Bubblify the Highlands

Don’t tell anyone, but when it comes to drinks, I’m a purist. I drink my tea and coffee black. I like a gin and tonic, but I’m not fussed about the flavoured ones. When it comes to drinks, I’ve never really wanted anyone to over complicate mine. Keep it simple, why mess with a great coffee?

So, it came as a bit of a shock when I took a slurp of my first bubble tea. I was simultaneously smiling, chewing, and swirling the straw around in the bubbles! Bubble tea/Boba is a bit of a sensory experience. It’s a drink with soft chewy tapioca pearls, the Taiwanese describe the texture of these bouncy pearls as QQ.

Boba milk tea comes from Taiwan. There appears to be some dispute as to exactly which Taichung café first served it, but it was in the early 1980’s. Fast forward forty years and Boba has arrived in a certain seaside town in the Highlands of Scotland. You might think that after travelling 5959 miles for so many years that the Boba would be a little dusty and travel weary, but nothing could be further from the truth. Boba has arrived with its QQ fully intact.

Boba is typically served in a plastic cup that has been sealed with a plastic lid which is punctured with a wide plastic straw. The Highland Weigh team wanted to give Boba a home but without the plastic. Boba in a glass or a jar and absolutely no disposable straws. It’s not cool and sophisticated like an Italian espresso, it’s not serene like a delicate Japanese green tea or as cosy as a Swiss hot chocolate. Its sweet, fun, full of QQ and we promise not to stick an umbrella in it!

They say trends travel fast, and after a little maths. Its evident that boba has travelled at 0.17mph for the last forty years. In fact, a sloth who travels at 0.2mph could have completed the journey quicker!

Long story short, Bubble Tea arrives at The Highland Weigh, this Saturday!