Woman is rushed to urgent care after drinking boba tea pearls: ‘Y’all this was a mistake’
Fans of bubble tea are freaking out after a woman took to TikTok to warn viewers about her scary tapioca pearl experience — and the footage is going viral.
TikTok user Amanda (@amandarin0ranges) gained over 558,000 views, 39,000 likes, 800 saves and 300 comments when she uploaded footage from the emergency room after drinking a cup of boba pearls — something she’s advising other TikTokers not to do.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a food PSA go viral on TikTok. Recently, a woman claimed raw chia seeds were “growing” inside of her, causing extreme digestive issues — a warning that gained over 5.4 million views.
However, Amanda’s PSA has some people wondering: Can boba tea pearls actually be dangerous for one’s health?
Amanda’s boba tea journey began on June 3, when she filmed herself drinking a large cup of boba tea pearls.
As Amanda later explained in a comment, she works at a tea shop where employees receive two free drinks per shift. After working three days in a row, she consumed “a ton of boba,” including an entire large cup of pearls she brought home.
It wasn’t long before Amanda’s boba tea overconsumption caught up with her. One day after posting that video, she filmed herself in the emergency room with the caption, “Don’t drink too much boba.”
In a follow-up video, Amanda explained that she didn’t want to waste the boba pearls and didn’t know what else to do with them, so she decided to drink them — a decision she ended up sorely regretting.
“Don’t do stupid things like me. … It wasn’t good for my body,” she says in the video. “Boba isn’t bad. It’s just all about quantity.”
However, Amanda’s video has some viewers wondering: How much boba tea is too much?
What are boba pearls made of?
Boba pearls, also called bubble tea pearls or tapioca pearls, are made from tapioca starch, an extract of the South American cassava plant.
According to Eater, “Tapioca pearls start white, hard and rather tasteless and then are boiled inside huge, bubbling vats and steeped in sugary caramelized syrup for hours until eventually, they’re transformed into those black, springy tapioca pearls we’ve come to know and slurp.”
Those syrupy tapioca pearls are then mixed into a variety of beverages, such as milk tea, iced tea or fruit juice.
Are you supposed to chew boba pearls or swallow them whole?
After watching Amanda’s videos, many TikTok viewers wondered about the proper way to consume boba pearls. “ARE YALL NOT CHEWING THEM???” one concerned viewer (@official.ms.apollo) commented.
According to BubbleBase, you should always chew the pearls before swallowing them. “Whole pearls … can take longer for your stomach to digest,” it wrote.
“Whilst it likely won’t matter if you accidentally swallow a few pearls whole, it’s best to sip your bubble tea slowly in order to give yourself adequate time to properly chew the pearls in your bubble tea.”
Is bubble tea bad for you?
According to Health.com, an additive sometimes used in tapioca pearls, called guar gum, can cause constipation.
“Guar gum is a fiber that helps hold the balls together. The fiber expands when it comes in contact with water. … When consumed in high amounts, and with insufficient water, it can lead to constipation,” said the website.
Guar gum isn’t the only ingredient in bubble tea that could lead to health complications. According to The Healthy, boba pearls are nothing but little balls of starchy carbs — “and not the nutritious, fiber-rich kinds found in whole grains, either.”
Cooking the balls only worsens their nutritional profile. As the tapioca balls are cooked, more sugar is added to the mix, which could lead to nearly 160 calories per one-fourth cup serving.
“Thanks to all those processed ingredients, the average 16-ounce bubble tea is usually about 400 calories,” said The Healthy.
Thus, experts recommend enjoying the bubbly beverage in moderation — and certainly not eating it in large quantities like Amanda.
“… worst three days of pain EVER …”
While many TikTokers were shocked by Amanda’s bubble tea scare, others took to the comments to share their own painful boba tea experiences.
“When I worked at a boba shop I would bring the leftover cooked tapioca pearls home and eat them all at once and I got the WORST stomach aches,” wrote @kaitlynrayne.
“Straight up same thing happened to me a year ago. 10 day stay in the hospital 💀” commentede @skylerreese.
“this happened to me once and it wasn’t even a lot it was the worst three days of pain EVER,” wrote @cayleerei.
Who knew such a delightfully bubbly treat could pack such a wallop to one’s digestive system?
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