From Craze to Category: Bubble Tea’s U.K. Boom & the Future of Western Demand

Written by Kelly Washington

The Taiwanese drink made a splash in the UK, with bubble tea stores popping up in cities and high streets everywhere in the last 14 years. What’s the drink’s secret to success?

Where it all began

In the U.K., food and drink trends from all over the world come and go, but not all of them stick. When I first heard of ‘bubble tea’ (also known as ‘boba tea’), I must admit I thought it would be a fad, a craze that would sweep the nation (like the more recent Labubu). How wrong I was.

Bubble tea is a Taiwanese recipe that involves blending tea with milk, fruit and fruit juices, then adding flavourful tapioca ‘pearls’ (small, chewy, translucent spheres made from cassava root starch), before shaking the mixture vigorously. While ‘bubble tea’ often refers to the foam created by shaking the drink, ‘boba’ specifically refers to the chewy tapioca balls. In the 2010s, suddenly everyone had their favourite flavour of boba on their arm in London; it was the season’s latest accessory. Brightly coloured, sleek and inviting, shops were appearing across the city with no sign of slowing down.

Bubble tea formally arrived in the UK in April 2011, when according to the BBC, former investment banker Assad Khan came across the drink in a "small hole-in-the-wall cafe in New York". Soon after, he set up the UK's first shop ‘Bubbleology’ in Soho, and now has a chain of cafes under the same name across Europe and the Middle East.

Fast forward to now, there’s a bubble tea shop on most high streets in the UK that are mostly popular with teenagers and young adults due to the tea’s visual aesthetics and customisable nature – two key factors that are catnip for the Instagram and TikTok generations. The evidence is on TikTok, where at the time of writing the hashtag #bubbletea has 749.7K posts. But before the bubble burst onto the scene in the west, it was born in Taiwan in the 1980s.

The history of bubble tea

Today, Bubble tea or ‘boba’ is a staple of Taiwanese culture and is also popular in China, Vietnam and other Eastern countries. Often produced with a grab and go mentality, the drinks are often churned out at lightning speed. The first iterations of the drink were born in takeaway tea shops. Two separate Taiwanese tea shops both claim to have invented the drink in the 1980s (and even got in a decade-long lawsuit over the matter). It is said that they came up with the idea when brainstorming how they could increase the value of their iced tea. The tapioca pearls were already being produced as sugary toppings, so they thought they’d test them as a topping. In the early days, they made boba tea with sweet, iced black tea and lactose-free creamer. Now, you can get pretty much any flavour you want of boba internationally, from green, oolong, jasmine, to a range of fruit options with different milk pairings.

Bubble tea’s unique market positioning and London’s cultural landscape

In 2024, the UK’s bubble tea market was estimated at 198.3 million (USD), and is expected to reach 578.8 Million (USD) by 2035, growing at a compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.23% in 10 years. Along with being customisable, there are other reasons why the UK’s obsession with bubble tea is growing. Since the pandemic, there’s been a cultural shift towards a desire for social, sharable food experiences. With loneliness at an all time high, (in 2022, 49.63% of adults in the UK reported feeling lonely occasionally, sometimes, often or always) many are not only looking for new things to try, but also shared connection. Bubble tea’s move into supermarkets also presents a major opportunity, with its ready-to-drink format aligning with convenience-driven consumer habits.

In a wider cultural context, there’s evidence to suggest that teenagers and young adults are particularly interested in East Asian culture right now – especially countries in the The Sinosphere, which includes China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Young people from the UK and Americans are referencing Asian culture relentlessly online. From the arguably problematic “you met me during a very Chinese time in my life” to young men on Hinge being obsessed with planning trips to Japan, it seems the Western world is looking aspirationally to East Asia.

Not following? Allow me to explain. The trend “You met me at a very Chinese time in my life" is a viral social media phrase that’s emerged lately, as a result of people "Chinamaxxing" - which involves appreciating and adopting Chinese cultural practices, like using rice cookers, drinking tea, and avoiding cold food. It is usually said ironically but with a hint of sincerity. Naturally, people of Chinese heritage are pointing out this is problematic, since cultural identities are not something you can try on and off – it’s a permanent state of their identity and existence.

But at the root of this, as UCLA researcher Caroline Ying Ouellette notes, something deeper is going on. People aren’t engaging with the ‘real China’ online, it’s a romanticised version of what the culture has that western lives are lacking; bound with a desire for difference and disillusionment with what countries like the UK and US are beginning to represent. “As the US and China engage in an open power struggle, trade wars, tech bans and cultural hostility, we’re receiving messaging that China is the enemy”, Ouellette says, “culture is symbolic.” Where China used to be authoritarian, backwards and “not cool”, online it’s showing up as cool – with late night food markets, aunties dancing in parks – celebrating ways of life that feel different. It’s unlikely that they want the politics of China and other East Asian countries, but as Ouellette argues, are craving a level of structure that the US and UK fear they’re losing. Problematic or not, there seems to be a distinct desire for escapism for something completely different while many feel their own values are slipping away. And this notion can be applied to many consumer trends.

What can other businesses learn?

While traditional brands may struggle to adapt to social media trends that offer virality (such as colourful packaging) there are other ways to adapt, namely offering customisable options for the consumer and carefully watching market trends. Above all, it is important to understand your audience, and not overcomplicate things when marketing your product. Embrace simplicity. You can’t please everyone, but with the right product, target audience and social strategy, businesses can really make a lasting impact.