From small street stalls to trendy city cafes, Bubble Tea, a star drink born in Taiwan, has won over young people and today charms all generations, almost everywhere on the planet. But this trendy drink, fresh and exotic, with multiple flavors, is not so healthy. Explanations.
It’s a commercial phenomenon that continues to expand! Bubble tea or “Boba tea” sellers have been opening everywhere for several years. In small towns and megacities alike, we see these shops setting up all over the planet.
This drink, straight from Taiwan, is not new. But its worldwide popularity is recent. The invention of this refreshment dates back to the 1980s. At the time, two local brands from the small island state, neighboring China, disputed its authorship. The first claims to have tested a mixture of black tea, milk, brown sugar and ice cubes. The second, a few years later, claimed its creative rights by asserting that one of its employees had the idea of “pimping up” the recipe by adding tapioca balls to the famous drink. Whatever the case, Bubble Tea is now wreaking havoc.
The drink owes its success abroad to a small improvement in its recipe. The offer has been redesigned to include small gelled pearls, which explode in the mouth and release new flavors.
Read also: Bubble tea can make you addicted and may be linked to certain mental disorders
An “instagrammable” drink
Multicolored syrups, creamy appearance, play of textures, mixtures of aromas… The aesthetics of this fashionable drink have contributed to its success. Influencers helped skyrocket its popularity. Instagram accounts are dedicated to coffee shops and the hashtag #BubbleTea has more than 8 billion views on TikTok.
Which is also attractive at a time when young people are increasingly cultivating an appetite for Asian codes and culture: “ The drink is intended to be accessible and relatively affordable. It has established itself as a symbol of Korean street food,” explains the My Bubble Tea sales site.
A very (too) sweet composition?
But this image of a drink, which quenches thirst and is consumed on the go, is misleading. If tea has benefits thanks to the antioxidants it contains and tapioca is rich in iron, syrup mixtures and “milk” supplements are not so harmless to health. “Count approximately 92 g of sugar in your 500 ml kawai cup”recorded in an article dedicated to this star drink The Women’s Journal . In comparison, Coca-Cola says its 335ml cans of soda contain 34g of sugar.
“You’re going to passively drink a drink that’s like drinking soda, even if it seems more balanced to you at first because it’s tea. We don’t put enough emphasis on sugar,” analyzes Arnaud Cocaul, nutritionist doctor in Paris, for the evening edition.
This excess sugar contributes to “excessive calorie intake and metabolic health problems such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease”, notes Doctor Diana Kadouch, interviewed by Hello Doctor On the question.
Recently, Shanghai was alarmed by the overconsumption of this drink. The government is currently experimenting with a nutri-grade system, which would directly inform Chinese consumers of the poor composition of the drink on the menus of cafes and restaurants. Fans of flavored tea may give up (and less so in any case) with this beverage, which is labeled as too rich in sugar and added fat.
“Telling a young person that it is full of sugar will not stop their consumption”
Will we also see these warnings arrive in France? Knowing the nutritional qualities can raise awareness among consumers and encourage them to turn to healthier drinks, but Arnaud Cocaul is not in favor of the idea that these nutri-grades are imported into France: “I think we are regulating too much. By over-informing the customer, we risk causing them to stop looking at anything. » The specialist is of the opinion to stick to transparency of additive components and colorings to “warning about allergen risks”.
