Boba wouldn’t be distinctly boba without its unique flavors and tastes. Just to name a couple, bubble tea comes in a wide variety of flavors: coconut, taro, honeydew, strawberry, thai iced tea, lychee, and so much more!

In making bubble tea, the flavor originally comes in either powder form or straight from real fruits. According to Bubble Tea Supply, the “flavor” component of boba comes from cream flavored powder, juice flavored powder, or juice flavored syrup.

Cream Flavored Powder:

The cream flavored powders vary in quality, amount of servings and price ("History"). They are separated into “A” and “B&C” grades. According to Bubble Tea Supply, the "A" grade is recommended due to better taste, texture and cost per serving. "B&C" grades are the most common in the marketplace and are referred to as market grade.

Cream flavored powders are created from three main ingredients:

1. Fruit flavoring
2. Creamer
3. Sweetener

Premium Grade "A" powders tend to have a strong fruit flavoring because the juices of the fruit are used to create the flavor. The percentage and type of fruit flavoring used differs between the Premium Grade “A” and market grades “B&C”. Some of the Premium Grade “A” powders contain as much as 75% of the fruit flavoring. This gives your bubble tea a more natural, real and creamy “fruit” taste. Their market grade “B&C” products have less fruit flavoring, however, still replicates a bit of the real fruit. In their market grade “B&C” products, there is a higher percentage of creamer and sweetener added.

The sweetener that is used also makes a difference in the flavor of the drink. Premium grade "A" powders have a more natural taste. Sometimes, when lower grade sweeteners are used, there may be an artificial taste or even an aftertaste.

Juice Flavored Powder:

Juice flavored powders are used to provide the sweet and tantalizing taste of exotic fruits ("History"). The juice powder is most commonly used as an option to adding a sweet juice flavor to black or green tea. It is not recommended to be used with a creamer, as the drink will curdle at the top after the drink sits for a few minutes and looks unappetizing.

Juice Flavored Syrups:

Juice flavored syrups are a strong thick concentrate used to infuse black or green tea with fruit flavors or for frozen blended bubble tea ("History"). Since these syrups are created from the juices of the real fruit, it is hard to tell the difference between fresh fruit and bubble tea syrups. Some syrups even contain pieces of real fruit in them (i.e. strawberry bits, passion fruit seed, etc.). Most syrups have a sweet and citrus taste, depending on the flavor and provide a light and refreshing taste that enhances the flavor of the tea.

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References

“History of Bubble Tea.” 05 Jun 2000. Bubble Tea Supply. 10 Mar 2006. <http://www.bubbleteasupply.com>.

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