Throughout the past half of my life, moving from one US state to another, and growing up from elementary, to middle, to, finally, high school, boba drinks have been a steady constant in my life.
I sipped my first perfect sip of boba tea eons ago, when I was a mere clueless child in the fourth grade. My parents had thought my sister and I deserved a small treat to lift our spirits during the pandemic era, and so they had us try what quickly became our new favorite drink-- ever.
Although many may dismiss taro boba tea as "basic" and "boring," it was the very first boba flavor I tasted, and has remained my preference ever since, undefeated even after the litany of other flavors I've now sampled. I don't just taste sweetness and cream when I drink taro tea; I taste the nostalgia of the bygone days of childhood innocence, of the excitement of experimenting with new things and foods, of clowning around with my sister while we both had nothing to do but play. Although in the present day my sister will soon be off to college and I am now a high school student with heavier and more precarious responsibilities, taro boba tea has the reality-defying power to bring me-- if only for a moment-- back in time.