Chewy Vs Popping Boba: What's The Difference?

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Boba transforms any kind of cold drink into edible entertainment. You can find these popping bits of chewy mystery in anything from iced lattes and fruit smoothies to traditional Taiwanese bubble tea. It's not just the kind of drink that boba pearls go into that's interchangeable, either. Sample bubble tea from fast food drink giant Mixue or any other bubble tea shop and you might notice a big difference in the boba pearls.

Sometimes you get boba that is like chewy little nuggets in the bottom of your drink while other boba pop with a bright burst of flavor when you bite down. Chewy boba is the old-school kind of boba made from tapioca starch; these pearls give you a satisfying toffee-like texture with a sweet but somewhat bland flavor that sweetens your drink a bit, but doesn't change the overall taste. Popping boba isn't made from tapioca starch at all; each pearl has an outer shell made by combining sodium alginate with calcium, and fruit juice is injected into each vibrantly colored jelly-like ball so they pop with flavor as soon as you take a bite.

If you're used to traditional chewy boba pearls in your milk tea, you might be surprised with the wild flavors and burst of texture popping boba provide. Popping boba is a newer take on traditional boba pearls and they are much louder with their texture and flavor. Popping boba can change the whole vibe for homemade boba tea as well, adding some variety to the standard milk tea and tapioca mixture and cutting down on prep time. Instead of having to prep your tapioca pearls for boba (and then worry about how long to store them), you can just pop open a tub of popping pearls, such as these ready-to-eat mango, strawberry, or passion fruit pearls from Mayde, and drop them in your drink. With a never-ending list of flavors, popping pearls offer a multi-level experience as you chew and sip your way through your next boba tea.

Traditional boba tea has chewy tapioca pearls that are usually a darker black or brown in color, depending on the light. They add visual interest to every cup of bubble tea, especially when you add the oversized straw. But take a look at today's bubble tea shops — such as San Francisco's best places for boba — and you might notice boba pearls now come in every color of the rainbow. Popping pearls changed the game, offering bright colors that add an extra umph to everything from strawberry lemonade to frozen yogurt. Bubble tea shops are taking these drinks even further, crafting creations heaping with whipped cream and caramel drizzle, laced with edible glitter, or using color-changing butterfly pea flower tea with opaque popping boba that look like real pearls.