Tapioca tea sweeps Castro Street Tapioca tea sweeps Castro Street (May 10, 2002)

By Candice Shih

The intersection of Castro and Villa Streets is whirring over one tiny little thing: a tapioca ball.

These gummy orbs are the basis of pearl milk tea, downtown Mountain View's hottest trend.

Local tech workers and hip university students have known for quite some time about Verde at 852 Villa Street, but what they may not have noticed are two new tea shops, each just a block away from the original downtown pearl milk tea café.

Tapioca Express at 740 Villa Street opened on April 19 this year, and Tea Era at 271 Castro Street has been open for three months.

While the high concentration of tea shops within a one-block radius may strike some as strange, to the uninitiated it's even odder that their best-selling product consists of milk, tea, and little balls of sweet tapioca you suck up through a large-bore straw.

But for its fans - about 60 percent of whom, owners say, are Asian-American - it makes perfect sense.

It all started some ten years ago in Taichung, Taiwan. Milk tea was not a new concept and neither were the pearls of tapioca, which have been around for 30 or 40 years, said Rosan Lo, co-owner of Verde. However, the combination was new.

And it caught on fast.

"Everyone knows the tapioca drink" in Taiwan, said Frank Shih, owner of the local Tapioca Express franchise (and no relation to the reporter who wrote this story). So, he said, does everyone in Los Angeles, a virtual tapioca milk tea mecca where cafés are numerous and stay open until 2 a.m.

Mountain View is just one of the latest communities to embrace the trendy beverage, also known as "boba," which means "giant tapioca" in Chinese.

"People are crazy about the tapioca ball. That's why we opened," said Danny Han, owner of Tea Era.

The big straw and "the combination of liquid and food" are two reasons why Alex Cornejo, a Palo Alto resident, enjoyed his pearl milk green tea at Verde.

The size of the menu is meant to attract customers, too. Tea Era, the smallest of the three, offers 18 flavors each of milk tea, flavored tea and smoothies.

Verde offers over 50 choices of its frothy, shaken pearl milk tea as well as flavors of hot tea and smoothie freezes. Tapioca Express, a franchise of more than 40 cafés, offers a menu of 149 different drinks including "snow bubble," flavored milkshake-like drinks; and jelly juice, where flavored jelly is dropped in a drink.

There's no shortage of options once you've gotten past the new feeling of drinking and chewing at the same time.

"I'll definitely come back again. I'll try another flavor," said Robyn Lewis, a Stanford student who recently had her first pearl milk tea at Verde.

The cafés hit their peak after lunch and dinner. Grace Chen, a Palo Alto resident, said she occasionally indulges in a pearl milk tea after dinner or before a movie. "It's like having a snack without having to eat something," she said.

Café owners say pearl milk tea has proved to be an alternative to coffee and alcohol. Cornejo said he likes the tea as a dessert that's healthier than most. He's not alone; the tea cafés are often as busy as Starbucks and Molly Magee's are.

Reading material is provided at Tea Era and board games at Verde. Tapioca Express serves up snacks such as chicken, fish cakes and squid; Shih says the main reason he opened a Tapioca Express franchise was because of the chicken.

Han hopes his styling of Tea Era will lead to an increased popularity of pearl milk tea, too. He considers his market to be the entire country, not just Mountain View.

"Make it mainstream, not just keep it in Asian society. That's what I'm trying to do," Han said. "I got confidence, man."