The New York Times has recognized that it did not discover bubble tea

That boba in your tea? It's been there for a while.
 By 
Chloe Bryan
 on 
The New York Times has recognized that it did not discover bubble tea
Who is she? Credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

That boba in your tea? It's, uh, been there for a while.

The New York Times issued a revision Thursday after publishing a bizarre article Wednesday about bubble tea called "Those Blobs In Your Tea? They're Supposed To Be There." The article itself wasn't much better, implying that boba -- a popular beverage stateside for years -- has finally hit it big in the United States. (The headline was changed several times before the follow-up was published, and the story heavily edited.)

As many people have mentioned on Twitter, the original article also insensitively used words like "exotic" and "curious" to describe the Taiwanese drink, creating the impression that it was inherently strange or alien.

"In retrospect, we wish we had approached the topic differently (if at all)," business editor Ellen Pollack wrote in the follow-up. "There may be a story in the expansion of bubble tea businesses in the United States, but there is no denying the drink has been around for quite a while."

Weirdly enough, the Times has acknowledged bubble tea's ubiquity in the past. Last December, its dining section published a piece called "Bubble Tea? So 2002. A Sampling of Food Trend Predictions."

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Chloe Bryan

Chloe was the shopping editor at Mashable. She was also previously a culture reporter. You can follow her on Twitter at @chloebryan.

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