Taiwan Maami brings authentic bubble tea to Chennai

Taiwan Maami at Palladium Mall, Velachery offers authentic bubble tea with unique flavors and customizable sugar levels.

“I am the mami and my husband, who is from Chennai is the mama,” says Theresa Hu, a Taiwanese national who is now settled in the UK, laughing, when I ask her about her cheekily named bubble tea cafe, Taiwan Maami.

At Palladium Mall in Velachery, we are welcomed into the cafe by a bright, cheery sign, aesthetic wallpaper, and bustling baristas. There are paintings on the walls, one of which has a bustling marketplace at Jiufen, a little town in Taipei which Theresa says is a spot famed for the origin of bubble tea.

“In the early 1980s, people in Taiwan began drinking bubble tea. A lot of people assume the boba, or tapioca pearls in the tea is what ‘bubble’ refers to. Boba actually was a much later addition, and bubble tea got its name from the bubbles on top which were a result of using a cocktail shaker to mix the tea and syrups or sugar,” she says.

Having grown up drinking bubble tea back in Taiwan, Theresa says she slowly saw the love for it grow across the world during her time in the UK. Soon enough, she knew she had to bring her favourite beverage to Chennai.

Green Tea, Oolong Tea, and Black Tea, all organically grown in the Nilgiris, and tapioca pearls from Taiwan are the base on which Taiwan Maami’s menu has been conceived — one that has been designed keeping with bubble tea variants that are currently trending and popular among tea drinkers in Taiwan, and other parts of the world. “The dairy products are fresh, and we do not use any artificial colours,” Theresa says.

The creme caramel oolong milk tea we start off with, comes with a generous layer of cream at the bottom. The black and oolong teas on the menu are all milk based and come in a range of flavours, which include the classic Taiwan milk teas which Theresa says are immensely popular among her regular Taiwanese customers. There is also an English cream tea latte, tiramisu latte, basundi milk oolong, and a moringa chocolate oolong latte on the menu — all the flavours conceived by them, with the syrups and other ingredients made in-house.

We decide to be adventurous, and try the Black Forest black tea latte. Cherry sauce, cake sauce, shaved chocolate, tea, and boba come together in this dessert inspired tea, where the sharp cherry sauce taste does not quite blend in with the drink. Our next drink however, is an immensely refreshing virgin mojito green tea. Green tea might be an acquired taste for many, but for fans of the beverage, this cold twist on the drink with boba is a sure palate pleaser. Taiwan Maami also has an extensive ice slush menu, a great pick for the weather in Chennai and we try the pink guava one, with boba added of course, which perfectly compliments the fruity flavours and crushed ice.