Some parts of Europe adopted it at different times, and curiously, it doesn't seem to be correlated with expat Asian population. I first tried 珍珠奶茶 at the top

Some parts of Europe adopted it at different times, and curiously, it doesn't seem to be correlated with expat Asian population. I first tried 珍珠奶茶 at the top of Taipei 101 in 2009, and have always sought it out since. It was a thing in Daegu when I lived there in 2012. In Austria, I was surprised to see McDonalds having bubble tea in mid-2012! It was the popping-bubbles though, not tapioca. I discovered new flavours (e.g. Yakult) in Shenzhen in 2013, and drank it daily in Taiwan from 2014-2018. (not always milk, I'd mix it up with passion fruit, pineapple, grapefruit, whatever else). My favourite way to explore was to ask for "yi yang" - the same as the person before. My favourite was actually NuPasta, then Coco, then Xian Cha Dao, then 50 lan. There was one place where it only cost 30 NTD, but one time I got it without sugar and realised it tasted awful, so after that I realised I should pay 50-70 NTD for slightly better quality. Unfortunately the Gong Cha and Chatime in Auckland don't accept my loyalty cards from Taiwan :-P