2010: Quickly become the biggest Bubble Tea chain store in the United States with over 60 locations nationwide. 2007: Over 40 Quickly stores across United States.

Now, we can add Starbucks to the list of places to get our boba on. On May 7, Starbucks dropped its 2024 summer menu, and it of course includes bubble tea. In a press release, the brand introduced its version of boba, which comes in “raspberry-flavored pearls.”

Do you know what messy cup is? It was essentially "brown sugar milk tea with boba". The soul of the "messy cup" was the amber patterns that brown sugar coating on the inner wall of cups. The boba in the drink should be dipped into the brown sugar sauce made on-site, and then milk is poured directly into the cup.

Whatever you call it, in its most basic form, the drink consists of black tea, milk, ice, and chewy tapioca pearls, all shaken together like a martini and served with that famously fat straw to accommodate the marbles of tapioca that cluster at the bottom of the cup.