Drink · Shaken

Zhenzhu Naicha (Bubble Tea)

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Two different Taiwanese tea houses each claim to have invented it in 1986, and a court case over the dispute concluded the question was ultimately unanswerable.

Sweetened black or green tea is shaken with milk and chewy tapioca pearls, served cold over ice with a wide straw made for sucking up the pearls along with the drink.

Why it's made this way: The drink grew out of Taiwan's existing cold tea-shop culture in the 1980s, experimenting with add-ins like tapioca pearls.