Some like it hot

Bubble tea is not just for hot weather.

Back when I was living in China, I had an annual rhythm around my bubble tea consumption. Actually, everyone did. I folded right into the seasonality of bubble tea in SE China in a way that seems impossible here in the United States.

Why impossible? Because it just hasn’t caught on yet.

I’m here to help bring that eventual seasonality to fruition!

Most of the year in China, I would drink iced bubble tea. It’s delicious, a staple in fact. Walking down the street, windows shopping, hanging with friends, eating out…it’s just something you have in your hands as you live life. But then, as soon as the weather turned even the tiniest bit crisp, aka: as soon as we all stopped sweating through our shirts even part of the day on my southern island of Xiamen, we began to order bubble tea differently. The cooler weather was the perfect invitation to begin ordering bubble tea WARM. Not hot, mind you, just warm. In Chinese there are lots of ways to say varying degrees of temperature, especially pertaining to beverages. First you could do 少放冰 which means cold but just a tiny bit of ice. Then you have 去冰 which means shake it with ice, but strain out all the ice when pouring. And my favorite to say is 常温 which means room temperature, so not cold, not hot. Then there is 温得 which translates as what we would probably mean as just “warm” and finally 热的 which is hot.

So many delightful ways to order your bubble tea to meet your mood! I love this system and I’m often sad in the states that I can’t order a hot bubble tea. I do make them often at my shop, however. And you can try this fabulous version of bubble tea at Bubble Love: either location!

Pro tip: DON’T order popping boba since it will dissolve in the warm/hot tea. DO order boba! It’s amazing warm!