Giant boba, bunny jelly drinks delight at new Ottawa bubble tea shop

Ottawa Citizen

4 days ago

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Glossy orbs bob in a brown sugar bubble tea at Xing Fu Tang, each larger than a ping pong ball.
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One bite distinguishes the jelly spheres from the tapioca pearls at the bottom of the cup, though at first glance they look like oversized versions of the same thing. The effect is playful excess, with the giddy appeal of a childhood dessert and enough novelty to keep adults curious.
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'We can add the giant boba to anything,' said Rose Nguyen, co-owner of the bubble tea shop in Old Ottawa East, whose colourful, creative drinks draw customers from as far as Kanata, and sometimes even further.
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Nguyen introduced the jumbo toppers this summer at the Chinatown Night Market as an exclusive item, 'something special' to promote the shop's signature milk tea.
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'We actually did big tapioca, but it was hard to chew,' she said of early attempts to use the same starch as regular pearls. 'I came up with other ingredients that kept their shape but were easier to eat, and lighter.'
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Switching to herbal jelly, a plant-based dessert popular in Asian sweets that contains no gelatin, made the 'boba' pliable enough to slurp through a straw.
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The earthy flavour and Jell-O-like texture also proved irresistible to customers. 'People came back the next week asking if we still had 'the big ones,'' said Nguyen, so she made them a permanent menu item.
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The classics stay on the menu too, with the (albeit smaller) pearls that have long defined bubble tea.
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Xing Fu Tang opened in Ottawa last July as a franchise, after Nguyen tried what she calls 'pure, authentic tapioca' from the chain during a visit to Taiwan and decided to bring the brand home.
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Her husband, Jack Vu, describes her as a foodie with a dream of running her own shop. In the early days, he saw bubble tea as more of a passion project, until opening day drew hundreds to a line that wrapped around the building. The reception made clear they had tapped into something bigger than a hobby.