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Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

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Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#31

Post by chongli »

yocheckitdawg wrote: post #14
deanclatworthy wrote: post #9

Bubble tea is bizarre. I only recently stumbled upon it on a trip to Bankgkok after a local said "let's get something to drink". I fell in love with it immediately. It's something that has not yet fully permeated Northern Europe, and Helsinki (where I live) has (or had..) one or two places to get it from (pre-pandemic).

You should come to Melbourne CBD in Australia. I can only assume they are being used as fronts to launder money or as a business investment to secure residency as there seems to be no possible way even a city of Melbourne's size could consume this much bubble tea. It's almost at the point where there are bubble tea sellers directly next to each other in the street. And I'm talking dozens, if not hundreds, of them.

It's almost at the point where there are bubble tea sellers directly next to each other in the street

That’s an example of Hotelling’s law [1]. Competing businesses are better off clustering together in high traffic areas rather than spreading out to cover the market in a way that serves customers more efficiently. It’s a weird phenomenon and a clear refutation of the invisible hand.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotelling%27s_law

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#32

Post by Moru »

kibibyte wrote: post #12

How did "boba" become the de facto term for the drink? I remember calling it "pearl milk tea" in middle school, somehow switching over to "bubble tea" in late high school to college, and now calling it "boba". And I don't think I heard of the slang meaning until much later. Aside from that, as I am a first generation (native-born) Chinese-American, this article discusses my identity scarily well from an angle that I…

About cultural identity: It's not only a rich blend of cultures in China, I'm sure there are just as many mixes that we don't think about in the American part of Chinese-American that don't really fit you. After changing home location, there is always this feeling of where do I belong now? Am I a Swede or a German? Well neither, Germany has moved along since you emigrated, and you are now trying to catch up with Sweden.

Same thing with south and north Sweden, there are places I can't even understand what they are saying. This on a small place like Sweden, can't imagine the differences you have in America and China.

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#33

Post by ewokone »

Reading the 'in the realm of hungry ghosts' from Gabor Mate I learned that is not the substance itself but 3 major circumstances which trigger addiction in the human: powerlessness, isolation and stress. These key factors bring up behaviour patterns for addiction. Let it be sugar, sex, Screentime, drugs, food, sport, buying things, etc.... Really helped me to reflect on my patterns and I also learned about the difference between passion and addiction.

My 50 cents here.

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#34

Post by 3np »

ewokone wrote: post #33

Reading the 'in the realm of hungry ghosts' from Gabor Mate I learned that is not the substance itself but 3 major circumstances which trigger addiction in the human: powerlessness, isolation and stress. These key factors bring up behaviour patterns for addiction. Let it be sugar, sex, Screentime, drugs, food, sport, buying things, etc.... Really helped me to reflect on my patterns and I also learned about the differ…

That really hit close to home, thanks.

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#35

Post by KMag »

ehnto wrote: post #7

I once went to a Bubble Tea place, and not knowing how the process worked, I said no to all of the additions, and ended up with nothing but chocolate milk and a big straw.

On the flip side, my buddy and I got hooked on bubble tea in school. A year after graduation, we rented a house along with my buddy's brother and my buddy's elementary school buddy. We were always drinking bubble tea from a kiosk in a mall within walking distance, so the brother one day decides to see what the fuss is about. He mentioned "Hey, I tried that bubble tea you guys are always drinking. It's pretty good, except for the chunks."

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#36

Post by JCharante »

There's nothing better after a 14 hour flight to Incheon than to finish going past security, up the escalator, and immediately into the Gong Cha on the left. Well, going outside into Seoul instead of just transiting there would probably be better.

I like how the author used bubble tea as a backdrop to bring up a bunch of different topics. I find representation to be interesting (well, when they mentioned Crazy Rich Asians), because while I do care about having a proportionate amount of people from central and south america* in decision making roles, I've never cared about it in Hollywood. Maybe this means that it's already been achieved here.

Maybe equal representation in Hollywood can be spun as a conspiracy to create complacency, because it distracts people from how most genetic studies that use public dollars disproportionately use white participants which does not proportionately benefit the participants of the countries that are funding it.

On the other hand, when I was studying abroad in East Asia I loved seeing a foreigner having a speaking role in a movie. Had I previously been decensitized to representation? Was I taking representation for granted?

*and from other backgrounds of course

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#37

Post by toastal »

In last year's politics and online social movements boba has been the mascot of "Milk Tea Alliance" between Thailand, Taiwan, and Hong Kong in support of democracy and combating Chinese nationalist bots/trolls online after a Thai actor called Hong Kong a 'country', ประเทศไต้หวัน, in a tweet.

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#38

Post by hong_kong »

toastal wrote: post #37

In last year's politics and online social movements boba has been the mascot of "Milk Tea Alliance" between Thailand, Taiwan, and Hong Kong in support of democracy and combating Chinese nationalist bots/trolls online after a Thai actor called Hong Kong a 'country', ประเทศไต้หวัน, in a tweet.

Actually each of Thailand, Taiwan, and Hong Kong have their own distinctive milk tea, only one of which (TW) is bubble tea.

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#39

Post by Reason077 »

deanclatworthy wrote: post #9

Bubble tea is bizarre. I only recently stumbled upon it on a trip to Bankgkok after a local said "let's get something to drink". I fell in love with it immediately. It's something that has not yet fully permeated Northern Europe, and Helsinki (where I live) has (or had..) one or two places to get it from (pre-pandemic).

Bubble tea shops have become pretty ubiquitous in London in recent years. There must be hundreds of them across the city! There's one ('CUPP') opened up around the corner from me recently and there always seems to be a long queue outside in the evening, both regular customers and deliveroo riders picking up orders...
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