10 Sep Culinary History: The Origin of Boba Tea
Boba Tea, also known as bubble tea, is one of the most popular drinks in the world today, but its origin is wrapped up in a dispute as intense as it is curious. It was born in Taiwan in the 1980s, yet two legendary tea houses — Chun Shui Tang in Taichung and Hanlin Tea Room in Tainan — still claim to have invented it.
According to Chun Shui Tang, its founder Liu Han-Chieh introduced cold tea to Taiwan after a trip to Japan. In 1986, wanting to innovate, he let his staff experiment with new ingredients. One of them had the idea to add tapioca pearls to iced tea, and that’s how the first boba tea came to be.
On the other hand, Hanlin Tea Room says their founder was inspired by seeing starch balls served with sugary water at a local market. He decided to mix them with tea, creating a drink that quickly won people over.
This rivalry led to a legal battle that lasted nearly ten years. Finally, in 2019, a Taiwanese court ruled that boba tea could not be patented, meaning no one could claim exclusive invention rights.
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