Bubble tea has been something I’ve been vaguely aware of for years, but never actually tried. I’m not really sure why, it could be the fear of the unknown, or I just didn’t like the look of, but for whatever reason, I’d stayed away for years. A few months ago a friend of mine sent me an excited message saying she’d just discovered an amazing bubble tea place. An idea formed, a plan was made, and I was going to finally give it a whirl. That was a few weeks ago, before the second lockdown began here in Germany. Cafes and shops are only open for pick up and take away here, so today, whilst I was in the city doing something else, I decided to finally pick up a bubble tea and see what all the fuss was about.
Bubble tea originates in Taiwan, and is generally a flavoured, sweet milk drink with chewy tapioca balls in the bottom, giving the appearance of bubbles. The most popular flavours appear to be green milk tea or oolong milk tea, but the place I went to, Kikilucky in Frankfurt, had about 30 different flavours, if not more.
My friend doesn’t work far away, so seeing as I was going to her new favourite place, I thought it was only fair I pick one up for her too. This wasn’t totally an altruistic act, I actually needed her bubble tea knowledge to work out what on earth to order!
I settled for a jasmine milk tea, a tea I normally love, but admittedly, at first I wasn’t sure about the taste. I found it very sweet and a bit unpleasant until the floral jasmine came through. I didn’t quite know what to make of the first tapioca ball I slurped up the straw – it felt so slimy! Actually, the weird chewy balls were really satisfying, and I got the appeal.
Although I couldn’t drink the whole tea, I would be intrigued to try a different flavour in the future. I won’t be in any rush to do so though, the amount of plastic that was used really surprised me, and completely put me off.
New Day, New Thing 