I've always loved milk tea or, as I used to call it back in the day, boba or bubble tea. (I suppose the term "milk tea" is more appropriate, since after all, you can have it with "sinkers" other than boba/pearls/bubbles, like grass jelly and pudding, or with none at all.) But back then, it was an occasional treat, something I had every few months at most but usually no more than a couple times a year. It wasn't that I deprived myself of it. It just wasn't such a widespread thing that it crossed my mind--or my sight line--often. Thus, I had it only when I really wanted it, when I actually had a craving for it come out of nowhere, and I had to purposely head in the direction of a boba place.
Today, however, whichever way you go, you're bound to encounter multiple milk tea places (and thus decide you want milk tea, or decide to have some even if you don't particularly want it!). In the late 90s, it was the Starbucks frappe; in the mid 2000s, it was fro-yo (Frozen yogurt). Today, it's milk tea. And it seems that milk tea has reached a level that neither of its two predecessors did. Sure, the Starbucks frappe was mega-popular, and yes, this did lead to other coffee chains opening to offer some competition (e.g., Figaro, Seattle's Best). But there was never a time when, at every turn, I saw a coffee shop/frappe place. Plus coffee shops have other offerings aside from frappes: hot coffee, hot tea, iced tea, juices/smoothies, and light meals--so not everyone who goes gets a frappe. At a milk tea place, you get milk tea (or some variation thereof).
The fro-yo craze likewise never reached the wild popularity of milk tea today. True, there were times when the line at White Hat was long enough to make me decide to go another time. But there were also times when it was completely empty, and for significant stretches of time; I've never seen a milk tea place empty. Maybe once or twice, but they didn't stay empty for long. And even during the height of fro-yo, I never saw all that many people walking around carrying a cup of yogurt. Today, whichever way you look, there's a person holding a glass of milk tea.
Perhaps that's a big part of the popularity of milk tea: you can have it on the go. Sure, you can have a frappe on the go, but then how would you fuss with the whipped cream and the straw? No, a frappe is best had sitting down, in the company of friends. Fro-yo, much the same: it's so much easier to walk around and suck milk tea through a straw than it is to walk around having to occasionally scoop up some yogurt and spoon it into your mouth. The drink + food aspect probably helps too. A frappe is a drink, although a heavy one. Fro-yo is food, although light. Milk tea is both! You drink the milk tea and chew the sinkers. Plus milk tea is generally less expensive than a frappe or a fro-yo. (Some people might include the argument that milk tea is good for you, but we all know that's just justification of our greed! Milk and tea are absolutely good for you, but whole milk is full of fat, and sugar is not so good for you.)
Sooo this introduction to milk tea ran much longer than I anticipated. I was planning on one to two paragraphs and then quickly moving on to reviews. I got carried away: I guess I've been ruminating on on the phenomenon of milk tea more than I realized. In the interest of avoiding a ridiculously and tediously lengthy blog post, I'll end this one here. Consider it a prelude. On to the reviews! :)
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