Does Starbucks Have Boba?

The answer is NO! Starbucks does not offer boba tea on its menu.

If you’re a connoisseur of beverages, I’m pretty sure you must have heard of this one.

Boba Tea!

Over the past couple of years or so, this particular beverage has gained massive popularity, hasn’t it?

For those who are not quite acquainted with this drink and are curious about its nature and its ingredients, let me spare you the extra google search. 

Boba tea is a special type of beverage that contains colorful boba pearls at the bottom of the container. Boba pearls are made from tapioca starch, a special form of starchy substance that has been extracted from the roots of the cassava plant.

Although boba tea has been hugely hyped by teenagers and young adults, it has not yet successfully made its way to the Starbucks menu.

However, there has been an ongoing discussion about a possible update in the Starbucks menu, wherein boba tea might have a glorious place.

If you’re an ardent admirer of the wonderful boba tea, worry not! You might find certain Starbucks drinks that are pretty similar to Boba.

Why don’t you go ahead and try them out? Maybe you’ll fall for them too!

Where Did Boba Tea Originate?

Unlike any regular Starbucks beverages, boba tea has a very unique history. The culture of preparing boba tea was originated in Taiwan in the mid-1980s.

Milk tea was already hugely prevalent in the southeastern part of Asia. It was a tradition to take a topping of choice along with your milk tea.

While some people preferred shaved ice, others preferred tiny tapioca balls. These balls were very chewy in nature and added an element of fun to a usually boring cup of milk tea.

At a particular point in time, someone decided to create a unique drink consisting of tapioca balls at the bottom of the glass, shaved ice in between, and milk tea seeping through the ice, filling the cup to the very brim.

Thus, the majorly hyped and widely accepted beverage, “boba tea” was invented! Very soon, boba tea was extremely popular in various parts of Taiwan.

Shopkeepers invented their unique versions of fruit boba by adding fruit essence into the beverage.

Gradually the beverage made its way to the western half of the world and spread through all of America like a wildfire. Most coffee shops were seen selling different versions of boba tea.

Why Does Starbucks Not Offer Boba Tea?

We have gone to the depth of what boba tea is, its origin, as well as the reason behind its massive success. Now let us look at why the globally-leading chain of coffeehouses doesn’t have this beverage on their menu.

A few reasons may be, cost, training, and the time it takes to prepare boba tea.

Preparing boba tea on a regular basis at every Starbucks outlet can be quite tricky.

Firstly, being the largest coffeehouse chain in America, it is expected that the orders are served within no time. That might not work well with the preparation process of boba tea.

Even the cost of preparing tapioca pearls right from the scratch can be quite high. Additionally, the process will be hugely time-consuming!

Not just that, even if Starbucks decides to sell boba tea, it isn’t quite as much of a simple procedure as the rest of the beverages. Learning how to make a perfect cup of boba tea will require additional training costs.

These are some of the crucial reasons why Starbucks has been taking its own sweet time before reaching a final decision regarding its place in the menu.

What Alternatives Can you Opt For?

Well if you truly love a delightful cup of boba tea, you’d go to any extent for it, wouldn’t you?

If you really want to have a cup of fresh Boba tea without giving up on the tinge of Starbucks’ authentic flavor, here is what you can do instead.

You can prepare yourself a cup of boba tea at home with your favorite Starbucks beverage.

Follow these simple steps to get yourself a perfect Starbucks boba right at home!

  1. Get Yourself a Base Drink

If you are really craving a Starbucks-styled boba tea, you shall have it! Firstly, run out and grab yourself a base drink, your favorite! You’ll need a perfect cup of iced tea in order to make boba.

Once you’ve got the base drink sorted, ask the barista for a customized topping. You can have milk added to your tea to make sure it resembles an authentic cup of boba very closely.

You can also clearly instruct your barista to add a flavor of your choice, for instance, caramel, vanilla, mint, or whipped cream.

Typically an authentic cup of boba contains 50 percent tea and 50 percent cream. However, you can customize your cup according to your choice. Go ahead and experiment!

  1. Add Readymade Tapioca Pearls

Once you have the base drink sorted, you’ll require tapioca pearls. Worry not, you can find readymade tapioca balls at your nearest supermarket.

You can choose from a variety of brands, flavors as well as sizes. If you are new to making boba, make sure to read the instruction manual behind the package in order to avoid any mistakes!

Before adding them to your tea, make sure to boil it for a few minutes to bring out the soft, mushy texture of the balls.

  1.  Mix well and serve

As soon as the tapioca balls are all mushy and smooth, ready to grace your perfect cup of boba tea, it’s time to add them to your tea.

Mix them well with the tea, making sure that the balls settle down properly at the bottom of the cup. There you go, now you have boba tea made out of a Starbucks beverage! Enjoy!

In case you want to skip the Starbucks ordeal, you can just brew your favorite tea and follow the same process to make it into Boba tea. That will save you enormous amounts of time and money. Either way, now you can enjoy your favorite beverage anytime, anywhere!

Similar Posts:

About the author

I have always been a shopaholic. A lot of times my questions went unanswered when it came to retail questions, so I started Talk Radio News. - Caitlyn Johnson

Leave a Comment