Tiny 'Gooey' Bubbles

I heart bubble teas. For those of you unfamiliar, you might know the bubbles I speak of as boba. Bubble teas are milk mixed or artificially flavored teas (usually green tea) that are shaken, mixed and poured into a cup filled 1/4 full of black tapioca pearls...or bubbles. They can only be slurped up through "fat" straws because that's the only way you're going to get any bubbles with your gulp.

I was first introduced to bubble teas in NYC's Chinatown...there are a few (read: many) cafes, tea houses, restaurants that offer bubble teas - but the best one that I've had in Chinatown comes out of Ten Ren Tea Time Cafe. Ten Ren is already renowned for their selections of teas but they have a separate cafe next door that offers all types of drink conconctions - half which come with bubbles. Whenever I am in Chinatown, I try and grab one (or three) during my visit. I think my record is three during a day. The only reason I can justify so many in a day is because I only get it when I am in NYC - so that's three times per year. That was until I found local places that satisfy my tapioca tastebuds.

For the past five years, I have been searching, high and low, in the DC metro area, for someone to serve me up a bubble tea that is the equivalent to Ten Ren - not too sweet, not too bitter...not too frothy with bubbles that are perfectly gooey. Until a few months ago, I did not find such a place in the DC area. However, during a particularly slow time in the office, I decided to do another search (because you never know when one is going to pop up) for bubble tea places and FOUND a Ten Ren in Rockville, MD. It's about 15 miles away but 15 miles compared to 220-something miles up to NYC is not bad....so I surprised my husband and took him there for a bubble tea treat one Sunday afternoon.

Then I found this great taiwanese cafe in Annandale, VA that not only sold bubble teas but had a Maria's Bakery (popular in the Chinatown world) that also sold it...their teas are pretty frothy and super sweet - definitely not as good as Ten Ren - but a tea is a tea.

Eventhough I found a Ten Ren closer to our home, I really haven't been out there getting a tea every weekend - that would just be silly. But just this past week, while I was trying a new Pho place by my office, in a strip mall, I glanced at a coffee house menu taped to the window and saw that they offered bubble teas. I immediately jumped in (cause they had my favorite - Lychee) and ordered one. It was good - it was very comparable to Ten Ren - and this place was run by whities, which was all the more surprising.

I was so excited, that when I brought it back to my office, I called my sister at her office and said, 'Hey, guess what I'm eating/drinking...' and then I proceeded to slurp a little and chomp on my bubbles. Did she know what I was eating/drinking? You bet she did - she's gasped and said, 'Where did you get a bubble tea?' (she's good at that game - or maybe it's a sister thing) I told her all about my path crossing this coffee house that I wasn't even thinking of going into - but once I saw the words 'bubble tea' and 'lychee' on the menu, they had me - they beamed me in and made me a fan.

If you get a chance, try a bubble tea - even if you don't love tapioca (as in tapioca pudding), this is different - this is japanese tapioca (black) and you might just enjoy the drink itself. As my God-Sister's father once said, 'It's like a tiny surprise with every drink.'