Now you can taste Taiwan’s famous bubble tea in Guatemala too. Even President Ma Ying-jeou who is in the country on his Central America trip tasted the special drink on Monday for the very first time outside Taiwan.
While there, Ma ordered a lychee flavored bubble green tea at a shop started by Karla Paniagua.
Paniagua was in Singapore four years ago when he saw people drinking the concoction by sucking tapioca balls through thick straws. He fell in love with the drink and decided to open a store and sell the drink in his home country.
In order to learn about the drink, Paniagua came to Taiwan and took training classes. He imported all the ingredients from Taiwan and opened his first shop in 2012. He plans to open more shops and expand throughout Central America. Paniagua’s shop also offers other drinks with tapioca balls but flavored with Taiwan-grown fruit such as passion fruit, pineapples and lychees.