Bubble bubble. Bubble bubble.

When it comes to selecting the best bubble tea joint, several factors come into play. First and foremost (though some argue differently) is the consistency of the tapioca bubbles. They must have that right amount of "Q-Q". Some equate "Q-Q" to be similar to al dente in pasta but in Chinese, it's the level of chewiness that makes the food bounce inbetween the molars. I've observed that places that provide the best "Q-Q" in bubbles use a slow cooker to keep them warm. If they get saved from the previous day and refrigerated, they get very hard in texture, and the only way to soften them is reheating them to the precise amount without making them smushy soft. Many times I've left a cafe with subpar tapioca bubbles. Good bubbles are key to "bubble tea".

The second and often argued more important factor that weighs into a good beverage is the quality of the ingredients. The original "bubble tea" comes from Taiwan. Back in the early 2000s, I had my first bubble tea in some shop in Taipei that my cousin declared provided the best milk tea. These days bubble tea is in the form of the original milk tea but sometimes with fruit flavors like passionfruit or durian or mango. Then you can have the non-milk varieties, like honey green tea, passionfruit black tea, lychee green tea. Further expansion includes the slushie or snow bubble teas where the beverage is more like a frozen smoothie.  Such extensiveness opens businesses up to various solutions for their customers. They can choose powders or syrups or use fresh fruit. I think this is what makes people debate what should make a good drink good.

Given the wide variety of options, it makes it hard to ask where to find the best bubble tea in the Seattle area.  People in LA might argue there is no good bubble tea because they can't find one that uses fresh fruit for their papaya bubble tea. Others may say that the best bubble tea is one that provides a good depth of tea flavor. If it doesn't get lost within the milk or other added flavor. Or it could be dependent on the cost-benefit analysis of the drink. It all depends!

Recently we asked a bunch of people at a meetup about the best bubble tea in the area and they neither said Oasis, Ambrosia nor Pochi's, which are places we frequently go to, but instead declared Drive Thru Boba as the best bubble tea in Seattle! We checked the place out (originally an actual drive through like many of the express coffee drive throughs, but now a storefront in Bellevue) and wow it was good. Only 4-5 flavors to choose from instead of the 20+ options you usually find but the tea really stood out, the bubbles were very Q-Q and they didn't skimp either. In addition, if the sweetness level is a concern, this places offers 25%, 50% and 75% sweetness options!  The only drawback was that this bubble tea is quite pricey, at $4-6 per cup.  But if you're ever in the area, it is still worth checking it out.