Avery Restaurant in Richmond, British Columbia, created the bubble-tea hot pot.

INSIDER's Herrine Ro visits the restaurant to see how the dish is made and try it for the first time.

The bubble-tea hot pot has an assortment of tapioca and fruit. The "broth" is made with black milk tea.

Herrine concludes that the dish tastes like conventional bubble tea but with more indistinguishable tapioca-pearl flavors.

Following is a transcript of the video

Herrine Ro: Vancouver, British Columbia, is known for its boba. Bubble tea, pearls, however you want to call it. There are hundreds of bubble-tea shops serving variations of the Taiwanese drink throughout the city. But one spot in particular serves bubble tea in a way we've never seen before.

Herrine: This is what bubble tea hot pot tastes like.

Herrine: This is the taro ball dessert hot pot. Since its conception in early 2019, it's become a viral sensation. And for good reason.

Yang Zhao: We combine the Chinese food and the Western food together. We just focus on the local customer very well. We open two year and a half ago. Vancouver area have a lot of bubble-tea shops, right? So the bubble tea is more and more popular. And every time you go to the shop, they don't have enough of the taro ball inside. We created this idea, like, three or four months ago.

Yang Zhao: Then we think about the utensil, how to display to the customer. So we tested out a single idea and finally think, oh, why not use a hot pot to put all the desserts, everything, inside.

Herrine: The taro ball hot pot, otherwise known as the boba hot pot, or dessert boba hot pot. As a customer I think you can customize your dessert hot pot, your boba hot pot of your dreams, if you will. The options are, choice of one soup base, cold or warm. I'm gonna go with warm. 'Cause there's just something comforting about, like, a warm boba in your mouth. Does that sound wrong?

Herrine: And then the options are caramel milk tea, milk tea, coconut milk, or ginger milk. I'm gonna go with milk tea because that's what I would get in my boba drink.

Herrine: The next option is include taro-ball toppings: One: stuffed taro balls, signature taro balls, or mini-Q taro balls. I'm just gonna say yes to all three.

Herrine: Choice of three add-on toppings. Red bean, cold grass-jelly cubes, sago, taro, coconut jelly, peanuts, black-sugar pearls, vanilla ice cream, and watermelon. I don't know what sago is, so I'm gonna try that. Cold grass-jelly cubes is kind of like what they're known for, 'cause they make it in house. I think they make actually every boba in house here. It wouldn't be boba without some black-sugar pearls.

Herrine: Finally, choice of two dipping sauces. Strawberry, chocolate, condensed milk, honey, mango. Again, I'm gonna pick all of them. We're just gonna go against the rules here.

Yang: When the customers saw on the Instagram, they're very interested, like, oh, that's a twist of bubble tea, right? So they come here. Then they try the flavor, and the the milk base is very, very good.

Sydney Kramer: If you get scared of the fire just let me know.

Herrine: OK. This seems like a very shareable, like, cozy kind of, like, dessert hot pot. Hot pot's supposed to be a very, like, social kind of food and so I wish I had more friends to eat this with.

Herrine: I love the DIY aspect of this, too. Like, every time you get a scoop you don't know what you're gonna get.

Herrine: This is about the most creative way I have ever drank, ate boba. Where to start, where to start? I'm gonna try these mini little pearl things first. They're so soft. Because they make all of their, like, jellies in house, they're super plush and soft and not chewy. Literally the options are limitless here.

Herrine: When you go to a boba place, you can get, like, a variety of different toppings. I love how at this place they're just like, why not have them all.

Herrine: I wanna try this grass jelly. Because I'm not all too familiar with this. 'Kay. Thank you for bearing with me for that. It's super light. And gelatinous. And herby. But the overall flavor is kind of, there is none.

Herrine: There is so much boba in my bowl right now that I don't know if I'm getting any, like, distinct, real flavorings, all kind of, like, melding in my mouth. But texturally it's so fun. There's these little, like, gelatinous bobas. And they're kinda chewy. And then you get these chunks of watermelon. And then the creaminess of the milk tea. It's just kind of like, you don't know what's going on in your mouth but you are enjoying it every step of the way.

Herrine: So these little white beads, I don't know what they are. So I looked it up online. And it says, "Sago is a starch extracted from the spongy center, or pith, of various tropical palm stems, especially that of Metroxylon sagu.

Sydney: Was that helpful?

Herrine: I still don't know what it is.

Herrine: Originally I thought this was chunks of Spam. And I was like, why is Spam going into this dessert boba hot pot? But turns out it's just taro, so myth debunked. It tastes like a sweet potato and potato, like, hybrid. And it's kind of, like, denser and a little grainier.

Herrine: This is like high tea with boba. This is, like, the most extra, fancy way of consuming boba, and I am here for it. I mean, there's a throne right in front of the entrance. There's a grand piano right behind me. And the whole place is decked out with, like, crystal chandeliers and Victorian-era memorabilia. This whole experience has just been a lot more than what I was ever hoping for.