Here’s Why Today’s Google Doodle Honors the Popular Bubble Tea

Bubble tea, a famous Taiwanese drink, rose to worldwide prominence in the 1980s. Here are some tales from the Star on the popular boba tea beverage.

Have you ever wondered why your Google search bar displays an animation of a dog wearing a chef’s hat creating bubble tea?

The refreshing Taiwanese beverage that became a great worldwide success in the 1980s is the subject of Monday’s Google Doodle.

For the uninformed, bubble tea is just tea mixed with milk or fruit syrup and topped with tapioca balls. As stores throughout the globe create their own versions of the famous drink, the flavor options are nearly limitless.

When you click on the Doodle, you’ll be sent to a minigame in which Taiwan’s Indigenous Formosan Mountain Dog runs a bubble tea business in a wet forest. You are entrusted with filling the cup to the proper line, giving you a star for your efforts. A cast of familiar previous Doodle characters joins the dog.

Google’s latest Doodle pays tribute to the bubble tea emoji, which was established three years ago and has since immortalized the drink’s position in popular culture.

Bubble tea, also known as boba tea or pearl milk tea, has its origins in Taiwan’s centuries-old tea culture. It became famous throughout Asia and North America in the 1980s, thanks to waves of Taiwanese immigrants who brought the recipe with them.

According to Merriam-Webster, the phrase was first used in 1993.

Here’s a selection of past Star pieces about bubble tea, including a design café in Toronto and instructions for making it at home.

Meet Benkei Hime, a new design and bubble tea shop in Toronto.
Madison Wong, a digital producer for The Star, evaluates the café and boutique Benkei Hime in Toronto’s Eaton Centre. This out-of-the-ordinary bubble tea shop also offers products produced by foreign and local artists, such as apparel and home furnishings.

Here’s how to brew bubble tea like an expert at home.
Hyun Jung Kim, proprietor of Toronto’s Core Bubble Tea, inspired this recipe. While it illustrates how to make a conventional milk tea, it also advises you may top it with aloe vera jelly or add a shot of espresso to make it into a latte.

Karon Liu, a culinary writer for the Star, explains how to prepare a chocolate-Nutella malt shake with tapioca pearls and proposes adding alcohol to spice things up.

To create handmade marshmallows, combine bubble tea powder and water.

Liu interviews Michaela Hapak, corporate pastry chef of the Icon Legacy Hospitality company at the time, and learns how to create gourmet marshmallows out of bubble tea powder in this piece. He makes the recipe available to readers.

Is Chati me’s milk tea too sweet to drink on a daily basis? The Meal

This article is part of The Dish, a Star series that breaks down the nutritional content of Torontonians’ favorite foods.

The bubble tea craze in Vancouver is revitalizing historic neighborhoods, but can the trend last?
The Vancouver Star studied the rise of the bubble tea craze in 2019. “While bubble tea and dessert stores are transforming the face of neighborhoods, the effects may be fleeting. “Those in the industry anticipate bubble tea will be just another culinary sensation that will fizzle out,” writes Jenny Peng, a former Vancouver Star writer.

Four years later, Doodle’s celebration of bubble tea demonstrates that its fan base is as strong as ever.

Please share your favorite bubble tea location in the city in the comments.