A mix of hot Taiwanese dark tea, custard pearls, consolidated milk and syrup or honey framed the earliest known bubble tea drink. Today, chilly servings of air pocket tea are generally run of the mill. The starch of cassava, a tropical plant popular for its boring roots and imported to Taiwan from South America during Japanese provincial rule, was initially used to make the custard pearls that give bubble tea its particular flavor. These were momentarily supplanted by bigger pearls.