Best Bubble Tea

[fud]

Bubble tea has become a fact of life in Vancouver. I remember being in Seattle 5 years ago and not seeing any bubble tea there. This year there are tonnes. The bubbles are taking over.

So assuming you've been assimilated. Where do you go for your drinky/tapioka treat?

1. Dragon Ball - King Edward and oak

2. Oasis - 41st and West Boulevard

mmmm bubble tea...mmmm...

[stovetop]

I do not get it?

Where is the enjoyment.

sorry

not a fan

steve

[kontemporary]

I find bubble tea is enjoyable if the thing at the bottom of the drink is "coconut jelly" and not "taopica pearls".. but I guess that defeats the purpose of the drink.

[fud]

I find bubble tea is enjoyable if the thing at the bottom of the drink is "coconut jelly" and not "taopica pearls".. but I guess that defeats the purpose of the drink.

←

Coconut Jelly is pretty tastey too. I'm still a fan of the pearls though. There's nothing odd about not liking bubble tea though. I have friends who had gag reflexes when they tried it.

[sanrensho]

Has anyone ever choked to death on those things? I fear the day that one of my kids sucks up a tapioca pearl only to have it lodge in her windpipe. I feel like I should study up on the Heimlich maneuver before ordering one of those things.

My only preference with bubble tea is that the fruit versions be made with actual ripe fruit. Fruit powders are a definite no-no. I'm not much for liquid calories so I don't drink bubble tea often enough to have a preference out of all the different varieties. Too many choices for me.

Edited September 23, 2005 by sanrensho (log)

[achiu]

I like Tapioca Express in Richmond. You can get the mini pearls like sago. I find the regular pearls to filling and prefer grass jelly.

There is also LG on 41st and Granville that is pretty good.

Alex

[shelora]

Concern for caloric intake has limited my bubble tea consumption, but I have fond memories of Milk bubble tea and taro. Don't care for the fruit flavours.

The bubbles are wonderfully chewy. Mmmm.

[fud]

Concern for caloric intake has limited my bubble tea consumption, but I have fond memories of Milk bubble tea and taro. Don't care for the fruit flavours.

The bubbles are wonderfully chewy. Mmmm.

←

I dig the Taro too. It IS quite filling though. Hmm Miniature bubbles that's something I will need to check out.

You know for some reason there doesn't seem to be much of a choking hazard in the tapioca balls. Not sure if it is because they are soft and malleable. But they seem pretty easy down the gullet

[owzer]

Dragon ball definitely has the best in town, IMHO.

Always order the mango without milk.

(kind of like a fruit slurpee)

With pearls (aka bubbles) only if it is fresh.

Otherwise they are tough and chewy....

Best,

Owzer

[CanadianBakin']

My husband and I really enjoy bubble tea. He's more adventurous than I am though. My favourite is made with fresh strawberries. We had a great bubble tea place in Abbotsford called The Bubbo Tea Cafe but he closed a couple years ago and we haven't found any where else close. Does anyone know of a good shop a bit closer to the Fraser Valley?

[Memo]

Has anyone ever choked to death on those things? I fear the day that one of my kids sucks up a tapioca pearl only to have it lodge in her windpipe.

←

I find that making sure my kids wear their bicycle helmets helps prevent choking injury! Actually, we've rigged a special strap-ring to the helmet - if fits tightly around the neck (much like those diving-for-fish cormorants wear in Japan) - ensuring that anything thicker than fluid does not get swallowed - or stuck!

Memo

[sanrensho]

I find that making sure my kids wear their bicycle helmets helps prevent choking injury! Actually, we've rigged a special strap-ring to the helmet - if fits tightly around the neck (much like those diving-for-fish cormorants wear in Japan) - ensuring that anything thicker than fluid does not get swallowed - or stuck!

You know this could work. My girls love biking (taking after their dad), so it isn't hard to get them to wear helmets.

The reason I ask is because there was a similar "scare" quite a few years back with the fruit-flavored konnyaku jelly cups sold in Japan (also HK, China, Taiwan). At least in Japan, there were a few reported incidents of kids choking on the jellies.

Dragon Ball--love the name.

[chrisstearns]

Bubble tea has become a fact of life in Vancouver.  I remember being in Seattle 5 years ago and not seeing any bubble tea there.  This year there are tonnes.  The bubbles are taking over.

←

Perhaps this is because Vancouver has a larger Taiwanese community than Seattle.

Bubble tea was invented in Taichung, Taiwan, about 1987, in one of the thousands of tea shops that dot the city (think Starbucks in Vancouver, but quadrupled). It was originally a cold milk tea (made from powdered milk) with sweet syrup and various fruits and tapioca balls (and apparently candied yams too. What the ???).

It's interesting that the drink didn't become popular until it appeared on a Japanese TV show. After that it took off back home in Taiwan and became a major fad. Taiwan, in my experience, is strongly influenced by Japanese trends--in fashion, music, food, etc. I lived in Taichung last winter and noticed many instances of this.

Although you still see it around Taiwan, bubble tea not drunk as much today as it was in the 90s.

[Ling]

I drank a lot of bubble tea in high school. Back then, we used to go to this place called Jack's Loft (in Richmond), Bubble World, and Oasis. My favourite was called Pearl Castle (I think?...the logo was of an elephant). Friday and Saturday nights were inevitably spent shooting pool at Hot Shots, and then going to a bubble tea place. After bubble tea, there would be some illegal drag race somewhere out in the boonies, and we would go watch until the police came and gave out VIs. (And as funny as that sounds now, that's what all the "bad" Asian kids did on the weekends.) Anyway, pool and bubble tea was a huge part of Chinese (whether CBC, HK or Taiwanese) Vancouver/Richmond youth culture in the late 90s...not so much anymore.

I've had pretty much every flavour...I usually stuck to vanilla, pudding (vanilla flavour with chunks of gelatin "pudding" mixed in), taro, or green tea ice-cream (from Oasis). I didn't like the fruit ones very much (I guess b/c I don't remember drinking ones made with fresh fruit, only powder or strawberry jam) except strawberry with coconut jelly. And I always had the HK style thick toast with condensed milk with my bubble tea, or the spicy/salty cuttlefish snacks.

2 points for anyone who knows why the big tapioca pearls are called "bo ba!"

Edited September 24, 2005 by Ling (log)

[Vancouver]

2 points for anyone who knows why the big tapioca pearls are called "bo ba!"

Big boobs, no?

Cheers!

[canucklehead]

2 points for anyone who knows why the big tapioca pearls are called "bo ba!"

Big boobs, no?

Cheers!

←

That sounds more like second base than two points. But I am guessing that you may be right!

[Ling]

2 points for anyone who knows why the big tapioca pearls are called "bo ba!"

Big boobs, no?

Cheers!

←

ding ding ding! We have a winner!

[Vancouver]

2 points for anyone who knows why the big tapioca pearls are called "bo ba!"

Big boobs, no?

Cheers!

←

ding ding ding! We have a winner!

←

So can I cash in the 2 points for a brownie? Are they brownie points?

Cheers!

[Ling]

Actually, your prize is a flash of Margaret Cho's breasts.

[Daddy-A]

Time to bring this back on topic. The discussion at hand is Bubble Tea in Vancouver/Western Canada. General discussion on bubble tea belongs elsewhere. No comment as to where the discussion on bo ba belongs.

A.

[chocomoo]

Ling's right, bubble tea's not as "in" anymore... That being said, I think the best places nowadays are Pearl Castle and Bubble World. I think Bubble World was the first bubble tea place in my area (Marpole/South Granville). Or maybe it was Oasis? I dunno, but they were both owned by Taiwanese people. Dragon Ball isn't bad either, but there is absolutely no room to sit there. The heat is unbearable in the summer... Their Bartlett pear bubble tea is so delicious though! Many of the better bubble tea places have both fresh fruit & powdered fruit drinks now.

Bubble World's tea is among the cheapest - the prices at the Granville location didn't change until a couple months ago (they've been open for what, 10 years?), and it only went up 25 cents to $3.75 for the regular drinks. Fresh fruit costs more, of course. I don't usually like tapioca pearls with my bubble tea because it's sooo filling, and Bubble World has extras like coconut meat (the canned, clear kind), green tea jelly, coffee jelly, lemon jelly, and pudding. Right now I like grapefruit green tea with green tea jelly My favourite used to be regular bubble tea with coffee jelly, and before I liked mango slush with coconut meat. I still like them, it's just that I got tired of them. The taro tastes like cookies & cream to me, for some reason. Nobody else seems to think so They also have green tea ice cream bubble tea now!

Pearl Castle (at Continental Centre) is really good because you can really taste the tea in their drinks. Even their pudding bubble tea tastes of real tea (Bubble World's is powdered). They offer Taiwanese food now, and it's pretty good compared to most of the other bubble tea places. They have Chinese style oden, Taiwanese sausage fried rice, and some kind of roasted corn (seasonal), among other things. It's usually quite busy on the weekends - there are lineups at 11 p.m.!

Cute Pearl House on 40th (or 39th?) & West Boulevard has really good Taiwanese style fried chicken. Deep-fried nuggets of spiced dark meat sprinkled with salt & pepper with crispy skin. My friend & I used to go to this place after school sometimes & share a basket of these - perfect afternoon snack!!

I had bubble tea once when I was in Taiwan a few years ago - I had the stomach flu (damn you, curry fish ball from street vendor in Hong Kong! ) but I couldn't resist 50 cent bubble tea! Where else in the world can you get bubble tea for under a dollar? Maybe China, but I don't want to think about what would be in it...

[fud]

I drank a lot of bubble tea in high school. Back then, we used to go to this place called Jack's Loft (in Richmond), Bubble World, and Oasis. My favourite was called Pearl Castle (I think?...the logo was of an elephant). Friday and Saturday nights were inevitably spent shooting pool at Hot Shots, and then going to a bubble tea place. After bubble tea, there would be some illegal drag race somewhere out in the boonies, and we would go watch until the police came and gave out VIs. (And as funny as that sounds now, that's what all the "bad" Asian kids did on the weekends.) Anyway, pool and bubble tea was a huge part of Chinese (whether CBC, HK or Taiwanese) Vancouver/Richmond youth culture in the late 90s...not so much anymore.

←

I went to jack's Loft pretty often in high school till my friend's car was stolen by someone working there (they took your jackets as a "service"). Stopped going after that. Now I hang with Dragon Ball

[fud]

Ling's right, bubble tea's not as "in" anymore... That being said, I think the best places nowadays are Pearl Castle and Bubble World.  I think Bubble World was the first bubble tea place in my area (Marpole/South Granville).  Or maybe it was Oasis? 

←

Oh I have to disagree with this one! I had bubble world a couple times and found their drinks to leave this powdery aftertaste in my mouth. Boobies...i mean bubbles were either really hard or too sweet. Oasis on the otherhad has good bubble tea!

The one in coquitlam was empty when I went in and it took a full 35 minutes to make two bubble teas which didn't taste very good. I wonder if this one is part of the same chain.

[Paul B]

I'm not a big fan myself, since I find it too sweet, but my son has been turned onto it by a Chinese friend of his who recommended the little stand in the food court in the Yoahan Market, Richmond. They do a passion-fruit slushy thing with pearls that my son swears by.

[Ling]

^Yeah, I think that place is owned by the same people who run Pearl Castle. The one in Yaohan is called Elephant Cafe, I think. (Or maybe they just have the same logo as Pearl Castle?)

Edited September 26, 2005 by Ling (log)