Delicious or disgusting? Boba craze spills over from bubble tea to pizza, ramen, hotpot and sushi

Jul 29 , 2019

The global boba tea market is projected to reach US$3,214 million by 2023. Such is its popularity that adventurous chefs have begun using it to make food dishes. The newly opened pizzeria, MyPizzaLab in Malaysia serves ‘highly experimental’ boba pizza without traditional toppings. Photo: Instagram

Whether you’re in Japan, Singapore, Malaysia or Hong Kong, we guarantee there’s a chef making some unexpected dish with boba

Taiwanese milk tea with its chewy tapioca pearl bubbles, known as bubble tea or boba tea, became an international sensation with its diverse flavours and chewy accoutrement.

According to Allied Market Research, the global bubble tea market was valued at US$1,957 million in 2016 and is projected to reach US$3,214 million by 2023.

The authentic bubble tea, which originated in Taiwan, was a simple blend of black tea and plain tapioca balls, but with its soaring popularity, customers expect a variety of base tea ingredients like green tea, oolong and white tea, and tapioca flavours like coffee, fruit and chocolate.

It might be no wonder that, in addition to the rapid growth of bubble milk tea flavours, there is also a market for diversifying boba tea … in food.

It might be no wonder that, in addition to the rapid growth of bubble milk tea flavours, there is also a market for diversifying boba tea … in food

We list eight boba tea dishes – and some honourable mentions – from the quite palatable to the just plain weird. Whether you’re in Japan, Singapore, Malaysia or Hong Kong, we guarantee there’s a chef making some crazy dish with boba.

1. Boba ice cream

Let’s ease into this rabbit hole with the boba tea desserts. It might seem unsurprising that the sweet and chewy tapioca balls have made their way into the world of desserts, with restaurants touting sweet soufflés, Japanese pancakes, waffles and soft-serves with sweet pearls on top.

7-Eleven Japan revealed their royal milk tea with mochi ice cream bar earlier this year. The ice-cream bar is flavoured with milk tea and includes tapioca-style mochi, which all-in-all sounds like it would be a delightful post-dinner treat.

2. Bubble tea tarts

Another sweet treat that sounds quite scrumptious is Edith patisserie’s bubble tea tarts. The Singapore-based bakery was featured in The Straits Times, Business Insider and some of the biggest food blogs in the city for its novel boba tea pastry.

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Irene Pyne

Irene Pyne is a professional copywriter, storywriter and all-round content guru. Her interests include East Asian culture and politics, modern art, food, television and film. When she’s not writing for us, she’s spending time at idNerd’s animation studio, debating over the projectile speed of snot - for a cartoon, of course.

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