Hello lovelies, 

did you know that Vienna had a bubble tea craze back in 2010-2011? 

Bubble tea is a drink that is typically made with fresh green or black tea, milk, flavouring syrups and tapioca balls (these round jelly looking little balls on the picture).

"Bubble tea (also known as pearl milk tea, bubble milk tea, tapioca milk tea, boba tea, or boba; Chinese: 珍珠奶茶; pinyin: zhēnzhū nǎichá, 波霸奶茶; bōbà nǎichá; 泡泡茶; pàopào chá) is a tea-based drink that originated in Taiwan in the early 1980s.^[1][2] Taiwanese migrants brought it to the United States in the 1990s, initially in California through regions like Los Angeles county,^[3] but has likewise spread to other countries where there is a large East Asian diasporic population.

Bubble tea most commonly consists of tea accompanied by chewy tapioca balls ("boba" or "pearls"), but it can be made with other toppings as well, such as grass jelly, aloe vera, or red bean. It has many varieties and flavors, but the two most popular varieties are black pearl milk tea and green pearl milk tea ("pearl" signifies the tapioca balls at the bottom).^"

Tealicious was founded by Susanne Dreier-Phan Quoc in 2010 and it was the first shop that opened in this city. Afterwards, almost every major street in Vienna had at least one bubble tea shop. But that craze vanished as soon as it came and by 2013-14* 99% of all the bubble tea shops had closed again. *(In a former version it was mentioned that most shops closed by 2012. This was incorrect. This article was updated with the correct information on 15th December 2022)

The reason for this was bad publicity and imense pressure from big players like McDonalds, who also started to offer bubble tea. Some people even claimed that the bobbas were a choking hazard and the tea was pure sugar and therefore unhealthy and probably the main concern for some, that the additive were carcinogenic. 

One lonely shop survived at Mariahilferstraße and people would often queue up to buy their bubble tea.