Here’s why today's Google Doodle is all about Bubble Tea

Fancy something sweet on your morning commute? Google has just the thing.

The search engine has updated its interactive Doodle feature in honour of Taiwan’s most iconic drink: bubble tea.

For anyone who’s failed to notice, a Google Doodle is the temporary change made to the company’s logo on its homepage to commemorate a holiday or some other noteworthy event or person.

Monday’s offering celebrates that frothy, studded beverage (which is also known as boba tea or pearl milk tea) to mark three years since its emoticon immortalisation.

Over the past few years, bubble tea's international popularity has exploded to such an extent that, on 30 January 2020, it was officially announced as a new emoji.

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The drink consists (as the name suggests) of tea accompanied by chewy balls, usually made of tapioca or fruit jelly. It comes in a wide range of flavours and colours, as anyone walking round Leicester Square will no doubt have spotted.

For a limited only, fans (and those of us who’ve never actually tried it) can make their own virtual version of the drink thanks to the interactive Google Doodle game, choosing everything from the type of bubbly balls to the flavour of syrup that goes into it – just head to the search engine home page.

You can design your own virtual tea on the Google homepageGoogle

For anyone interested in its history, as Google notes in its blurb for the latest Doodle: "Bubble tea has its roots in traditional Taiwanese tea culture which dates back as early as the 17th century. However, it wasn’t until the 1980s that the bubble tea as we know today [sic] was invented.

"As waves of Taiwanese immigrants over the past few decades brought this drink overseas, innovation on the original bubble tea continues. Shops around the world are still experimenting with new flavors, additions, and mixtures."

So the question now is... what will you put in yours?

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