LAS VEGAS, Nev. (CONSUMER REPORTS) - Maybe you’ve seen those colorful cups with oversized straws, filled with a sweet drink and chewy little pearls. Bubble tea, or boba, has become a favorite, especially with young people.

But new safety tests from Consumer Reports show the popular drink may come with a hidden serious concern: lead.

Once a niche Taiwanese treat, bubble tea is now widely available and growing in popularity. And the star of the show: those tapioca boba pearls, made from cassava. Cassava’s a root vegetable known to absorb lead and other heavy metals from soil. And because of that, we wanted to see how much lead and other heavy metals these drinks and pearls might contain.

Consumer Reports tested pearls from two major chains — Gong Cha and Kung Fu Tea — along with packaged

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