Tirol Chocolate – Tapioca Milk Tea

One thing that really surprised me during my trip to Japan was the fact that Tapioca Milk Tea, or Bubble Tea, or boba, has really only become a thing over there in the past year or so. By this I mean, they knew about it, but for some reason or another, it didn’t become mainstream enough to warrant it’s own flavour in candies and chocolates. I know it’s a big thing now because everywhere I go, I see things like tapioca gummies, boba ice cream, and even bubble tea chocolate. I’m not sure why the craze is only catching on now. To be fair, I might be taking it for granted, since it was officially a thing in the 1980’s back in Taiwan, and crossed the ocean in the late 90s and early 2000s, when bubble tea and tapioca went mainstream with stores popping up everywhere. Nowadays it’s a staple in the asian community, which is why I was befuddled by it only catching on in Japan now.

If you’re unfamiliar with it, bubble tea gets it’s name from the chewy pieces of tapioca that are in the cup that’s usually paired with some form of iced tea. There’s endless possibilities, but the classic one is a nice, iced milk tea. Even the tea itself can be various different kinds, be it green, black or whatever is available. Part of the fun though, is the chewy tapioca, and where much of the novelty is. It’s evolved to the point where, tapioca can be replaced by other toppings like aloe vera, coconut jelly, grass jelly, pudding and many others. Personally, I tend to opt out and just go for the tea, but sometimes I’m in a chewing mood and I’ll give it a go. Basically, a bubble tea is a dessert drink, first and foremost.

In terms of all the snacks I’ve seen that use bubble tea is a flavour, I feel like chocolate lends itself quite well to it. I’m a little on the fence about the tapioca part, but like I always say, I’ll give everything at least one shot. Let’s hope they make it count.

It seems that this particular flavour is based on the bubble tea flavour of a specific brand, like a collaboration. Apparently this is based on a company called Tapi-mo in Shibuya. I don’t know anything about it, but I’m guessing to take a wild guess and say that it’s going to taste a certain way, as though there may be a wide variety of bubble teas and how they are made, the milk teas generally have a rough outline for how they taste. A baseline, if you will.

I will say that based on my extensive experience with bubble tea, I’m somewhat of a savant. As an experienced professional, I can confirm that this does indeed smell like a milk tea. Nothing bad to say about this nice, pleasantly mild tea smelling aroma.

The tapioca on this piece seems to be poking out the top. If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say that each piece has on average two pieces of tapioca. Given the size, I can’t see how they would fit more than that while still maintaining the structural integrity of the chocolate.

Let’s start with the flavour. While I typically have a lot of faith in Tirol, I honestly wasn’t sure if they could capture the flavour of milk tea in a chocolate. I’m happy to say that they did. And quite well at that. Black tea, specifically Earl Grey, tends to be the most commonly used base for most milk teas, and it seems like this one does as well. It has the sweetness and smooth flavour you would find in a typical milk tea, with a hint of that Early Grey flavour in the aftertaste. Colour me impressed. On to the texture, the chocolate itself is the smooth melt you would expect from typical chocolate. The tapioca is what’s curious. Tapioca is usually very chewy and wet, so it’s kind of strange to have it in it’s dry form. It’s almost like a gummy, but has that distinct firm center that tapioca has. What you end up with is a nice bouncy chew like real tapioca. It just threw me off a bit since it’s dry and not wet. Still good though.

Given that bubble tea is such a worldwide phenomenon at this point, I firmly believe that specialty stores around the world will carry this, if for no other reason than the novelty of it. While it’s supposedly a limited edition flavour, I think the odds of finding this are still decent, so if you can, try and get your hands on one, whether or not you have had bubble tea. Even as a standalone flavour, it’s not bad. Now go forth my minions, and conquer your local specialty asian stores!