Bubble Island Smoothies

Bubble Island.  This is where I went for my birthday with the kids and one of their friends.  This is a bubble smoothie.

I seriously thought the "bubbles" were like mini Knox Blocks Jello pieces but in doing a bit of research (and hearing it from my curious sister who had to look it up), it's actually tapioca.  Motocross Boy/Man is holding up his smoothie which was banana with rainbow "bubbles".  They look square to me and I thought tapioca was round - they call it tapioca pearls after all, don't they?  Or maybe what they use in the smoothies is different.  But it all started from something called "bubble tea" or "boba tea" in Taiwan.  The original was a "milk tea" with the boba or "bubbles".  The Taiwan part might explain why we were the only 4 caucasians in a shop filled with Asian kids.  (I kinda liked that.  I'm quite sure it was the first time any of the three of them have ever been somewhere where they were the distinct minority!  Of course as homeschoolers we had to use that as a learning opportunity to discuss how it might feel to be a minority almost all the time.)  Either way - having a "Peppermint Bark" tea for my birthday was a good thing!!