A chocolate chip cookie is a sweet baked treat, a combination of butter flavor with chocolate chips. The original recipe was created in the 1930s by Ruth Wakefield who ran the Toll House restaurant in Whitman, Massachusetts. Ruth likes to travel overseas as well as learn and try new things. One the way home from one of her trips, Ruth thought maybe she could use chocolate in a different way rather than just melt it. Recalling what she had learned from the college on cooking about how food works together, she did some chocolate experiments: Ruth used an ice pick to chop the chocolate bars into tiny pieces and added the bits to cookie dough, naming it the Chocolate Crunch Cookie and serving it in the restaurant. It was a big hit! Every customer in her restaurant loved them so much, and people wrote to Ruth for the recipe. The recipe became so popular that in 1939 Ruth sold the rights to use her recipe and the Toll House name to Nestle. Reading this story makes me think of my favorite sweet treat: the Bubble Milk Tea. I wonder how bubble milk tea was invented? Why is it important to learn about how food was invented? Why do people like to have some sweet treat?
Bubble milk tea is my best-loved sweet treat and it is extremely tasty and unique because of its texture and flavor. Bubble milk tea, also known as pearl milk tea or boba milk tea, is a tea-based drink and originated in Taiwan in the early 1980s. This sweet invention is credited to Liu Han-Chieh and Lin Hsiu Hui, the owner and the product development manager of a Taiwanese tea store called Chun Shui Tang (春水堂). It was 1988, to be exact, when Liu and Lin worked together to experiment a new tea drink. They decided to mix cold milk with iced tea, combining tapioca pearls, a typical Taiwanese dessert, into the mixture. The result was a delightful combination of texture and flavor. Bubble Milk Tea then becomes a huge hit and gains popularity throughout Taiwan, the other parts of Asia, and even the rest of the world. According to 2021 Fortune Business Insights, currently the Bubble Milk Tea is valued at a massive $2.17 and it is predicted to keep growing.
Learning about how food was invented could bring people some insights, benefits, and inspirations. First of all, people get to learn the cultural background of the food. Some tea stores would display videos on the big TV screen from the wall to have customers understand tea history in Taiwan and provide people with cultural insights about Taiwan. Secondly, people could be inspired to create some new food. Once individuals who are also bubble milk tea lovers know how it was invented, they might be inspired to think outside of the box and come up with their own innovative drink ideas. Thirdly, people get to think about how food evolves. Previously, tapioca pearls, or known as feng yuan (粉圓) are only used for pudding, one Taiwanese dessert. Learning about the invention of bubble milk tea helps people see the evolution of tapioca pearls, highlighting how simple experiments can lead to a new way of using tapioca pearls to develop popular drinks. Last but not least, people get to reflect on what they eat or drink. While having bubble milk tea is such a pleasant feeling, people might begin to think about its ingredients, its cooking techniques, or the impact of the drink on our body and emotions.
Several reasons could explain why people like to have some sweet treats, including enjoyment, comfort, and memory. Without question, the taste of sweetness can trigger the feelings of happiness and satisfaction. The article of Sweet Makes You Happy says “We naturally associate sweet treats with positivity, such as joy. Even when we’re not celebrating anything, eating sweet treats release those feel-good dopamine brain chemicals that bring us a moment of happiness.” Additionally, eating sweet treats could comfort sadness, stress, and anxiety, providing temporary relief and uplift in mood. Researchers at the University of California Davis found that sugar inhibited stress in healthy female participants, minimizing feelings of anxiety and tension. Moreover, sweet treats could bring people back to cherished memories, relating to happy times or celebrations with family members or certain events. Whenever I drink bubble milk tea, it will take me back to the very first time of trying this drink. I still remember it was summer and my grandparents bought bubble milk tea for each family member and we sat down to happily chat with so much laughter!
Sweet treats always hold a special place in a person’s stomach. Tasting the sweet treats could bring people joyful feelings, making people want to experience that good feeling again and again. Sweet treats offer a way to connect to valuable memories while it is also releasing “feel good” hormones that can boost your sad mood. Sweet treats, like bubble milk tea, to some degrees, are a surprising invention. Understanding the origins of sweet inventions could have people appreciate its cultural background. Knowing the story behind sweet inventions could encourage people’s creative thinking, inspiring them for more food ideas. Realizing the creation of sweets makes people see that even a simple experiment could lead to the development of a new beloved food or drink.
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