Bubble Tea: A Different Cup?

The bubble tea craze from the Far East has hit SUSU again and this time it looks like it is here to stay!

Pearls Bubble Tea Bar

After returning to uni after the Easter holidays, Southampton students were lucky enough to find Pearls Bubble Tea Cafe open on Level 3 (by the cafe, for those who still get confused by the SUSU layout!). With prices starting from £3.25 for a regular (500ml) and £3.55 for a large (700ml) and over 20 flavours of tea to choose from, we are spoilt for choice.

The most popular flavour is the original pearl milk tea, with the taro milk tea also proving popular among the international contingent. Taro milk tea is purple, as it is made from sweet potato, and tastes like cookies, the manager Peter tells us. The least popular flavour is the standard ice tea, as “everyone wants to jazz it up” once they’ve seen the menu.

A big draw to the tea are the pearls themselves. The tapioca pearls, with a texture of gummy bears, are made like pasta and baked whilst the popping pearls are made with fruit juice in a seaweed casing (much nicer than they sound, I assure you). The jelly toppings, such as minty grass jelly, coconut jellies and custard pudding, are made of coconut agar, making all teas vegetarian and most vegan.

Josh enjoying his strawberry milk bubble tea

It’s been noticeable that a large number of the customers are international students, and the manager informs me this is because the bubbles were invented in the Far East where people drink these as often as the English drink a cup of tea! In the fruity beverages, jasmine green tea is used as a base apparently making them “healthier than water with all the good properties of tea for people who don’t like tea”.

For those worried about health and safety, the controversy regarding choking on the tapioca balls is unfounded. The balls are so “slimey, squidgy and small” that there is no choking hazard and kids at their store in Brighton actually ‘pea shoot’ the balls as they fly and stick to targets well!

There are plans for the bar to be open over the summer for graduation and pre-sessional students, possibly opening over weekends too! Perhaps most excitingly there is scope to be open during Cube nights serving “bubtails”!

Ben is definitely enjoying his!

Tab editor Ben Hansen Hicks drinking strawberry fruit tea (not good, apparently) with mango popping pearls (good) told us:

I tried it at the Christmas Market and liked it so I’m happy that they opened this establishment”

Josh Cox, self confessed bubble tea addict, drinks strawberry milk tea with tapioca pearls as his regular and says that:

I like it because it’s nice and creamy, the tapioca pearls are much nicer than the popping pearls!”

Got a favourite bubble tea? Let us know in the comments!