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The weather is getting warm, and it feels like boba tea time. The first time I drank boba tea was on a steamy 90-degree June day at the Alameda County Fair when I desperately needed something cold and sweet to sip. After sampling exotic culinary creations for a cover story on Fair food in the Pleasanton Weekly, I bit into a hot Cheetos corn-on-the-cob and sweat began rolling down my face. I headed for the Boba King stand.
Holding and sipping a cold, sweet drink in a tall plastic cup was a panacea against the heat. While awaiting my boba drink, I photographed a Thai milk tea boba for the article.
A few months ago, my attention was drawn to the long line of people awaiting their drinks at Boba Nation in Pleasanton’s Stoneridge Mall.
I returned recently to Boba Nation with a friend. She recalled her first encounter with boba tea in Newport Beach when her teenage kids blew the round, tapioca boba balls out of the straw like spit balls. I asked the elementary age kids in our family if they perceived boba that way. “Oh, no!” said the 12-year-old. “My coffee bobas are too good to waste that way.”
The U.S. has adopted boba tea, also called bubble tea as a visual descriptor for the bobbing boba balls when stirred. Boba Nation displays five huge panels with over 250 drinks listed. I chose a rose matcha milk tea with brown sugar boba; my friend selected a smaller and simpler matcha milk tea boba.
Boba shop owners recognize that not everyone loves boba. Many are repelled by the thought of the soft texture of tapioca in anything other than pudding. Others avoid overly sweet or milky drinks. Many shops have evolved into a one-stop to satisfy thirsty friends and family with options for levels of sweetness, quantity of boba and ice along with a wide variety of other beverages and food.
The Boba Nation website touts the brand as “a world of flavor freedom” and a “multicultural haven.” But only one panel out of five large menu panels lists boba drinks available for takeout or delivery at the small Stoneridge Mall shop. The other four panels list slushies, smoothies, milkshakes featuring “Captain Crunch” and more, fruit teas, frappés, fresh juices, coffee, hot and cold tea and food.
A short history of boba brings clarity to the phenomenon.
After partial colonization by the Dutch in the 17th century, Taiwan adopted their custom of drinking warm, milky tea. Shaved ice and small tapioca balls called fenyuan were already prized as dessert toppings. During the 1980s in Taiwan, someone shook sweetened, milky tea with crushed ice and larger tapioca balls which they named boba. The Chinese admire foods with specific textures, and the soft, chewy boba texture called Q in English, generated interest in the drink. In the 1990s, the first group of brand-named boba shops arrived in the U.S.
I recently received a food industry email about a company called Krak Boba. Intrigued by the name, I contacted the founders and asked why they chose to franchise boba shops with plans to expand, possibly later, in the East Bay. The name, they explain, refers to a Polish folk legend of King Krakus and a dragon which was subdued by a heroic young shoemaker.
When asked why he started Krak Boba, co-founder CEO Tin Do Krak said, “Hanging out with friends during college in the 1990s, getting the spiciest level of popcorn chicken and washing it down with slushy milk teas were fond memories. Boba culture has always been about connection with people. The bounciness of the boba balls and amount of them in a cup is just fun.”
In Dublin’s Ulferts Center, locally owned Tea Heart boba recently changed its name to Milky Way Tea Shoppe, directly linking to milk tea.
Kudos to Milky Way for providing definitions for the specialized vocabulary of boba drinks. Most tapioca boba balls at shops are freeze-dried by manufacturers and then boiled, then dipped in honey or caramelized sugar, and then dried. These black balls are the common boba at the bottom of the cup.
Crunchy agar boba, derived from gelatinous agar-agar seaweed, are also called crystal boba or white boba. Balls are also made from taro or sago palm starch. Popping or bursting boba have a soft gelatinous exterior with a burst of fruit juice inside.
Like many shops, Milky Way charges extra for toppings. Jellies are soft, squishy pieces of candy in various shapes and flavors such as lychee, strawberry, coffee, and grass, a dark, herbal variety. Myriad other toppings range from red beans to Oreo cookies and protein powders.
A topping with many names is cheese cream or chizu in Japanese. Made with whipped cream mixed with other ingredients such as powdered cheese and sometimes, salt, alternate names include cheese foam or puff cream. Milky Way serves two special “sea salt cheese creamas,” clearly labeled as containing dairy.
The menu also clearly identifies two specialty drinks as made with milk—the brown sugar latte boba and fresh mango sago (small balls). Other milk teas are made with non-dairy creamer, a common ingredient at other boba shops.
By contrast, locally owned Boba Bliss, located in a Dublin strip mall offers only organic milk or oat milk for their tea. Without artificial flavors, powders, or high-fructose corn syrups as ingredients, owners serve house-made syrups, fresh fruit purées, organic tea, and Stumptown Coffee in their beverages.
After my recent birthday brunch, my husband took me to Bober Tea and Mochi Dough in Pleasanton. Owner Tina Piazza purchased the franchise shop a few months ago and offers 11 varieties of mochi donuts and many boba combinations. The pink themed ambiance begged for a ladies’ tea party, but it was a quiet Monday morning. The rose mango milk tea with cheese cream and strawberry mochi donut satisfied my sweet craving. Though I rarely eat dessert after brunch, I agree with the wall décor that this can happen in life, especially on a birthday.
The sweet drink was fun until I looked up the nutritional information on bobas with cheese cream. The caloric and cholesterol numbers spiked compared to milk boba teas which made me pause about ordering the “loaded” bobas.
Today I learned about a new boba named “Celebration” that will be featured at the Boba King stand at this year’s Alameda County Fair starting on June 14th. A strawberry syrup-rimmed cup is filled with a scoop of strawberry bursting boba, strawberries and cream slushie, and topped off with a red, white, and blue popsicle. It sounds like a delightful dessert after trying the new bacon-wrapped pizza on a stick. But I had better keep walking to burn off the calories and sugar high.
