I’m going to be visiting a couple of countries in Latin America(Argentina, Chile, Peru, and if I have time Brazil) and I’d love to hear about what the boba scene is like. There were some social media pages I saw that there are some stores that offer cheese foam caps and others where the powder flavor is still kind of popular.
Would love to hear what your favorite drinks are and what’s been popular lately so I can try it out and see the differences. Also helpful if you’ve visited countries or cities(like Taiwan or China as well as NYC and LA) that have a variety of different offering for boba so you can make a comparison. Thanks!
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I keep waiting for Pulque Boba, but so far no dice.
When I was in Buenos Aires, I found a place in Barrio Chino where you can buy bubble tea. It was not cheap, honestly. In my city, it does not exist.
I don’t think we have something similar in our culture. I’ve never been to Asia, but I have been to Los Angeles and New York, and our things there are different.
If you like teas, you can try sweet mate, but it is not similar to bubble tea.
There are several cafes in the Providencia area of Santiago. I don’t know about any “scene” though, and I don’t drink it so can’t give any comments on that, but they’re there.
The only thing local that is similar I can think of is mote con huesillo… i guess. It’s not tea though, it’s sweetened peach juice with dried peach and wheat berries. You must try it, at least. Regular tea drinking is very common, just not sweet/boba tea.
Boba (and in general many things asian) are in style in Buenos Aires right now. There are places in Palermo/Bario Chino etc.
But my humble suggestion is focusing on local culture, trying things locals drink and eat as opposed to seeking foreign things you can get at home anyways. But yeah if you have the itch it’s available, though expensive.
Boba tea is kind of trendy in my city and you can find several cafes selling it as well as Asian stores selling boba packages but it’s still overall somewhat expensive compared to other options. As for what’s popular, it’s the typical taro or matcha with milk but the bobas are often flavored with blueberry, passion fruit or strawberry. Shaved iced is also common.
There are so many bobba places in Panama City… So far I have tried black tea, Earl Grey, matcha, taro, passion fruit, pineapple, chocolate, coffee and caramel.
In some places you can add the cheese on top, change the bobba for jelly cubes ans choose how much sugar you want in it.
Super popular in Lima. There’s a comercial center near my house that’s full of Asian stores (boba, takoyaki, onigiri, anime, video games, Pokémon, etc). Asian culture is huge here and so the boba/bubble tea scene is also huge.
I personally don’t have a favorite drink but my wife is big into that stuff.
You can have bubble tea in Caracas in the Chinese market and a small chain of Chinese bakeries with a few stores in the city. I think its also available in other cities, but honestly it’s not too popular. I guess it’s because we have many other very sweet drinks.
I have no idea what you talking about. Is it those sugary drinks that sell in kiosks, with some balls inside? if so, it exists but it’s not something I’d say is popular here. Maybe I’m just old and not into trends
Not really common here, if you find it at all. Just didn’t land on our shores.