Pearls of tapioca wisdom: Swetha Sivakumar, on bubble tea

The cassava root is poisonous to humans when eaten raw, but its sticky, elastic starch, tapioca, has an idealised texture. How did it end up in tea?

Bubble tea was invented in Taiwan in the mid-1980s. Exactly who invented it is not clear, since two tea houses have vociferously laid claim to it: Chun Shui Tang in Taichung City and Hanlin Tea Room in Tainan City, about 150 km away.

The rivalry between them, distance notwithstanding, grew so intense that they ended up in court, in what would be a decade-long battle. In 2019, the court ruled, rather anti-climactically, that the question of invention was irrelevant, since