Bubble Tea Calories

Also known as boba tea, or pearl milk tea, bubble tea is made by brewing black tea or green tea, adding in milk, sugar and flavoring, along with ice, and pouring into a cup half full of tapioca pearls. It originated in Taiwan, where several stands would find their place outside elementary schools, to provide for refreshing tea for kids, after a hard days work. However, one of the tea stall owners got creative, and an edge to her business, when she began adding fruit flavors to the tea. Kids gladly embraced these new flavors, and it became a highly popular drink among all. This strategy was then emulated by others in the business. To make this tea, it had to be vigorously shaken, so that the flavors blended with each other thoroughly. This is why it attained the name of 'bubble tea'.

Soon, tapioca pearls were introduced in Taiwan. It became an interesting ingredient to add to the bubble tea. These pearls would settle down at the bottom of the drink, and would begin to float up towards the end. This is also one of the reasons this drink got its name. Apart from the above-mentioned names, bubble tea is also known as pearl ice tea, black pearl tea, pearl shake, tapioca ball drink, and has many other authentic Taiwanese names.

Now, bubble tea has emerged as the perfect cooling drink for summers, with several stalls that sell this drink emerging all around. It is also available in a variety of flavors, such as avocado, coconut, red bean and green tea, watermelon, mango, strawberry, lychee and several other flavors. While you could have a drink everyday to beat the heat, it is better to give the calorie count in bubble tea a look before you do so.

Calories in Bubble Tea

Type of Bubble Tea	Calories (1 cup - 381.0g)
Regular	270
Avocado	342
Coconut	271
Green tea	280

Those are some heavy calories you could be consuming on a regular basis. What's more, the tapioca pearls increase the calories further. These are not even healthy calories, because of the following reasons:

• Brewed tea is considered extremely healthy. It has antioxidant properties that repair cell damage, and cleanse the body of harmful toxins. However, not everyone benefits from tea, and may develop certain side effects due to the caffeine content in it. This may cause sleeplessness and irritability.
• While adding milk in bubble tea is alright, adding sugar to it increases its calorie count, and dilutes its nutritional value.
• Sometimes, it's not just plain milk, but condensed milk, which is a thicker, creamier variety, and therefore extremely fattening.
• For added flavors, fruit pulp is added to bubble tea. However, sometimes, as a cost-effective method, people add fruit flavored syrups that are high in sugar, and have absolutely no nutrition, making it unhealthy.
• Lastly, the tapioca pearls make it a sinful indulgence, with an estimate showing the calorie count of 1 ounce of these pearls at 100 calories. In your drink, you are consuming almost 2-3 ounces of these pearls.

So it makes good sense to indulge in this unhealthy sin just about once in a while, either when spirits are high, or perhaps low. You can learn how to make bubble tea, and in fact, reduce the number of calories; make it healthier by using fresh fruits, low fat milk or soy milk, and cutting down on the tapioca pearls, thus making this drink a little less sinful than it already is!