Instead, boba contains tapioca, starch from the cassava root. And luckily, roots are entirely plant-based, as they're plant bases, literally. How is tapioca made? Producers first grind the cassava root, squeeze the starch-based liquid out of it, and let the remainder dry into tapioca powder.
Boba itself is usually vegan (happy dance), as it's typically made from tapioca. Tapioca is a starch that comes from the cassava root—compassionate boba addicts can rest assured that gelatin is usually not used in the making of bubble tea.
The tapioca pearls used to create boba are typically made by combining tapioca starch with water. In this simple form, boba is vegan. But the sweet, flavored varieties used in bubble tea often contain non-vegan ingredients, most commonly, brown sugar.
It depends—although traditional bubble tea is made with cow's milk, and is therefore not dairy-free, bubble tea can be customised to be made with non-dairy milk and other vegan alternatives. You can also get flavoured fruit bubble tea, which doesn't contain milk at all.
Popping boba is made from fruit juice that has been captured inside a thin seaweed membrane. However, if the surrounding tea contains dairy milk—a common ingredient in boba tea—the drink is no longer vegan.
The boba in bubble tea is often vegan, as tapioca pearls are completely plant-based, and popping pearls are usually made of nothing more than water, sugar, fruit juice and Alginic acid (found in algae), again, making it plant-based.
Boba pearls are made of tapioca starch that comes from the cassava root, so compassionate customers can rest easy knowing that gelatin is not used in the making of these tiny balls of deliciousness.
Boba as a drink is not designated as halal, but that does not mean that it is not safe for Muslims to drink. Xing Fu Tang in Malaysia for example is certified as Halal meaning that there are no contaminants in the manufacturing process.
The short answer is yes. The majority of bubble tea products are halal. The main concern with bubble tea is generally the Tapioca balls or pearls, or the popping bobas which resemble other Gelatin products, such as sweets and jelly.
Some bubble tea offers different boba ingredients than tapioca balls – luckily, most of them are vegan. Lychee jelly, grass jelly, rainbow jelly, and almost all other jellies are fine, as they're made from sugar and other plant-based ingredients.
Tapioca is 100% vegan and does not contain any animal products. Tapioca is a vegan product used as a thickening agent in various cuisines. Recently, it has become a popular alternative to dairy products such as milk and cream. Tapioca is made from cassava root, a type of starch.
Since the raw material for gelatin is animal body parts and the application is mostly not necessary for survival, it makes gelatin a non-vegan substance. All the products that contain it also become non-vegan and in fact, not even vegetarian.
Bubble tea or boba tea is a sweet Taiwanese milk tea drink made of black tea, milk, sugar and tapioca pearls. However, over the years many new boba flavours have emerged in bubble tea stores across the world.
If you drink Bubble tea in Los Angeles, the shops usually use Tapioca balls and Boba ones. They have the same taste and a similar way of preparation. However, Boba is larger than Tapioca. Besides, do not worry about Frog eggs; they are not real.
Tapioca has no gelatine in it.
In short, no, traditional bubble tea does not contain gelatin. This comes down to the fact that despite its jelly-like consistency, tapioca bubbles are actually made from tapioca starch, making them safe for you to consume.
Are tapioca pearls halal? Most tapioca pearls are made from halal or Muslim-friendly ingredients! In fact, many people have even tried their hand at making their own tapioca pearls while staying at home. The typical ingredients are tapioca flour or starch, water, and sugar or brown sugar for taste.
TP Tea Singapore
Singapore's first halal-certified bubble tea chain, TP Tea, has just started delivering their bubble teas through a tie-up with Krispy Kreme. Currently, their menu is quite limited with less than 10 drinks including their Milk Tea, Brown Sugar Milk Tea and seasonal Mulberry tea.
Bursting with surprising, exotic and funky flavours, Chatime is a flavour sensation that has grown to over 100 T-Breweries since hitting the Aussie shores in 2009, with over 1,000 tea outlets worldwide. Vegetarian, Gluten-free & ingredients are Halal Certified!
Gelatin is among the most studied Halal ingredient because of its vast usage in pharmaceutical and food products. Gelatin is a hydrocolloid with unique properties and can function as gelling, thickener, foaming agent, plasticizer, texture and binding agent (Sahilah et al.
The pearls itself is usually vegan, as it's typically made from tapioca. Grass jelly, which you can also add to your drink, is also vegan.
Alcohol derived from honey, wheat, barley or corn is haram when used as an intoxicant, in an amount that intoxicates. But, if not used in any such manner, and intended to use for medical purpose, hygiene, perfume, etc., then it would be permissible.
Popping boba is a type of "boba" used in bubble tea. Popping boba have a thin, gel-like surface (which actually, is vegan and made from a seaweed extract, not gelatin), filled with juice inside.
The tapioca balls are made from the tapioca starch that comes from the cassava root. Boiling water is added to this starch and kneaded to form a dough-like consistency. The dough is then cut and rolled into the bubble shapes. These are added into a boiling mixture of brown sugar and water to finish the product.
TLDR: Boba tea and bubble tea both refer to the same thing - a milk tea or fruit tea drink. Boba can also refer to tapioca pearls a.k.a boba balls (the squishy topping often found in a bubble tea).