(From DCist contributor Angela Gaw)

Now that we’re smack dab in the middle of the holiday season, people always seem to fill their time with more errands, more work, more last-minute shopping, and, in other words, more ways to avoid what this season’s really about: kicking back and chowing down. In the true spirit of the holidays, we have a suggestion for a little treat you can find at many area malls that can give you a bit of a respite from your last minute rushing about: bubble tea, an ice-cold (or sometimes hot) treat that’s sweeping the nation. Originating in Taiwan and popular across Southeast Asia, bubble tea’s first American appearance was on the West Coast, traveled over to New York, and now makes its home in several locations in D.C. and Maryland. Bubble tea also goes by many names: pearl tea, milk tea, and boba tea, which literally means “dominatrix of breasts” in Cantonese. This name may also be responsible for the floating rumor that bubble tea does what hundreds of chest exercises fail to do.