioca pearls were the sweetest thing in it. My sister
got a pineapple drink without tea, frothy, light and fruity—also
excellent. The tapioca balls were just right: chewy and soft. Another
nice touch is that the enormous straws are cut on an angle for easier
access to the bubbles.
Right near the 55 bus stop in Chinatown, the menu outside at Restaurant
Chinois Chao Kee (1027 St-Laurent; 866-2688) shows bubble teas in a
whole range of pastel shades. The 20 different versions include foamed
red tea, honey red tea, coconut milk and angel milk. Unfortunately,
on the day we visited, the place smelled really rank and as we waited
for a concoction called “puppy love” we tried not to wonder
how it got its name. It turned out to be sweet and syrupy with two chunks
of fossilized fruit floating in it—instant headache. The almond
milk tea I tried was actually quite good, if too sugary. The pearls
are smaller here and not as flavourful, making it a last-resort stop
on any bubble tea binge. :
Feedback?
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