Alicia Wagner Calzada | 210sa Contributor

Tea with milk and tapioca balls? It may not sound appetizing at first.

But bubble tea (also known as pearl tea or boba tea) has been an international trend for more than 20 years, and it's slowly gaining a following in San Antonio.

“It's a different experience,” said Alex Alcorta, owner of Bobalicious Internet Café, which offers about 50 flavors of the drink.

That's because you drink the creamy beverage with a fat straw to suck up the chewy tapioca pearls hanging out at the bottom of the cup.

“It's fun to drink,” said Urban Pradipasena, co-owner of Bubblehead tea shop. “It's half drink, half dessert.”

Bubble tea originated in Taiwan. While it's usually made with black or green tea shaken or blended with ice and milk, some drinks are juice-based and come in a smoothie or slushy form. It can be flavored with fruit chunks or with powder.

At Bobalicious, students from St. Mary's University, UTSA and the UT Health Science Center drink (and eat) the boba drinks while Web surfing or studying.

At Asian-food restaurants, customers often order bubble tea as dessert. At Bubblehead, which opened three and a half months ago in Southtown, customers can smoke hookahs or view the rotating art exhibits while sampling the concoctions.

“People around this area generally haven't heard of bubble tea, and they've taken pretty well to it,” Bubblehead's Pradipasena said. “Give it a try. You can always ask for it without pearls.”

Jessica Belasco | 210SA contributor