Time for Bubble Tea

So what did you think of the opening ceremonies in Beijing? Wasn't that a spectacular show! For sheer pageantry I think that would be hard to beat, and it had so many wonderful moments. Earlier on Friday I had cheated and looked at pictures on the Internet so I'd know what to expect. In one small picture I'd seen, I thought the Chinese performers were perhaps standing by human-size tins of tea, but alas, they were drums. Still, it was a great show, and it made me hope and pray even more that one day soon, China's lovely people will enjoy the free exercise of religion and a free press as we enjoy here in America.


So China has definitely been on my mind over the past few days. And because we hadn't been in a while, my friend Beth and I recently paid a visit to Newnan's Oriental Marketplace on Bullsboro Drive. (Local readers, it's behind the Shoe Mart and Vinnie R's Pizza.) There we got some delicious bubble tea, with Beth choosing Mango while I got Pink Guava.

Bubble tea, also called "Boba," originated in Taiwan back in the '80s. It originally consisted of hot black tea, large brown tapioca "pearls," condensed milk and honey. The very helpful young man at the marketplace told us the "milk tea" being served didn't actually have tea in it, but we could request our bubble tea be made with black tea, and we did. I enjoyed it very much, and after sucking up the tapioca pearls through that wide straw, I felt like I'd had a meal, not just a drink. I noticed the store sells those wide straws (like everything else there, very inexpensively), so maybe I'll try making some bubble tea of my own one day!