Pop Goes The Boba: Here’s Where To Get Your Bubble Tea Fix In Malta (And Pet A Real Cute Bunny)
Bubble tea – or Boba – is a tea-based drink, served cold, that originated in Taiwan. It’s a refreshing beverage that excites the mouth in more ways than one.
A sweet tea, sometimes with milk, that can be flavoured with literally anything and then you get chewy tapioca balls resting at the bottom just waiting to be sipped up and popped. Boba is one of those drinks that makes your Instagram look infinitely better thanks to its quirky aesthetic.
Malta did get a little taste of Boba back in 2012, but the store seemed to vanish as fast as it appeared and ever since then we’ve been perched at the edge of our seats just waiting for the drink to return to our shores.
The day has finally come and we think pigs might have just taken to the sky.
Any avid tea-drinker will take to Boba like a duck to water, and we’re pleased to announce that you can finally get your fill in Gżira!
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GOG Bubble Tea opened up shop last month and it needs to be on your hit list if you’re ever in Gżira
The shop floor is fully air-conditioned and they’ve got a PlayStation 4 in the back for customers to make use of while visiting.
The place isn’t just serving tea to punters though. In fact, they’ve got a full menu of bao buns (a steamed bread from China) that are sure to fill you up – just as they do with their fillings. It’s also one of the few places in Malta to offer bubble waffles.
If you love your chais, infusions, milk-blends or layered drinks, you’ll be in for s surprise.
When you take a sip from a cup of Boba, the viscid balls at the bottom are the pièce de résistance – depending on how fast you drink your tea you’ll either get the balls one by one and savour them or you’ll end up looking like a hamster with a full cheek pouch.
They even have a fully functional bar for the more boozy drinkers among us.
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Taking inspiration from Russian Boba drinkers, who add vodka to their fruit tea blends, they are able to mix in your favourite spirit to any of their available flavours and you’re even able to go wild with your choice of bubbles – they’ve got a pick’n’mix set up of tropical flavoured bubbles just waiting for you to pop. These aren’t the typical chewy tapioca balls you’ll get in your milk blends. These are next-level beads of cold, sweet, juices that send your mouth into a frenzy of delicious delirium.
However you choose to enjoy your bubbly brew, you’re sure to find a flavour that tickles your fancy.
Think iced tea but fruity. Or herby. Or milky. Or all three at the same time. The opportunities are endless when it comes to Boba as you can literally make the base out of anything and because it has ‘brewed’ you can call it tea.
GOG is not the only place to grab a cup of balls.
There’s also a small restaurant in Sliema’s Plaza shopping centre that has been open since March this year and they also serve up a whole menu of Asian cuisine. If you want to snack on some crispy duck and get your chew on while drinking a mango-flavoured cold brew then this is the place to be. Rumour has it they’ll also be opening a second shop up in Valletta’s is-Suq tal-Belt food market.
But we really need to let you in on the secret of GOG…
They legit have a bunny just casually hopping around the place.
The store is run by a married couple Chloe and BJ who fell in love with Malta over the past few years and decided to haul their lives over here to bring this fantastic drink-cum-chewy-snack to Malta – finally.
Chloe’s pet rabbit sometimes stops by the shop to help out with the punters, and it is everything we never knew we needed.