I asked my housemates the other day if they had ever heard of boba tea. It seemed like only one or two of them had any idea what boba tea is. If you can't tell already, I am pretty much in love with the stuff. It has a lot of different names: boba tea, bubble tea, pearl tea, tapioca tea, etc. They're all the same thing. Basically, it's chilled sweet milk tea with small tapioca balls in it.

It's a simple concept that I guess a lot of people find weird. Most of my friends here are American too, but it seems like boba tea is more of an East Coast/West Coast Asian thing. You can find it in a lot of Asian cafes on the coast. They usually cost between $1-$3 and they come in plastic cups with sealed plastic tops. You then get a giant straw and poke it through the plastic top and sip the tea and tapioca. Delicious! Back home, the nearest boba cafe was only a five minute walk from my school so I could easily get my boba fix.

Unfortunately, I think the idea of boba in England is quite foreign. I've been searching for boba cafes around Oxford and haven't found a single one. And then... the other day I found a tiny little Asian supermarket, and on the shelves I found a canned version of my pearl drink. I'd never actually seen milk tea in a can before. I was a little bit skeptical but I was craving it enough to give it a shot. It was only 60p or about $0.94, so I bought a can. It was actually pretty good. It didn't quite taste like the boba I'm used to at home. This one tasted like sweet Earl Grey with tapioca. Still pretty good, and it will have to do for now until I get my proper boba at home!