Bubble tea is a tea-based drink that originated in Taiwan in the early nineteen eighties, combining brewed tea, often mixed with milk, with chewy tapioca pearls, commonly called boba, that sink to the bottom of the cup and are drunk through a wide straw. Its invention is credited to Taiwanese tea shops in Taichung and Tainan experimenting with adding sweetened tapioca to iced tea drinks. From its Taiwanese origins, bubble tea spread rapidly across East and Southeast Asia from the nineteen nineties onward and later became a global phenomenon, with countless flavor and topping variations, including fruit teas, milk teas and popping boba, sold through dedicated bubble tea shop chains worldwide.
Facts
Disputed
Origin Period, From (Year)Two Taiwanese tea rooms each claim to have invented bubble tea: the Hanlin Tea Room in Tainan says 1986, while the Chun Shui Tang tea room in Taichung credits staffer Lin Hsiu Hui with the idea in 1988. The two tea rooms litigated the question for roughly a decade; a 2019 Taiwanese court ruling declined to assign credit to either side, holding the drink an unpatentable general food product. Filed as an open question. Origin Region Connections
Associated With
Open Questions
Source Bubble Tea (Wikipedia)
Uses Ingredient
Sources
1. Bubble Tea (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead section
It originated in Taiwan in the 1980s and spread to other countries where there is a large East Asian diaspora population.
History subsection
a Taiwanese court ruled in 2019 that bubble tea was not patentable subject matter, on the basis that it is a general food product that anyone may prepare. The ruling did not assign credit for the invention to either party.
View the Source Open Questions (1 open question)
Which Taiwanese tea room actually invented bubble tea first?
The Hanlin Tea Room in Tainan claims to have invented bubble tea in 1986; the Chun Shui Tang tea room in Taichung credits product-development staffer Lin Hsiu Hui with the idea in 1988. The two shops litigated the question for roughly a decade, and a 2019 Taiwanese court ruling declined to assign credit to either side, holding the drink an unpatentable general food product.
What would resolve this A contemporaneous document, receipt, menu or press account from 1986 to 1988 naming tapioca-ball tea at one shop earlier than the other.
Culinary and business history, TaiwanBubble Tea (Wikipedia)
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