Bubble Tea: A Story of Cultural Transformation
A frothy blend of matcha lattes, whipped coffee, and dirty iced chais has taken over social media. During quarantine, it was nearly impossible to scroll through TikTok without seeing influencers embrace the latest beverage trend, whipped coffee. Likewise, new matcha and chai recipes consistently dominate my feeds. Most recently, though, I, along with the rest of the media-consuming world, succumbed to yet another fad: Bubble tea. Bubble tea, also known as boba tea or pearl milk tea, is the latest craze to insinuate its way into our psyches and stomachs. But how did a niche, Taiwanese beverage become a symbol of Asian American culture and come to prevail in America? The answer is social media.
First, what exactly is bubble tea? Bubble tea is a drink made from milk, black tea, and chewy tapioca pearls. Originally, the hard pearls are white, but they are boiled in large vats and coated in caramelized syrup for hours until they soften into the springy boba texture we know and love (Nguyen-Okwu, 2019). The bubble tea ingredients are shaken together and served in a sealed cup with a signature thick straw, allowing drinkers to vacuum up the tapioca clusters at the bottom (Nguyen-Okwu, 2019).
The origin of tea and the discovery of tea trees dates back to the 17th century in Taiwan. As the Dutch occupied Taiwan from 1624-1662, Taiwan became the key location from which Dutch businessmen would transport tea to other countries, including Iran, India, and Indonesia (Tea Culture, n.d). Large-scale production of tea in Taiwan began in 1866, and tea soon became a key import for American businessmen (History of Milk Tea, n.d). In addition to the economic value in the production of tea, tea was--and continues to be--a vital part of Taiwanese culture. The Taiwanese drink hot tea constantly; it has long been a key part of their daily routine (Phelan, 2020). Moreover, it has also held a religious significance, incorporated into rituals such as weddings, funerals, and other times of worship (Phelan, 2020).
Hot tea was a staple in Taiwan until Liu Han-Chieh of the Chun Shui Tang teahouse visited Japan in 1980 (Phelan, 2020). This trip would unexpectedly change the tea industry forever. During Han-Chieh’s trip, he was served cold coffee, which led him to begin serving his tea cold. In 1988, the product development manager of the tea shop, Lin Hsiu Hui, brought a typical Taiwanese dessert, “fen yuan” (tapioca pudding), to a meeting and decided to pour the tapioca into her tea (Phelan, 2020). Consequently, within just a couple of months bubble tea made up a whopping 80-90% of the shop’s sales (Phelan, 2020)!
Today, not only do bubble tea shops occupy every street in Taiwan, and neighboring countries, including Japan, South Korea, and China, but bubble tea’s popularity has spread to the West and has become part of American popular culture. Interestingly, the popularity of bubble tea in the United States can be traced to social media (Phelan, 2020). Social media allows people to post and “show off” their unique experiences. Bubble tea is a perfect “Instagrammable'” drink, given the ability to customize one’s tea. The first bubble tea shops in Taiwan only served black milk tea with tapioca pearls. Today, customers can choose their tea, milk, and type of boba, including a fan-favorite fruit juice-filled, “popping” boba (Phelan, 2020). Theodore Adorno, a 20th-century philosopher, provides a framework to understand why people obsess over bubble tea. Adorno advanced a concept he called “Pseudo-Individuality”, referring to “endowing cultural mass production with the halo of free choice” (Adorno, 1998, p.203). He believed consumers succumb to a false sense of individuality through products designed explicitly with the ability to personalize. While customizing bubble tea provides customers the chance to create a unique drink, the customizing experience is standardized. Social media encourages the obsession over these “customizable” products because unique colorful drinks are perfect for posting.
Now consider social media’s reach and how this reach contributes to the popularity of bubble tea. Food photography has prospered in the past decade, as it allows people to join others’, including celebrities’, dining experiences. For bubble tea, particularly, the playful act of vigorously poking the thick straw into the plastic sealed cup has become a huge online trend. Evidently, social media has been good to this Taiwanese import, as bubble tea is now a two billion dollar industry (Phelan, 2020). At the same time, just as social media has propelled much of this growth, philosopher Walter Benjamin in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction warns us about the potential for experiencing diminishing authenticity when an original product is distributed widely via technological reproduction (Benjamin, 1936, p.50). Benjamin cautions, “technical reproduction can put the copy of the original into a situation which would be out of reach for the original itself” (Benjamin, 1936, p.50). As our posts and reposts proliferate, we must learn to appreciate bubble tea’s original, niche, authentic heritage, instead of focusing on the aesthetics of our feeds.
The extent to which bubble tea production and acceptance have spread from Taiwan to America makes one reflect on bubble tea’s broader relationship to culture. Many debate the merits of the incorporation of boba into American popular culture. On the one hand, quite positively, the expansion of bubble tea marks increased acceptance of Asian popular culture within American culture (Nguyen-Okwu, 2019). Bubble tea represents the economic and cultural power of East Asia and the embrace in the West of Asian exports (Nguyen-Okwu, 2019). Bubble tea also provides Asian Americans with a shared identity and a sense of nostalgia. On the other hand, while noting the pride many Asian Americans have for boba’s American embrace, some worry about the conflation of Taiwanese and mainstream American cultures (Nguyen-Okwu, 2019). The transitions from tea to sugary, “Instagrammable” bubble tea and from authentic Taiwanese to American popular culture, reflect the culture industry’s power to render a niche, countercultural item, like bubble tea, a commoditized part of the mainstream.
References
Adorno, T. (1998). On Popular Music. In Cultural Theory and Popular Culture (p.197-209). Prentice-Hall.
Anonymous (n.d) The Tea Culture of Taiwan. Tea From Taiwan. https://ethnicseattle.com/history-of-milk-tea-taiwan-to-across-the-globe/
Anonymous (n.d) History of Milk Tea: Taiwan to across the Globe. Ethnic Seattle.
https://ethnicseattle.com/history-of-milk-tea-taiwan-to-across-the-globe/
Benjamin, W. (1936) The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Visual Culture: Experiences in Visual Culture.
Nguyen-Okwu, L. (2019) Boba Explained: A Taxonomy of Taipei’s Bubble Tea. Eater.
https://www.eater.com/21551108/boba-milk-bubble-tea-explained-how-to-order
Phelan, M. (2020) The Rise of Bubble Tea. The Culinary Edge. https://www.theculinaryedge.com/blog/the-rise-of-bubble-tea
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ReplyDeleteHi Julia! This is a great blog post about bubble tea and how it has increased in popularity due to the growing reach and influence of social media. I loved learning about the history of bubble tea because I had no idea about it before. Immediately when you started talking about seeing bubble tea on your social media feeds like TikTok, I thought back to when we talked and read about algorithms. Like you mentioned, I have seen a lot of bubble tea and whipped coffee videos on my TikTok feed, but I know a lot of other people haven’t. We talked in class about filter bubbles, and how ideas and trends are pushed on us based on our past likes and experiences. This is a problem because then people are only exposed to certain ideas, content and beliefs, and everything they consume over social media only reinforces their preexisting beliefs rather than challenging them. I wonder if people who don’t see certain things on their social media accounts like bubble tea are unaware of its popularity. I would agree that I have mostly been exposed to it through social media, so for the people who don’t see it on theirs, are they in the dark about it? I am also curious who in particular sees these bubble tea videos on their feeds. What about certain users and their online activity triggers the algorithm to show them these videos? These were all thoughts I had when reading your blog post. You brought up a really good point about pseudo-individuality, and I had never thought about bubble tea or other food products in that way before. I thought about frozen yogurt and how part of why it is so fun to go to frozen yogurt stores is because you get to make your own “unique” dessert and choose from many different flavors and toppings. There are so many other examples of this when it comes to food, and I thought that was a really smart connection you made. Great job!
I really loved reading your blog post on bubble tea, Julia! I did not realize how unique and personal this drink can get and you are spot on in your discussion of pseudo-individuality. It is clear that while bubble tea may appear a drink to personalize, at the end of the day, stores are just looking to profit. Adding an extra scoop of boba to your drink, picking your tea flavor or changing the type of milk in reality is just adding more money to the bill. Relating to your discussion of pseudo-individuality, I think it’s important to also mention Adorno and Horkheimer’s concept of consumer differentiation. Under this idea, companies present products in a fashion that targets several different consumer groups in order to reach as wide a net as possible and maximize profit. An example of this is marketing to people with food allergies: if one is allergic to dairy, that person can now opt to have an alternative milk, such as almond or soy milk, in their bubble tea, and the same goes along with different fruit flavored boba options. This flexibility makes the drink a more inclusive product. Additionally, it’s clear from your discussion that this appeal to personalize and create your “own” drink is what drives a significant portion of bubble tea’s social media presence, which reaches an even wider net of people. Based on your blog post, it is clear that bubble tea is a true product of incorporation, with a unique background in Taiwan as a hub of tea transportation, and a definite place in American popular culture.
ReplyDelete- Amanda Pantzer
I really enjoyed your piece and your explanation on how bubble tea has grown as a result of social media. I definitely have noticed this myself as I see bubble tea all over my instagram and tik tok feed. Because of all of these pictures, I think more people feel inclined to try Bubble Tea. I, personally, have never tried it but all the pictures and reviews on social media have definitely inspired me to want to try it. I feel as though this is an endless cycle as when some people view something as cool or trendy, others feel inclined to agree and follow along, in order to seem in-the-know or cultured. In addition to Adorno and Benjamin, Devon Powers’s discussion of “cool” and the subcultural market doctrine relates to this as bubble tea has transformed from a just a drink distributed in Taiwan to a two billion dollar industry. Specifically, Powers described the subcultural market doctrine as a widespread set of assumptions that viewed smaller groups as trendsetters and market leaders. Like Julia mentions, the increased popularity of bubble tea represents the increased acceptance of Asian culture in America. In addition, Powers discusses the strategy of branding, which emphasized that the core value of a business is less its product than what it meant to its customers. Specifically, Bubble Tea can have great meaning to people as it can give Asian Americans a sense of belonging and nostalgia. Bubble tea has grown significantly because of the media, and I believe it continues to grow today.
ReplyDelete****Jesse Zhang's response****
ReplyDeleteHi Julia,
This was such an interesting take on bubble tea! I would never had thought of it as more than a beverage, least of all a cultural item in today’s world.
I like the way you linked Adorno and Horkheimer’s notions of pseudo-individuality to bubble tea. In retrospect, when “what is your go-to bubble tea order” is asked between friends or as an ice- breaker question, we seem to assume that one person’s order reveal something about someone’s personality. In my view, those who add a lot of topping seems to be more immature than those who prefer plainer flavors. There are many pseudo-individualistic cultural artifacts that we assume to reveal a lot about a person: the spotify wrapped playlist, Halal order, and more.
It is also interesting to consider how commercialized, mass produced bubble tea reduce its heritage and history. As Benjamin pointed out, mechanical reproduction might diminish the authenticity or rather, the aura of the artifact itself. Bubble tea, in many cases, is no longer about the artistry or the flavor but the fancy toppings and trendy packagings. I’m certain that most people who drink bubble tea has not researched its history and cultural significance like you have. Moreover, the mass reproduction and popularization of bubble tea has given consumers the potential to reduce Taiwanese culture to one beverage. With the elements of social media, the culture behind bubble tea is trivialized. Though I wonder, might there be a way to use the popularity of bubble tea to teach consumers about asian culture? To take it one step further, is it possible to use popular cultural artifacts that people have placed an emphasis on their surface value to promote deeper cultural nuances and meanings? This was an interesting read!