![]() ![]() Tu isn’t the only person claiming to have invented bubble tea. Hanlin now operates about 80 branches across Taiwan and has franchises everywhere from the United States and Canada to mainland China.īut here’s where things get tricky. “Bubble tea soon became a hot-selling item in the market and the steady revenue of the tea shop has helped me clear my debt,” says the tea-loving businessman. His first bubble tea shop, Hanlin, opened its door in October of 1986. We had to work with a plastic factory to customize straws just for our tea.”īubble tea is made using a cocktail shaker. “Our customers had to use spoons to scoop out the tapioca balls. ![]() “The black bubble tea balls were bigger than the straws the market had then,” says Tu. Tu then experimented by adding bigger, black tapioca balls to milk tea for a richer taste and a chewier texture, which became the classic bubble milk tea most fans know and love today. “So I coined it ‘zhen zhu lu cha’ (pearl green tea).” “I thought to myself ‘why don’t I add some fenyuan into my green tea.’ The white fenyuan looks almost translucent with a white center when brewed inside the golden green tea, much like my mother’s pearl necklace. “I was visiting the Yamuliao wet market in Tainan when I saw fenyuan, a traditional snack I loved from my childhood,” recalls Tu. In 1986, Taiwanese artist and entrepreneur Tu Tsong He decided to kick start a new business venture by riding on the tea shop trend.Īfter his previous business blunder – a hot pot restaurant that went bust – Tu was left with a TWD 4 million (about $133,000) debt and desperately needed an idea to set his tea shop apart from the masses. The white fenyuan, tapioca balls, were first used to make bubble tea. ![]()
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