Tapioca starch.

Pearl milk tea is one of Taiwan's "bubble tea" culture, although only in the milk tea added tapioca, but has become one of the most representative of Taiwan's drinks and snacks.

Pearl milk tea pearls can be made with groundnut flour, can also be made with tapioca. Groundnut flour is the starch extracted from groundnuts, and tapioca flour is the starch extracted from the tuberous roots of the tropical plant tree potato, both of which have a certain viscosity, making the pearls Q-bouncy and smooth, with a better taste.

Origin and Composition of Pearl Milk Tea

Pearl Milk Tea originated in Taichung, Taiwan, in 1983, Liu Han-suke, who opened the bubble tea store Chun Shui Tang, began experimenting with making milk tea, and he added fruits, syrups, candied groundnuts, and powdered doughnuts at that time. The milk tea he introduced wasn't popular at first, but after a visit from a Japanese TV program, it finally caught the attention of business people, and soon the pearl milk tea gained popularity across Asia in the 1990s.

Pearl milk tea generally use larger particles of powdered round, after cooking the diameter of about 7mm or more, otherwise the diameter is too small is easy to mouth full of pearls, but also not convenient to chew. However, most pearl milk tea merchants still provide small powder round pearl milk tea, called small pearl or mini pearl.

Pearl milk tea "pearl" is made of groundnut flour or tapioca made of powder round, and powder round added to the milk tea, usually before soaking syrup, to ensure that the powder round in the sweet milk tea, can still maintain the sweet flavor. The base is usually black tea, but there are also stores that offer green tea pearl milk tea.