If you pass a bubble tea shop, you wonder if they give out drinks for free: people queue for the drink – and for quite a long time. You have to be patient if you want one of those hip drinks where you pull little gooey balls floating in tea through a straw.
Google celebrates bubble tea with a doodle
The drink from Taiwan has gained enormous popularity in recent years. Google is now honoring the sweet drink with a game. You can prepare your own tea while playing.
A good ten years ago, bubble tea, which originated in Asia, spilled over to Europe. First you could taste it in Berlin or Hamburg, then with a little delay in Zurich or Basel. Everywhere you saw teenagers with the brightly colored Taiwanese cult drink.
The premature end of the bubble tea hype
But it wasn’t long before dark clouds appeared on the horizon: “A German study was published that said the beads were carcinogenic,” explains Steven Knecht (35), co-founder of the Bubblish store in Zurich’s Seefeld.
Scientists from the RWTH Aachen University declared the beads to be carcinogenic. It was said that children had died or contracted pneumonia. The drinks were hardly bought anymore. “After all, no mother wants her child to drink bubble tea if it is carcinogenic,” says Knecht.
But then the North Rhine-Westphalian State Office for Food Control dared to investigate: 84 bubble teas were examined for abnormalities, but none were found. There was even talk of a “smear campaign”. The RWTH Aachen study has now been taken off the internet.
Countless possible combinations
Now the bubble tea is back with even more variety: “The selection has grown enormously.” Basically, a bubble tea is a drink consisting of tea, milk and tapioca pearls extracted from the starch of the cassava root. However, the tea houses come up with a number of ideas: Whether cold or warm, fruity or creamy – the customer is spoiled for choice. You can not only choose green or black tea, but also juice, milk or coffee with syrup in different flavors are poured into the cup today.
Bubblish has found his own twist. “We like to call ourselves tea specialists,” says Knecht with a smile. The team tested their way through over 200 types of tea to find the best quality. “It’s not for nothing that our slogan is ‘Bubble Tea with love’ – we put a lot of love and time into the selection of our ingredients and the creation of our products.” The hand-picked tea varieties can now also be tried and bought in the Bubblish store on Zurich’s Seefeldstrasse.
Behind Bubblish is the trio of Steven Knecht, Marilyn Heng (37) and Philip Fischer (34). “My friend Marilyn was definitely the main reason we started Bubblish. I had had bad experiences with bubble teas in the past, but they made me give the drink another chance,” reports Knecht. Heng knew the cult drink from an early age and grew up with it in Singapore. She brought her love for it to Switzerland, where she has been at home since 2014.
loyal fanbase
Knecht isn’t too worried about the bubble tea trend ending again quickly: “Of course, it’s possible that the hype will flatten out again, but anyone who likes to drink bubble tea will continue to drink it in the future.” Knecht is optimistic that the true fan base will remain.
On the one hand, the media are certainly one of the triggers for the extreme demand, but social networks also play a role. The colorful fizzy tea with the cult balls simply fits optically into the dazzling world of social networks.
The crowds no longer seem to care about the sugar and possible additives. Maybe the current time is to blame for this, when it’s just good to go overboard from time to time.
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