Tapioca Pearls (Boba) are small chewy balls made from tapioca starch. Typically, these spheres are black in color and are used for bubble tea. Although boba has a gelatinous texture, no gelatin is used in the process of creation. Therefore, this makes these small chewy spheres vegan-friendly.

Boba are naturally translucent and white in color. However, black food coloring or brown sugar is often used in the process. This is to achieve the familiar black color. Black boba pearls were created for an aesthetic purpose to contrast with the color of milk tea.

Tapioca starch is a gluten-free flour that comes from the cassava root plant. The native South American plant arrived in Taiwan between 1895 and 1945, under Japanese rule. Tapioca starch is mainly known for making thick and chewy textures in many Asian dishes.

The making of tapioca balls was also introduced to Brazil (where cassava is native), where they are still known as sagu, despite being made from cassava and not sago palms. Sagu is used in a traditional dish known as sagu de vinho (“wine sago”), popular in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. It is usually mixed with sugar and red wine and served warm. It is also often added to tea drinks.

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