What Is Boba A Guide To Ordering Guilt
Boba a.k.a bubble milk tea a.k.a pearl milk tea started from Taiwan. It started becoming more popular in the 1980s when a hawker stall vendor combined boba at the bottom, shaved ice and filled the rest of the drinks with milk tea. It became a hit, and now the topping choices have expanded beyond boba to elements such as grass jelly, pudding, cheese foam and red beans.
With so many options available, there are one drinks for everyone, and it is so hard to endure the temptation of bubble tea. There are bubble tea shops everywhere and calling out your name when you shop. I believe in having everything in moderation, and we should not suppress our craving in the extreme. In this article, I’ll breakdown each ingredient and components in bubble tea and stay tuned to the end of the blog for a quick guide to choosing the healthiest milk tea.
When You Drink Boba Every Day This Is What Happens
Theres a reason boba or bubble tea is so popular. Even though the drink originated in Taiwan, it has recently become popular all over the United States with shops dedicated to the making of the tea popping up all over. Thrillist notes that the boom of boba tea is partly due to its popularity amongst students and the availability of the milky caffeinated beverage near college campuses.
Boba can be used to refer to both the black tapioca pearls as well as the drink as a whole . However, the drink itself goes by different names it can be called boba tea, bubble tea, or pearl milk tea depending on where you are in the world. Whatever you choose to call the tea, boba is usually made with black tea, milk, ice, and tapioca pearls.
Part of boba teas popularity is because you can pretty much go all out to customize it. In addition to adding syrups and toppings, the chewy tapioca pearls come in a variety of flavors. Theyre also quite addictive. According to Eater, tapioca pearls start out as hard and tasteless little balls. They are then boiled and steeped into a caramelized sugar syrup until they turn black, bouncy, and delicious.
It may be a well-known fact that boba can be irresistible, but what happens when you drink it every day?
Does Boba Have A Lot Of Calories
The traditional kind of tapioca boba has 63 calories per ounce, 15 grams of carbohydrates, and a significant amount of additional preservatives and artificial colors. There are 25 calories in one ounce of bursting boba, the majority of which come from sugar . The starch in boba is the primary source of its carbohydrate content.
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Top Variations To Try
Here are some of the top variations you can do with this recipe.
- Add a tea blend of your choice to the fresh milk. We recommend starting with black teas such as Ceylon. Once youre comfortable you can go wild! Try matcha, taro fresh milk or even rose milk tea! We recommend the hot tea mixture is cooled before you assemble the drink together. Otherwise, the sweet brown syrup will melt almost immediately.
- Add another topping. Try coconut jelly or coffee jelly toppings in this drink.
- Top it off with a hard layer of caramel
- Experiment with the consistency of the sweet brown syrup. Try adding more water, or letting it simmer for longer. This will give you a different consistency and vary the lava lamp effect for the Mudflip version! You will need a mason jar with a lid to try this one out.
How Much Caffeine In Boba Tea
So, the issue thats been on everyones lips is whether or not bubble tea contains caffeine the simple answer is yes. A typical serving of bubble tea has a caffeine content that ranges ranging from 100 mg to 160 mg per cup. In most cases, it consists of a mixture of tea, various fruits, milk, and chewy tapioca balls. Because of this, Bubble may have a rather high concentration of caffeine.
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Why Is Bubble Tea So High In Calories
The amount of sugar that is added to the pearls causes an increase in the overall calorie count of the milk tea.In addition, we see that a lot of places are now selling tapioca pearls that pop. When you chew on these pearls, the insides release fruity gels that have been sweetened.The sweeteners are comprised of sugary syrup, which contributes to the overall calorie count of the bubble tea.
Bubble Tea Health Facts: Is Boba Bad For You
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No matter if you call your drink boba or bubble tea, this delicious drink craze has gathered a cult following around the world. Yet while tea itself boasts an extensive list of health benefits ranging from antioxidants to heart health, bobas nutrition is often deeply scrutinized.
Are trend haters gonna hate or is boba really bad for you? Lets pick apart the nutrition facts of this beautiful squishy tapioca ball drink concoction.
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Does Boba Make You Fat
Since bubble tea contributes more calories to your diet on a regular basis, drinking it may cause you to put on extra weight.At the very least, one cup of bubble tea has the potential to contain 370 calories.According to what a nutritionist named Kong Woan Fei was reported as stating, the boba alone contains 150 calories.Sugar is what we refer to as a food with empty calories.
What Is Tiger Sugar
Born in Taichung, Taiwan, Tiger Sugar has emerged in the last few years as a fan-favorite boba tea chain in part due to its Instagrammable drinks with black sugar tiger stripes dripping down the inside of their cups.
According to the chains website, baristas cook tapioca pearls in syrup for eight hours before serving. Rather than creamer, the stores use fresh milk in the drinks.
Tiger Sugars success has allowed it to expand with black sugar bubble tea-inspired products such as popcorn and ice cream bars, which can be found in select grocery stores, like neighboring H Mart.
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What Is The Nutritional Value Of Boba
If you havent yet discovered boba tea, expect to do so soon at a teashop near you.
A typical boba drink combines sweetened tea, natural or artificial flavors, and a layer of tapioca pearls that bob around at the bottom of the cup. The tapioca look like bubbles as they come up through the straw, thus the derivation boba.
This wildly popular beverage was first offered in 1980s Taiwan. It became popular across Asia in the 1990s, and in recent years teashops have popped up all over Europe and the United States.
Other names for boba include bubble tea, pearl milk tea, tapioca tea, ball drink, and pearl shake. The drink is usually served cold, with an extra-wide straw for sucking up the chewy boba along with your drink. Boba tea is usually available in teashops offering extensive menus of flavors and preparations.
The term boba tea covers a broad range of sweet, noncarbonated, nonalcoholic drinks. Most varieties include:
- brewed tea or tea made from concentrate
- milk or a nondairy additive to make the drink creamy
- sweeteners, such as flavored syrups
Black, jasmine, and green teas are commonly used as a base. Many fruit flavors are popular, including mango, kiwi, strawberry, honeydew, and passion fruit.
While theres really no traditional boba tea recipe, the simplest variety is a sweetened green or black tea with tapioca balls but you can even get boba tea without the actual boba!
Why Is Tiger Sugar So Popular Milk Tea Boba Are Just The Start How To Order Like A Pro
Tiger Sugar has arrived in Arizona. Here’s why it’s so famous and what you should order
After more than a year of anticipation, Taiwanese chain Tiger Sugar has arrived in Arizona, bringing dessert drinks, boba tea, brewed tea and its famous amber-striped drinks.
With more than two dozen locations across the U.S., Tiger Sugar has built a reputation in the competitive boba tea industry with its black sugar syrup-infused drinks, which are now being served in Mesa on Dobson Road and First Street.
With over 20 items on the menu, it can be difficult to decide which drink to try. Options range from milky to fruity, with a variety of toppings to add texture to your matcha, coffee or tea latte. So weve put together a guide with descriptions of what to expect from a selection of Tiger Sugars best drinks.
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Where Did Tapioca Or The Boba In Bubble Tea Come From
The history of boba tea is a long, winding, and complicated one, but that of tapioca is much easier to follow. Tapioca is the main ingredient in traditional milk-based boba tea. It is a starch extracted from cassava roots. Cassava plants are native to the Americas, but they are now grown in tropical regions around the world, including Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia.The first recorded use of tapioca was in Europe, in 1544. The Portuguese brought cassava to Africa, where it was cultivated and used to make a flour. The flour was then exported to Asia, where tapioca pudding was made from it. For centuries, tapioca pudding was a delicacy in South and Southeast Asia, but it was not the only starch-based pudding to gain popularity.In the 19th century, starch-based puddings, including tapioca pudding, became popular in Europe and North America. The most popular starch-based pudding was the English version, which was called sago pudding. Sago is slightly different from cassava, and it is native to Asia.Although we dont know the exact year when tapioca was first made into pearls, we do know that it was invented in the islands of Southeast Asia . It was commonly used in dishes to increase the texture and taste experience, and eventually made its way to Taiwan. This is where it was first infused in milk tea to create boba tea.
Cassava Root
It’s A Source Of Antioxidant
Boba milk teas are made with various teas from black to green to oolong. Drinking tea is linked to helping boost your immune system, helping to reduce inflammation and even providing some protection from cancer and heart disease, according to Penn Medicine.
But, the benefits of tea are outweighed by the less healthy components of boba milk tea, like the added sugar and syrups. To reap the benefits of tea, you’d be better off enjoying a cup without any added sugar.
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A Quick Guide On Ordering A Guilt
Adjust the sugar level – there are different sugar levels options to choose when ordering . If you are used to getting full sugar, try reducing it to 75% and gradually reducing it to 50% and eventually to none!
Order fewer toppings or toppings with fewer calories such as aloe vera, white pearls and Aiyu jelly. Milk foam and cheese foam has topped the chart with 203 and 180 calories in each serving.
Don’t fall into the trap of fruit tea or fruit-based drinks. They might seem healthy, but they are, in fact, worse choices. The study above has found out that the sugar content of passion fruit green tea exceeds milk tea with pearls . Fruits such as passionfruit and grapefruits have a strong tart taste. To make it taste palatable, they would have to add plenty of sugar into the drinks. TIPS! Order plain teas instead. Teas such as green, oolong and black tea have zero calories when there is nothing added to them.
Go small! In that way, you can satisfy your craving but also reduce both calorie and sugar intake.
How Much Sugar Is In Boba Milk
One serving of brown sugar boba milk, for instance, has close to two hundred grams of sugar in it, which is more than the permitted maximum amount. In addition, one cup of boba milk tea has 56 grams of carbs, which is about equivalent to 25 percent of the daily carbohydrate consumption that is advised.
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Does Boba Have Caffeine
You have the option of using either green or black tea to make boba.Green tea, as compared to black tea in terms of its caffeine content, typically contains roughly half as much of the stimulant as black tea does.In general, you may anticipate a lower level of stimulation from drinking green boba tea as opposed to black tea, however the exact numbers might shift slightly depending on the particular kind of green or black tea.
How Do You Make Brown Sugar Boba Syrup
You can make a homemade brown sugar syrup for boba with only 2 ingredients, in about 5 minutes! Simply bring ½ cup water and 1 cup brown sugar to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for about 5 minutes. Stir regularly! Once the syrup has thickened slightly, transfer to a jar to let it cool and thicken a bit more before using it. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a few weeks.
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How Much Sugar Is In Your Bubble Tea
The government has announced that retailers will soon have to display nutrition labels on both packaged and freshly prepared drinks, with the labels indicating the sugar and fat content of the drinks. This applies for bubble tea as well.
For all bubble tea lovers, the first sip of a cup of milk tea on a hot and sweaty day is ever so satisfying. But before you begin on your third or fourth cup of bubble tea this week, it is important for you to find out more about what actually goes into your bubble tea. How many cups should you really drink in a week, and are they worth the calories?
What Is in a Standard Cup of Bubble Tea?
The most common ingredients that can be found in standard cup of bubble tea are sugar and the tapioca pearls. We break down these ingredients for you to find out more about the nutritional value in a cup of bubble tea.
1. Sugar
A cup of bubble tea, as you may have expected, does contain a lot of sugar.
For example, a 500ml cup of brown sugar boba milk apparently contains 92g of sugar. On the other hand, a normal 320ml can of Coca-Cola has 35g of sugar. According to My Healthy Plate, a programme by the Health Promotion Board , our daily intake of sugar should be limited to 40-55g of sugar.
Every additional 250g of sweet drinks we consume daily increases our risk of diabetes by up to 26%, so it is important to limit our daily sugar intake and consciously avoid too much sweet drinks.
2. Pearls
To Drink or Not to Drink?
Disclaimer:
Boba = Tapioca Pearls = Cassava Root
Recognized more commonly in tapioca pudding, tapioca pearls are made from starch extracted from cassava root. Cassava is a nutty-flavored tuber native to South America. This root vegetable is a major food staple in the developing world as it has nearly twice the calories of potatoesprimarily from carbs and sugarand is thus a large source of energy. If you thought its lack of nutrients was bad, get this: cassava can be toxic when eaten raw. The tapioca starch has to be detoxified before consumption due to its levels of cyanide, a toxic compound that when ingested can cause headaches, nausea, vomiting, and even paralysis.
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What Kind Of Milk Do You Use For Bubble Tea
Whole milk is always the best choice, not just for flavour but, when you shake it, it foams up the best. Nowadays, some places do have non-dairy options like soy or almond. I cant say if non-dairy milk would work because Ive never tried it myself. In Taiwan, you often have to pay extra for real milk because many places would use milk powder or creamer because it is much cheaper.
Why Is Boba So Addictive
When you consume bubble tea, the sugar will be quickly dissolved in your body, despite the fact that sugar causes your brain to get hooked to sugar. As a result, your blood sugar will spike, which will trigger your brain to create dopamine, a neurotransmitter that heightens excitement and gives you a sense of fulfillment.
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Does Bubble Tea Have More Caffeine Than Coffee
Tea that is black Black tea, which has the highest level of caffeine content due to its highly oxidized and processed state, is the variety of tea that is most commonly used in bubble tea shops.One cup of black tea contains anywhere between 40 and 50 milligrams of caffeine.To put this into perspective, the average cup of coffee has anywhere from 80 to 110 milligrams of caffeine in it.