7-Eleven makes a push into the ready-to-drink bubble tea market; Uni-President: the chewy pearls all use modified starch
500 7-Eleven stores simultaneously began selling bubble milk tea, joining the bubble tea battlefield. Featuring the "Freshly Extracted Pearl Series," advertised as using "no added coloring" "white jade pearls," store clerks only need to take the packaged pearl tapioca from low-temperature storage, open it, and directly brew it with hot tea of the designated flavor; after stirring, adding milk, and ice, consumers can drink it immediately.
Why can 7-Eleven's pearl tapioca, after being made, transported, and stored at low temperature, still maintain a bouncy Q texture with "just add water and drink"? President Chain Store public relations stated, "Our tapioca is actually just ordinary pearl tapioca, made the same way with tapioca starch, modified starch, and sugar; we just emphasize no added coloring."
Pearls are starch; two tablespoons contain about 100 kcal; milk tea is high in calories
Senior dietitian Lin Ya-en explains that the calorie source of ordinary sugary drinks is simply "sugar," but the calorie sources of bubble milk tea, besides sugar, also include milk, non-dairy creamer, and pearls. "Milk's main components are protein and fat, while non-dairy creamer is made entirely from oil (cream)." 1 gram of sugar produces 4 kcal, but 1 gram of oil produces 9 kcal; this is why milk tea has many more calories than ordinary sugary drinks.
Besides sugar and milk, how many calories are in the "pearl tapioca" essential to bubble milk tea? Lin Ya-en says that at hand-shaken drink shops, you often see clerks scoop one or two tablespoons of pearl tapioca into the cup, and generally, two tablespoons of tapioca contain about 80-100 kcal. "Although tapioca itself is in the same calorie category as rice, belonging to starch and carbohydrates, adding tapioca to a drink adds those calories on top." She reminds the public that if you want to lose weight, or if you have diabetes, you should pay attention to portion size to avoid taking in too much sugar and too many calories.