Proposal for New RGI Bubble Tea Emoji Submitted by

This proposal requests the addition of an emoji to represent CUP OF BUBBLE TEA, also known as PEARL MILK TEA or BOBA. Bubble tea is a popular drink that is both visually distinct and significant enough that it has a whole class of retail establishments specifically devoted to selling it worldwide. We propose this emoji as a ZWJ of the 🍵 (Teacup Without Handle), 🥛 (Glass of Milk), and ⚫ code points (Medium Black Circle). Introduction Bubble tea — also known as boba or pearl milk tea — was introduced in Taiwan over three decades ago. Its original formulation was a mixture of hot black tea, small tapioca pearls, and sweeteners. Many variations developed in the following years, with most being cold rather than hot drinks. In addition, the small tapioca pearls have evolved into larger balls that required the use of the distinctive wide straws. 1 Design credit: Yiying Lu 1 The “boba” and “pearls” referenced are the sticky, chewy tapioca balls — a product actually derived from South American cassava root and brought to Taiwan by the Portuguese. 2 A common misconception is that the tapioca pearls are the “bubbles.” In fact, bubble tea can have many types of add-ins such as agar-based fruit jellies, pudding, or as is recently popular, salted cheese. The titular “bubbles” are actually from the milk froth when the drink is shaken to mix the ingredients. Bubble tea is one of the few beverages — like beer and coffee — that have been elevated to the point of having entire line of small businesses dedicated to it. Identification CLDR short name: “bubble tea” CLDR keywords: “​pearl milk tea,” “bubble milk tea,” “boba tea,” “milk tea,” “boba” Code Points: ​🍵 (U+1F375) + ZWJ (U+200D) + 🥛 (U+1F95B) + ZWJ (U+200D) + ⚫(U+26AB) Name Origin In Taiwan, it is more common for people to refer to bubble tea as pearl milk tea (zhēn zhū nǎi chá, 珍珠奶茶) because originally small 1/12” tapioca pearls were used. It was only when one tea shop owner—in an attempt to make his tea stand out—decided to use larger tapioca balls and chose a more provocative name, “boba,” to represent the difference. In Chinese, the word boba, 波霸, is a combination of the character of “波” (pronunciation: bō) and the character “霸” (pronunciation: bà). It is a Cantonese slang, for “big breasts,” “buxom lady,” a more literal translation could be “dominatrix of breasts,” connoting the image of a busty woman. The word “波” in Mandarin Chinese means wave or surge, and in Cantonese slang can have the extended meaning of bubble or ball. Whereas the word “霸” in Mandarin Chinese can mean an overlord or a dominating person, which, when found together, When used to describe the drink, the characters (bō bà nǎi chá, 波霸奶茶) directly translate to boba milk tea, and loosely to bubble milk tea. This translation is commonly used by English speakers and refers to the variant with 1/4" tapioca pearls. 2 http://www.laweekly.com/restaurants/how-boba-became-an-integral-part-of-asian-american-culture-in-losangeles-7819797 2