Around the World in 80 Plates: Tea and coffee from Taiwan and Norway

This is an installment of the Inlander's yearlong project "Around the World in 80 Plates," a quest to find 80 foods and drinks in the Spokane area representing 80 different places. Read the introduction to the project here.

Count of dishes/places: 45

IT'S HOT. Spokane has been flirting with triple digits for a week now, and my weather app is saying we'll stay in the 90s for at least the next week. I don't have AC in my apartment, so I've been relying on ceiling fans and a strict hydration schedule to stay as cool as possible.

A perk? Exploring some of the more fun things to drink around Spokane. I usually just stick to straight H2O, but I've made the heat wave an excuse to "replenish my electrolytes" and treat myself to some zhuzhed up sips.

Turns out, people around the world have invented some pretty fun things to drink, and now those drinks are in Spokane. Here are two that have kept me hydrated — and caffeinated — during these sweaty summer days.

BOBA TEA FROM TAICHUNG OR TAINAN, TAIWAN

When I think about different cuisines, I usually think about different flavors. It wasn't until I lived in Asia that I started distinguishing cuisines by textures.

Squishy tapioca pearls, also called "boba" or "bubbles," have been a fixture in Taiwan for centuries. Taiwanese cuisine often features chewiness in both savory and sweet dishes, whether it be crunchy pig ears or bouncy mochi cakes.

There's no doubting that boba tea is a Taiwanese invention, but there are two tea shops competing for its origin story.  According to National Geographic, Chun Shui Tang in Taichung and Hanlin Tea Room in Tainan both claim to have invented it first.

While the details are somewhat different, the overall gist is the same: The tea shops were trying to create a new, special kind of tea, so they added boba, which was sometimes served as a snack or dessert, to add more texture to an otherwise simple drink.

Regardless of who invented it, boba tea is definitely a unique drink in the tea world. Chewing tapioca pearls between sips of tea can be confusing to the uninitiated. It takes some coordination, too, to make sure you don't suck too much through the straw and slam a pearl straight on the back of your throat.

But at its best, boba tea satisfies cravings for something sweet and something substantial. The pearls give your mouth something to do while you hydrate — and they slow you down a little bit so you can enjoy the drink a bit longer.

Whatever the reason, boba tea has exploded in the U.S. in recent years. Spokane alone has at least eight boba shops that guests continually gush over.

For my own hydration quest, I got a mango green tea boba from Tea's Company in River Park Square Mall. It was cold and sweet and crisp, and it also had little chunks of mango in addition to the chewy boba for extra bursts of flavor.

If I weren't already in the mall, I could've stopped into Revival Tea's new Phoenix Cafe, or Taichi Bubble Tea right next to the Inlander office. If I felt like going for a drive, I could've checked out Uoni Bubble Tea in the University District, Black Straw Tea Bar and Kitchen in Spokane Valley, Poke Express and Boba Tea Time on the South Hill, BocoPop in Liberty Lake, or Boba Bubble in NorthTown Mall.

That's a lot of boba stops for a midsize American city.

But maybe I get the hype. For someone trying to drink lots of liquids every day, this change in textures was an unexpected relief. So thank you, Taiwan, for knowing what I needed before I did.

ESPRESSO TONIC FROM OSLO, NORWAY

Is coffee hydrating? Popular thinking says no. WebMD says yes. I say yes because I want there to be a reason it's OK that I drink more coffee than water on a normal weekday. I also want there to be a reason I can keep going back to the Phoenix Cafe on these really hot days for their espresso tonic.

The Phoenix Cafe is the rebranded cafe in the downtown Spokane Revival Tea storefront, above their cool basement tasting room. The cafe has coffee, food and boba tea, but also an import from Scandinavia that I've rarely, if ever, seen elsewhere in Spokane.

According to an interview with online magazine European Coffee Trip, Charles Nystrand and Anne Lunell were working in Oslo, Norway, a few months before opening Koppi Roasters, their new coffee bar and roastery in Helsingborg, Sweden. After a staff party, a coworker mixed some leftover tonic water with a shot of espresso and a little simple syrup — an unlikely combination that turned out to be delicious and ingenius.

As Lunell and Nystrand finalized Koppi's menu in 2007, they included Kaffe&Tonic. It took the world by storm in the 2010s, but seems to have been forgotten since then.

A classic coffee and tonic includes a couple shots of espresso, tonic water, ice, some simple syrup, and an orange or lemon peel for added aromatics. The espresso tonic at Revival adds white chocolate and vanilla, plus is served with a dried orange wheel on top.

If nothing else, this combo tastes ridiculously refreshing and therefore feels hydrating. The tonic water gives the bitter coffee a bit of sparkle, and the vanilla and orange notes bring out the espresso's best notes. I would absolutely drink this every morning if my daily food budget included $7 coffee.

I don't understand how this fell out of fashion. It's simple and uses what every coffee shop already has, but in a combination that feels new and fresh. I'm grateful to this tea company for not only reviving me, but reviving this coffee classic for a whole new audience. ♦

Have an idea for what I should eat next? Wanna make me a traditional dish or contemporary creation from your hometown? Send 80 Plates tips and ideas to [email protected].