It started in Taiwan as street vendor food — as snacks for the school children who had just been released from the confinement of walls, desks and chalkboards.

More than 20 years later, it’s moved around the globe and has settled in on Hillsborough street. And this time, it’s not street vendor food.

“Bubble tea is ubiquitous,” Nathan Phillips, co-owner of Ningyo Pearl Bubble Tea House, said. “Markets are saturated with it, from Thai Pei to Hong Kong to Istanbul. Now it’s California, Vancouver, San Francisco. It’s getting that way in Pittsburgh and New York. And now it’s come here.”

Although Phillips said bubble tea has been in the area for some time now in local markets, customers would have to walk through “the dead fish smell and the whole bit” to get to the drink.

Pearl Cafe opened on Jan. 14 — the first bubble tea store in the area — although Phillips said he and co-owner Michelle Royals have been at the location since Dec. 12.

“In December there were no bubble tea places in Wake County,” Phillips said. “There were places that had bubble tea, but not bubble tea places.”

And Phillips said he expects that number to change, predicting Raleigh will have four more “bubble tea places” by early May.

Cafes such as Hillsborough Street’s Ningyo Pearl Bubble Tea House and Chill, located in Chapel Hill, differ from street vendor food not only in amount of available flavors, but also in the kind of bubble tea served.

“Street vendor food is really low-tech,” Phillips said. “They just shook the tea.”

Bubble tea cafes, however, have access to electricity — which allows them to incorporate blenders into the mix. It can also be served blended with ice or ice cream, or added to milk, creating bubble snow, milkshakes or bubble milk, respectively.

“There are so many different shapes,” Phillips said. “You can combine [the flavors] to get hundreds and hundreds of flavors.”

And the tea is a labor-intensive commodity that requires Taiwanese suppliers to ship ingredients through California to North Carolina. So the tea, which he said is about $2 cheaper a cup than on the West Coast, is reasonably priced.

It’s because of these prices, along with the variety of options, that Phillips has experienced a 50 percent conversion rate within his customers.

“We’ve had a lot of support from the Asian community,” he said. ” The Asian Students Association has been fantastic to us. … But it’s not just an Asian deal. I think anybody would like it.”

Phillips said he hopes to become fully incorporated into the community. He said he’s made a dent in that goal by employing N.C. State students and adding healthier options to Hillsborough street.

“It’s a good place for lunch,” he said. “You can get a salad, Vietnamese spring rolls and bubble tea for $5 to $7. … Bubble tea has antioxidants. It’s better for you than coffee.”

These antioxidants reduce the formation of free radicals, which harm cells in the body.

“It’s a good product,” Phillips said. “It’s not too exotic, but it’s still new. When the new wears off, it won’t seem that weird.”

What is bubble tea?

Ingredients: Green or black teaFlavorings (such as strawberry, passionfruit, papaya and raspberry)Boba — tapioca pearls flavored with honey — and green apple-, lychee- or strawberry-flavored jellies.

“Lychee is what grapefruit would taste like if grapefruit was worth eating,” Nathan Phillips, co-owner of Ningyo Pearl Cafe, said. “It tastes like a tangerine wrapped around a peach pit.”

The fruit is golf ball-sized and comes in bunches and is distinctive to South Asia.

The boba have the consistency of gummy bears and take on the flavor of the bubble tea.

How it’s made:

The flavoring is mixed with green or black tea and then shaken with ice. The liquid concoction is poured into a cup with either the boba or jellies at the bottom. The cup is covered with secured lid and served with a straw large enough to allow the boba or jellies to flow through.

Why the name:

The term “bubble tea” originated from the result of shaking the tea and flavoring, which adds a layer of bubbles to the top of the tea. Now, however, the term refers to the boba and jellies at the bottom, which vaguely resemble bubbles.

source: Nathan Phillips, co-owner of Ningyo Pearl Bubble Tea House