Today I had my first experience of boba. For those of you who, like myself, had never tried or heard of boba let me give you a word of advice: go out and try it…..now.

Boba ( also known as bubble tea, pearl tea drink, boba ice tea,  boba nai cha, zhen zhou nai cha, pearl milk tea, pearl ice tea, black pearl tea, tapioca ball drink, BBT, PT, pearl shake, QQ (which means chewy in Chinese), and many more) is a mix of iced or hot sweetened tea, milk, and other flavorings. They are usually split into two different categories: fruit-flavored teas and milk teas (I tried a milk). What are special about bubble tea are the “pearls” (or boba).  These marble-sized black gummy balls are made of tapioca and are similar to the consistency of jello. Add a brightly colored oversize straw for slurping up pearls and you have one hilarious (but oh-so-delightful) drink.

I heard about bubble tea only just a few months ago. So this morning when I had to go to the VCU computer repair services (my computer has graciously decided to revert to its original settings from three years ago for who knows what reason), my boyfriend and I decided to get some bubble tea (which was conveniently 1 block away). Unfortunately, we were an hour too early to get it, but sure enough one hour later we were standing in line to get our drinks at the TT Lounge (http://www.ttlounge.com). I got the green tea slush with boba and him the raspberry slush with boba.  I have to admit, that the green tea slush is not quite as good as the green chai tea smoothie from Crossroads (on 26 N. Morris St. in the fan), but it was good nonetheless. The raspberry was on the other hand, incomparable to anything I had had before. It was similar to the consistency of a slurpee, but tasted much less processed and much more of real fruit. The “pearls” were an odd experience, but once it’s such a novel experience once you get down the proper slurp.

All in all, a great (and surprisingly filling) drink that everyone should try.

image courtesy of Richy at http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Richy