Bubble tea has taken the world, and New Zealand, by storm. But where did it come from and is it here to stay?

At 5pm on a sunny evening on Dominion Road, the retail shops have closed and the restaurants have yet to start doling out their saucy noodles and plump dumplings. It’s a Tuesday and foot traffic is thin, but on the pavement in front of HuluCat, four people are waiting. A Pākehā mother-daughter duo are called up to the counter window first. They’ve ordered two strawberry milk teas with black boba, a cream cheese black tea also with boba, and a peach green tea with no toppings. 

The daughter grabs three thick straws from the stainless steel container, and bundles three of the sealed cups in her hands. Her mum grabs the remaining strawberry milk tea. HuluCat is really just a hole in the wall – a big open window with a counter, and beyond that one or two staff members who zip around grabbing plastic cups from the towers on the right, filling them with tea, milk, flavours, ice and toppings on the left, shaking them, and then sealing them up by the window where they’re collected. Next up are two fruit slushies for the grey-haired Pasifika lady, and then an original milk tea with pearls, in a paper bag, for the tween boy on his bike. 

Across the road, Tea Talk is also serving cold bubble teas from a counter window. If you walk just two blocks through the shops you’ll encounter another five specialty bubble tea shops, and see that many of the restaurants have added laminated signs on their windows, hawking their own versions of the cold drinks. Granted, this is Dominion Road, an epicentre of Asian food in New Zealand, but Google shows 18 bubble tea shops in Auckland’s CBD, and one in just about every major mall, city and town throughout New Zealand – even Invercargill. Bubble tea, the insanely popular Taiwanese drink, has taken New Zealand, and the world, by storm. 

Bubble tea, also called Boba or Pearl tea, is defined by the chewy cherry-sized tapioca balls which are sucked up through an extra thick straw. They don’t have much flavour – texture, or mouthfeel, is an important consideration in Taiwanese cuisine. While chewy desserts have been a fixture on the island for generations, bubble tea is relatively new. It was invented in the 1980s, amidst an economic boom and a cultural feeling that society was transitioning from old to new. Bubble tea became so popular that many Taiwanese people took to drinking it everyday. It then spread throughout Asia and then the rest of the world, first through diaspora populations. In 2014, bubble tea boomed in western culture, particularly North America. The global industry has grown into a global industry valued at US$2.4–3.6 billion with no signs of slowing down. In his last interview with CNN, one of the two claimants to the invention of bubble tea Tu Tsung-ho, said that bubble tea “introduces the world to Taiwan.”

In New Zealand, the first bubble teas started appearing in the 90s. Manying Ip, professor emeritus at the school of Asian studies at the University of Auckland, says the first shops would likely have been started by Taiwanese immigrants who arrived after New Zealand’s immigration changes in 1987. The Immigration Act 1987 aimed to eliminate discrimination against some races and nationalities, and preference for others. In the late 1800s, restrictions now widely seen as prejudiced were placed on the entry of Asian people. It wasn’t until 1974 that the criteria for entry began to change from race or nationality to merit and skills, attracting migration from Asia. Bubble tea is among the many delicious foods that migrants have taken with them around the world.

Ip remembers one of the first shops popped up in Newmarket, “around where the trendy people go”. The shop wasn’t like the colourful Instagram-friendly versions of today, which offer seemingly endless menu items and variations. It only sold one type of tea, the classic bubble milk tea with black boba. It would have been called pearl milk tea rather than bubble tea.

Now there’s hundreds of flavours of bubble tea: brewed tea like oolong or rose, fruity flavours like grape or lime slushies, tea lattes like winter melon latte or caramel latte, specialty flavours like lychee yogurt green tea and even dessert teas which feature rice or red bean. Once you’ve picked from the long list of flavour options, you can add toppings. Beyond the traditional tapioca pearls, there’s agar pearls, taro balls, coffee jelly, peach gum, chia seeds, cream cheese, honey aloe, egg pudding and grass jelly – to name just a few. The levels of sugar and ice are customisable and usually laid out in percentages. An order is so customisable that it’s a small feat of self-actualisation and no surprise that a slew of personality tests along the lines of “which bubble tea are you?” have cropped up. 

A tea can set you back between $8 and $18 – the more toppings the more the cost. Once it’s handed over in the big, plastic, sealed cups, another ritual begins. If you’ve got toppings, choose the thick straw, two sizes are usually available on the counter. If the toppings are jelly, shake the drink up so the pieces break up. The straw is used to stab through the seal on the top. Toppings must be carefully rationed throughout the drink so that when you’re done, none are left on dry land. If they are, they must be sucked up with air.

Ip can’t remember the name of that early pearl milk tea shop or its owner, only that she was a Taiwanese immigrant who was in the Hwa Hsia Society, which was big at the time and continues to this day. The society sprung up in 1989 when the thousands of Taiwanese people who had migrated here under the new Act realised the importance of unity and community. Today, one of the stated aims of the organisation is to promote social, cultural and educational exchange between Taiwanese New Zealanders and other New Zealanders. Though it could be viewed as simply a sugary cold drink, bubble tea also seems to fit this aim.

The current generation of bubble tea shops tend to be franchises run by young, educated and social media savvy entrepreneurs. The shops are designed with social media in mind – logos are large, the lighting is bright, there’s Instagram-friendly decor and aesthetics, and the drinks themselves are bright, colourful, constantly re-invented and served in clear cups. The people behind the counter making the endless varieties of bubble tea are young staff, working at fast speeds as customers take their orders away.

In 2003, a duo who grew up in Taiwan, immersed in milk tea culture, and moved to New Zealand for high school, started a cat themed bubble tea shop on Auckland’s Anzac Avenue. The first HuluCat Tea House was a big cozy space with comfy places to sit and lounge. It had board games, was open till midnight and also served cheese toasties. The combination proved very popular. Young people and university students loved hanging out or studying there.

Yu-Fan Lin (also known as Darcy Lin), a spokesperson for the company, says that at first, most of the customers were from the Chinese community. Its wider popularity was a gradual process: young people were first, while “older locals were initially hesitant,” she says. The owners of HuluCat were determined – they developed new flavours to appeal to different tastes, and focused on providing a friendly atmosphere. The customer base expanded “step by step,” says Lin. Now, many different New Zealanders enjoy bubble tea regularly – families, office workers, people from across Oceania, Māori and Pākehā.

Over time HuluCat grew and became a local franchise. Currently there are seven stores across Auckland. At the same time, as the popularity of bubble tea took off in the western world, other bubble tea brands arrived from overseas or sprung up here. The global mammoth Gong Cha arrived in New Zealand in 2015, 12 years after the first HuluCat. It has grown exponentially, and now has 30 stores nationwide. There’s also Yi Fang, Tea Talk, Wucha lounge, Cha Time, TwenTea and countless others. HuluCat remains the local stalwart, over its 20-year history, Lin says she’s seen bubble tea become “a beloved treat enjoyed by many”. In her eyes, “bubble tea is definitely here to stay.”

Manying Ip first noticed how appealing bubble tea could be to New Zealanders at one of the Auckland Lantern Festivals held in Albert Park in the 90s. Her Pākehā friend bought bubble tea from a vendor there for $6. “It was a lot of money, but then he really enjoyed it.” She thinks it’s one of those things that catches on, particularly with young people, because it’s a “fusion thing, between east and west”. She thinks its rise here reflects a happy bridging of cultures. There’s also the simple material things. It’s yum and quite filling, so it’s not surprising that it has become popular – “it’s just like the pie, you know?”

Back on Dominion Road, the sun is setting and the neon lights have turned on. Groups of people cluster around bubble tea shops. Some have come in pajamas, others with bellies full of food from the restaurants next door. Parents hold the hands of their little ones and help them order a little treat for the evening. Though it was born in Taiwan, bubble tea is now part of New Zealand.