Trà trân châu
Bách khoa toàn thư mở Wikipedia
Trà trân châu hay trà sữa trân châu (珍珠奶茶) là tên gọi của người Đài Loan cho một loại đồ giải khát chế biến từ lá chè trộn với các hạt trân châu làm từ bột sắn. Khi trà bị lắc thì một lớp mỏng bong bóng (bọt nước) tạo thành trên bề mặt. Do sự tạo thành bọt nên bất kỳ loại trà nào được lắc trong khi chuẩn bị đều có thể gọi là trà bong bóng. "Phao mạt hồng trà" (泡沫紅茶) và "bào mạt hồng trà" (泡沫綠茶) cũng là các loại đồ giải khát thông dụng được làm bằng cách lắc trà đường. Sau khi trà sữa trân châu được giới thiệu vào các nước không châu Á, nó được gọi bằng tên tiếng Anh là "bubble tea". Do khác biệt cơ bản nhất giữa các loại trà bong bóng và các loại trà khác là các hạt bột sắn ở đáy cốc, nên một số người không biết tiếng Anh cho rằng "bubble" trong "bubble tea" là chỉ đến bột sắn. Tuy nhiên, trân châu trong "trà sữa trân châu" mới là từ để chỉ đến các hạt "trân châu" (bột sắn).
Trà trân châu nói chung được chia thành hai loại: trà tạo hương vị từ hoa quả và trà sữa. Trà sữa có thể sử dụng các loại kem từ sữa hay không từ sữa. Có nguồn gốc từ Đài Loan, trà trân châu đặc biệt phổ biến tại một số quốc gia châu Á như Trung Quốc, Hồng Kông, Hàn Quốc, Malaysia, Philipin và Singapore. Loại đồ uống này cũng phổ biến tại châu Âu, Canada và Hoa Kỳ.
Mục lục |
[sửa] General
Bubble tea is a mixture of iced or hot sweetened tea, milk, and often other flavorings. It is shaken to mix thoroughly, which produces the small bubbles characteristic of the drink. Black gummy balls made of tapioca (or, more commonly in East Asia, yam starch), called "pearls", sit at the bottom of the cup. The pearls are larger than those found in tapioca pudding, with a diameter of at least 6 millimeters, but smaller ones are occasionally used. They are transluscent brown with a darker brown center. The pearls are sucked through a wide straw along with the drink, providing something to chew on between sips.
When ordering, customers may be asked whether they want "pearls" or "boba" in their drinks, and both terms refer to the tapioca balls. The tapioca pearls require an hour for preparation, and they expand considerably when cooked. After they are cooked through but before they become too soft, the pearls are drained and poured into a sugar water solution, and are ready for use.
An alternative to the traditional tapioca balls is coconut jelly or konjac jelly. The jelly is served in small cubes or rectangular strips, and has a pliant, chewy consistency. They may be ordered "half and half", in a drink with half pearls and half jelly. There are also other jellies such as lychee jelly, coffee jelly, and rainbow jelly, a fruit mixture.
The recipes for bubble tea vary, but flavoring is usually added to hot black or green tea, which is shaken in a cocktail shaker or mixed in blender with ice until chilled. The mixture is usually combined with milk and cooked tapioca pearls. Some cafes that serve bubble tea use a machine to seal the top of the cup with plastic cellophane, which a drinker pierces with a straw. Other cafes still use plastic dome-shaped lids.
Some cafes use a non-dairy milk substitute instead of milk, which adds a distinct flavor and consistency to the drink. One possible reason for using milk substitute is lactose intolerance, though a more likely explanation is that powdered substitutes are cheaper, more convenient, and taste creamier than regular milk.
The flavorings added to bubble tea can be in the form of powder, fruit juice, pulp, or syrup. Some examples of flavors are strawberry, passion fruit, chocolate, and coconut.
Bubble tea can also refer to hot Cantonese-style milk tea with tapioca balls.
[sửa] Origin
Bubble tea supposedly originated in Taichung, Taiwan in the early 1980s. A Taiwanese tea shop owner named Nancy Yang (楊勵媛) experimented with cold milk tea by adding fruit, syrup, candied yams, and tapioca balls. Although the drink was not popular at first, a Japanese television show led businessmen to take notice. The drink became well-known in most parts of East Asia during the 1990s.
In the late 1990s, bubble tea began to gain popularity in the major North American cities with large Asian populations, especially those on the West Coast and East Coast. The trend in the United States started in the city of San Gabriel, California and quickly spread throughout Southern California.[cần chú thích] The beverage has received much attention from mainstream American media, including covers on National Public Radio show Morning Edition and the Los Angeles Times. Bubble tea has spread internationally through Chinatowns and other overseas Asian communities. In the U.S., franchises such as Quickly and Lollicup are expanding into suburban areas, particularly those with large Asian populations. Bubble tea can also be found in major European cities such as London and Paris.
[sửa] Pearls
The Tapioca pearls are made from the Cassava root.
The balls are prepared by boiling for 25 minutes, until they are cooked thoroughly but have not lost pliancy, then cooling for 25 minutes. After cooking they last about 7 hours. [1] The pearls have little taste, and are usually soaked in sugar or honey solutions.
[sửa] Tên gọi khác
Bubble tea has many other names, including:
- black pearl tea
- black pearl iced tea
- boba drink
- 波霸奶茶 (boba milk tea) bōbà nǎichá: literally "'large balls' milk tea"
- bubble milk tea
- milk pearl tea
- pearl iced tea
- pearl milk tea (珍珠奶茶; zhēnzhū nǎichá) Putonghua, Taiwanese and overseas Chinese usage: literally, "pearl milk tea"
- pearl sago [milk] tea: English only; used for canned varieties in which pearl sago (西米; xīmǐ; Cantonese: sai1 mai5) is used instead of tapioca
- pearl tea
- ชาไข่มุก, ชามุก: literally "pearl tea"
- tapioca drink
- tapioca tea
- trà trân châu: equivalent to 茶珍珠, literally "tea pearl" (Vietnamese)
In southern Taiwan, pearl milk tea with large pearls are usually called "boba milk tea", while those with small pearls are called "pearl milk tea".
[sửa] Availability
Bubble tea is available at small dedicated cafes and some restaurants. Most bubble tea shops serve a variety of drinks, including coffee, juices, and fruit freezes, which are sometimes also called bubble tea, though they do not contain any tea ingredients. These drinks can include flavors less familiar to non-Asians, such as taro, honeydew, or lychee, as well as the more familiar chocolate, Ovaltine, or strawberry. Hot bubble tea with pearls are also common, though coconut or konjac jelly are usually not added to hot drinks.
[sửa] Trivia
In September 2004, while defending a US$18 billion weapon purchase plan, the ROC Ministry of National Defense used bubble tea as an example of the overall cost of the proposed purchase. The Ministry stated that the total cost of the weapons systems would be equivalent to the money saved if all Taiwanese people had one less pearl milk tea per week, over a period of twenty years.
Tháng 9 năm 2004, trong khi bảo vệ kế hoạch mua vũ khí trị giá 18 tỉ đô la, bộ trưởng quốc phòng Đài Loan đã sử dụng trà trân châu như một ví dụ cho tổng chi phí mua vũ khí này. Ngài bộ trưởng đã nói tổng chi phí cho hệ thống vũ khí trên bằng số tiền toàn dân Đài Loan tiết kiệm được khi bớt uống một ly trà sửa mổi tuần trong hai mươi năm.
[sửa] Các nhà bán trà sửa có thương hiệu (Bubble tea vendors)
- Easy Way
- Lollicup
- Q-Cup
- Quickly
- Tapioca Express
[sửa] Liên kết ngoài
- Cafe Rating Bureau
- Bubble Tea History
- Free bubble tea / boba tea recipes
- CNN - Tapioca milk tea creating waves as fun coffee alternative
- The Tale of "The Bubble Tea Origin"
- US Bubble tea cafe locator
- MSNBC - Can drinking less tea defend a nation?
- NBC - Taiwanese urged to cut tea to pay for US arms
- A Site that Sells Boba
