How many calories in bubble tea
A regular cup of milk bubble tea with pearls has about 350 kcal, mostly from sugar and the tapioca.
Portion
To burn it off
Bubble tea is tea with milk and syrup, plus chewy tapioca pearls at the bottom. The pearls are pure starch, usually soaked in more sugar.
A regular cup is about 350 kcal, with 64 g of carbs and 9 g of fat. So it's a proper snack, not a cup of tea.
The shops on every high street now let you pick your sugar level, which is the easiest lever you've got. Use it.
Tips
- 1Ask for 30 or 50 per cent sugar, most people stop noticing after a week.
- 2Pick fruit tea with jelly or no toppings instead of milk tea with pearls and cheese foam.
- 3Get the smaller size if the shop has one.
Where it comes from
Bubble tea comes from Taiwan in the 1980s, and two tea houses still argue over who was first. Chun Shui Tang in Taichung says a staff member dropped sweet tapioca balls into iced milk tea in 1988. Hanlin Tea Room in Tainan says its founder had the idea in 1986, after spotting white tapioca pearls at a market, which is why it is also called pearl milk tea.
Read the full story · Where does our food come from? · Source: Taipei Times, The story of bubble tea (2018)
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brown sugar milk tea with pearls
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Questions
Where do the calories in bubble tea come from?
Mostly the syrup and the tapioca pearls, then the milk or creamer. The tea itself is close to nothing.
How many calories in two bubble teas?
Two regular cups come to about 700 kcal.
Is less sugar bubble tea worth it?
Yes. Most of the 64 g of carbs comes from sugar and pearls, so turning the sugar down makes a real difference.
Are popping boba lower in calories than tapioca pearls?
Usually, yes. Popping boba are mostly fruit juice in a thin skin, while tapioca pearls are starch soaked in syrup. Both are still sweet.
How many calories in a large bubble tea?
A large cup of about 700 ml is roughly 490 kcal, as you get more of everything, pearls included.
Did you know?
Two Taiwanese teahouses both say they invented bubble tea in the 1980s and took each other to court over it. Neither ever patented the drink.
Drink facts · Source: Taipei Times
