Page 99 - #64 eng 电子版

“ Bubble milk tea is an important driving force
in the history of Taiwanese tea culture. But how did its strong
and mellow taste conquer the whole world? ”

Foam Black Tea: The Prede- many European cities, welcomed pearl
cessor of Bubble Milk Tea milk tea. For example, in Berlin, Ger-
many, as long as it’s getting warmer,
Hanjie Liu, the founder of many young people buy a cup of
Taiwanese brand “Chun Shui pearl milk tea. When seeing this,
Tang”, created iced “compre- you may feel like as if you were in
hensive” black tea in 1983 Taiwan.It’s Bochao Wu, the chair-
which is Foam Black Tea. Here man of board of Yaming Group,
is the procedure of making who first introduced pearl milk tea
“comprehensive” black tea: put to places out of Taiwan. He entered
ice cubes into a shaker, pour hot Hong Kong market in 1994 and
tea, add brandy, passion fruit or Shanghai in 1995, and since then, has
lemon juice, shake the shaker for opened more than 600 chain stores of tea
immediate cooling and to produce foam drinks in Taiwan, mainland China, Philip-
shortly; a shaker is divided into two parts so pines, New York and so on. Franchised brands
open the top lid and pour the tea, then ice cubes and foam. such as “Leisure Station” and “Kuai Ke Li” one after an-
At that time, the whole society was quite curious other promoted tea drinks overseas in the mid-90s. “Tian-
about this type of black tea made using a shaker and with ren Mingcha”, one of the big names in the tea industry, is
dense foam. Its unique taste started heated discussion aggressively developing its brand “Chi Cha Qu TOGO” in
about the influence of the word “Shake”, one example is America, Canada, Japan and Australia. Its another brand
a product named “Xue Ke” black tea, which reminds peo- “California Tea Hotel” in L.A. Universal Studios still per-
ple of foam immediately. At its peak, there was a street in forms quite well after many years of operation. This year,
Taizhong in the middle of Taiwan which was lined with the newly founded brand “CHAFFEE” is the focus, which is
numerous foam tea houses and takeaway tea stands. Before a combination of Eastern and Western tea cultures and
cafes have become popular, foam tea houses used to be technological innovation, a “free and open tea space”. Vari-
the places where office workers and students converged. ous tea groups have started entering oversea tea drinking
Pearl milk tea came into being in those tea houses too. markets, and it can be seen that, pearl milk tea has success-
This was a milestone of traditional tea culture transform- fully set up a common standard of tea drinks.
ing into iced tea (mingled tea). In September 2017, New York held the first “Hello
Taiwan Festival of Pearl Milk Tea”. Thousands of tickets
Pearl Milk Tea Going Global were sold out in a second. Nine characteristic Taiwanese
tea houses presented themselves during the festival. The
Pearl milk tea is abbreviated as pearl tea, also known challenge was not only about different teas and pearl
as Boba milk tea, Tapioca milk tea and Bubble milk tea. varieties, but more about combinations with different tea
As its name indicates, it’s mellow milk tea with tapioca. bases. For instance, how well pearls go along with various
The unique flavor has enjoyed great popularity. Hanlin tea bases such as Tie Guanyin, Oolong, Yu Xiang, 913 the
Tea House and Chun Shui Tang even went to court, both King of Tea (a type of mingled tea blending oolong, Fen-
claiming self as the original creators of pearl milk tea. But guang ginseng and ginseng leaves), Matcha and milk green
eventually, neither of them succeeded in getting the tea, and how well pearls go along with grass jelly and
trademark right and patent. Thanks to this, pearl milk tea pudding. The audience could try various pearl milk teas
has become a global drink.In recent years, in Chinese for free. Such a fun turned out to be the most direct and
communities in North America and Australia as well as quickest way to promote tea culture.

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