<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards . The specific problem is: the article seems ripped straight from a box or website . Please help improve this article if you can . (November 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards . The specific problem is: the article seems ripped straight from a box or website . Please help improve this article if you can . (November 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> Tapioca balls are a product that comes from tapioca, a starch which is in turn extracted from the cassava root . They are also known as boba (a transliteration of the word "bubble") or "pearls" in bubble tea . Some boba are five - to - ten - millimeter starch balls, consisting of sweet potato powder, potato powder, or jelly . By adding different ingredients--water, sugar and seasoning--tapioca balls can be made to vary in color and in texture . Tapioca balls are typically neutral in flavor and gel easily, and are therefore often used as a thickening agent in foods like pudding . </P> <P> 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 a word for bubble and a word for big, which, when found together, is slang for "big breasts" or "buxom lady ." When used to describe the drink, the characters 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 . </P>

What are the tapioca balls in bubble tea
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