colette wilkinson 
 

“YOU SUCK.”

Ordinarily, not the most polite of phrases. Today, however, it’s fine. In fact, it’s just the helpful little hint I need. 

 

Perched in the window seat of Tealuxe, a little teashop on Brattle St. bursting with flavor, I glance behind and survey the parlor. Bustling staff pick and choose teas from a dark wood, ceiling high cabinet of drawers that would turn the eyes of an apothecary as green as his plant-filled potions.

I regard the sizable plastic cup of milky gray liquid in front of me, in which pearls of inky black rise and fall gently. It is not unlike the ancient remedies in my mind.

 

Eye of newt, and toe of frog. I visualize the Three Witches from Shakespeare’s Macbeth bustling behind the counter and asking patient customers to please hold on, they’d be with them in just a moment.

 

“YOU SUCK,” I tell myself again, chastising myself for hesitating, and pipe a king-size straw through the perforated plastic cup cover. I pause.

 

Call me out of the loop. Call me untrendy, but upon arriving in Boston, Mass. on June 22, 2013, I cut a fine figure of a disadvantaged little European, as very soon afterwards I was forced to admit to a group of hip twenty-somethings that I had never in my life heard of Bubble Tea.

 

To any of the student population in Cambridge, this may be considered slightly ridiculous. Seated in Tealuxe on an average Monday afternoon, I observe nine Bubble Tea customers in the space of just over 40 minutes.

 

To anyone hailing from the Asia Pacific region it’s probably downright absurd that I’ve never heard of Bubble Tea. Also known as Boba Tea, it is generally reported to have originated as early as the 1980s at the Chun Shui Tang teahouse in Taichung, Taiwan, and has been booming across the region since. Following the widely celebrated iced coffee trend, it’s thought to have hit North America about 10 years ago. Knowing what devoted tea enthusiasts we Brits are, why have I never heard of it?

 

Zesty aromas linger in the air, spurring me on.  I sip the cold chai tea through the straw and scan the room, feeling somewhat conspicuous as a first-timer. Softly spicy. Refreshing. Sweeter than I would ordinarily take my tea, but I sip again. I’m bolder this time and look down as one of the inky black bubbles creeps slowly up the straw. 

 

What the...? The tapioca pearl I thought would dissolve in my mouth is chewy.  It’s not as syrupy as I’d expected, in fact it’s relatively bland, offering more of a delectable experience than taste. I go for another sip, and ponder.

 

Is the majority of Britain aware that such a trend exists? Have I been personally excluded from a well-kept secret? Who are they afraid I’d tell? The French?

 

Later that week, seizing the opportunity to interrogate a fellow Brit, I target Claire Radcliffe, another student from London. Had she heard of Bubble Tea?

 

“Not until today,” said Claire. “In fact, it reminds me of the bubble painting we used to do in Primary School.”  She paused.  “Is it to do with Shisha pipes?” she laughed. “No, I’ve never heard of it.”

 

Phew. I felt less exposed as an ignoramus. Turning my eye towards the motherland, I consult the oracle of London culture, and run a quick search of ‘bubble tea’ in Time Out online. SIXTEEN matches. So many? Half of which are, fittingly, listed in Chinatown or its parent neighborhood, Soho.

 

While I am pleased that the country hasn’t been snubbed entirely of this craze that’s sweeping the world, I’m curious as to how long it’s been around.

 

Patrick Kingsley, of the Guardian, posted an article entitled “Bubble Tea comes to Britain” on April 24, 2011, an account of the opening of Bubbleology, “a new cafe that says it's the first in Britain to specialise in bubble tea-making.”  Not immediately recent, but relatively so.

 

It clearly still hadn’t caught on properly by the following year, as Jo Romero of Yahoo Lifestyle UK & Ireland, writes of Bubble Tea being “the latest craze” in an article of November 13, 2012.

Romero also claims that Britain is playing catch up, citing the cooler weather as a crucial factor in people opting for hot drinks, rather than chilled.

 

Perhaps the weather is key. Perhaps as a nation famed for tradition, we are too set in our ways. Perhaps we are so enamored with our beloved cups of tea at teatime (anytime is teatime) there is simply not room for another tea craze. 

 

That said, Bubble Tea is certainly there in Britain and I’m glad.  It’s making its mark on the market slowly, with bubble tea outlets reported to have emerged in various other locations across the country.  

 

In his article in the Guardian, Kingsley states that in much of Asia “it is what a Starbuck's coffee is to a westerner: ubiquitous”.  I’m dubious as to whether Britain will see such a trend, but for now I urge my country folk to get involved.

 

Quickly. Before the bubble bursts.