Discussion & Final Thoughts

The explosion of bubble tea is an international phenomenon. Vancouver is just one of many cities around the world that have embraced the bubble tea craze. Today, there are tens of thousands of stores worldwide, millions of posts online, and more bubble tea being brewed every day than you will ever need or want in your entire life.

Although not nearly as influential or prolific as coffee, bubble tea is a drink that’s making huge waves, especially when considering how young it is. In fact, these days even John Cena is enjoying bubble tea.

In attempting to explain the trend, much of what I have discussed so far directly compares bubble tea with coffee. This is because coffee is a ubiquitous drink throughout much of the world. Its culture and history extend centuries past our time which have led to countless works of research on the beverage.

Perhaps because of its youth, bubble tea is not a beverage that is examined in the same way that coffee is. Apart from social media and newspaper articles, there are little, if any, sources that provide us with a comprehensive understanding of what it is and why it came to be.

At the same time, however, we are fortunate to have access to an extensive wealth of information surrounding such an omnipresent beverage like coffee. Through it, we have learned that modern bubble tea stores derive part of their popularity through the use of “third spaces” and by curating their presentation.

But this is just one interpretation. Coffee is overflowing with meanings and cultural values. In writing this article, I have only taken the first sip of what has yet to be learned.

By now, we know that bubble tea is more than just trendy stores, Instagram posts, and specially made drinks only available at certain times. It carries memories and significance in ways that we had only previously associated with established and more common foodstuffs like coffee. But as it entrenches itself in the tastes of many, at one point we must begin to think of bubble tea not only as a trend, but also as a drink that is here to stay.

Food is a fascinating lens by which we can observe and discover new things. In a society where time seems to just keep accelerating, with new technologies and trends flying past, it can be useful to take a step back and observe the surroundings. This is a process that can be repeated for much more than just a tapioca filled drink.

What am I drinking, and why am I drinking it?

For some, these are not questions that mean a whole lot. The reasons could be as simple as liking sugary drinks or chewing tapioca. For others, however, who connect with this drink on a deeper level, these may be questions where the answers are more telling than they seem at first.

For myself, examining the things I do and the things I eat everyday reveals aspects of myself that I wouldn’t have considered otherwise. Again, it seems silly in hindsight, but it wasn’t until I began researching and writing this article that I came to learn more about myself through the little plastic cup with tapioca and milk tea in it.

That is not to say that bubble tea is the all-important crystal ball that can solve the mysteries of the world. But it can be a good place to start.

In the same way that coffee and social media became the first steps to understanding bubble tea, examining the things we do are fundamental to learning more about our own behaviours. As such, these observations are just a few of the pearls that make up the entire drink we know and love as bubble tea.

Just like a cup of bubble tea, we need all of the ingredients to craft them into something we can appreciate and enjoy.

It just wouldn’t be bubble tea otherwise.