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Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

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Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#71

Post by ip26 »

philliphaydon wrote: post #65

I don’t understand where “boba” comes from. Because I live in Singapore, my wife is Taiwanese, so I travel to Taiwan a lot, no one calls it boba... I keep seeing American or European articles say boba. Even in this article it says boba known in Chinese... but I’ve never heard anyone in Asia call it boba... in English it’s always called “bubble milk tea” or “brown/black sugar bubble milk tea”, depending on what you wa…

Perhaps it came out of the Chinatown SF area. I recall Asian Americans calling it ‘boba’ 20 years ago in the Bay Area.

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#72

Post by dilap »

amelius wrote: post #55
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…

Smoking and socializing seem to go together, though. At least, that's how it appeared to me at a distance from observing other high-schoolers.

Bumming a cigarette is how my mom met my dad.

I also used to smoke, and it really was, on the one hand, a great way to meet people, and on the other, to maintain casual friendships w/ the people who happened to be around you (e.g., people working in the building next door).

Still, not worth it on balance. But I miss it.

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#73

Post by Jack000 »

I find it kind of funny that milk tea is tied to Asian identity. afaik for traditional Chinese adding milk to tea is a faux pas kind of like adding Coke to wine. I think the modern practice of adding milk to tea started with the British, who imported it via Hong Kong. The Taiwanese then added tapioca + sugar which became bubble tea.

There are traditional milk teas in other countries though, like India and Mongolia. The Mongolian version is salty instead of sweet.

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#74

Post by eat_veggies »

Reason077 wrote: post #39
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...

I wish CUPP had been around when I lived in Whitechapel! I used to have to walk all the way up Mile End for the Yi Fang stand (and sip it in the park!), or go to the shops in Shoreditch during work

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#75

Post by legulere »

Jack000 wrote: post #73

I find it kind of funny that milk tea is tied to Asian identity. afaik for traditional Chinese adding milk to tea is a faux pas kind of like adding Coke to wine. I think the modern practice of adding milk to tea started with the British, who imported it via Hong Kong. The Taiwanese then added tapioca + sugar which became bubble tea. There are traditional milk teas in other countries though, like India and Mongolia. T…

I don’t know why you see Indians drinking tea with milk more traditional than British doing that, considering that British brought tea to India.

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#76

Post by reincarnate0x14 »

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…

My Taiwanese friend insists that "boba" wordplay was popularized and faded along with the career of the Hong Kong actress 葉子楣 and her famously large pearls in the late 80s/early 90s. 珍珠奶茶 seems to more popular with younger people at least walking around Taipei, so it might be related to whether it was introduced via Hong Kong or Singapore versus Taiwan.

Japan is doing bizarre things like ramen and pizza with it now.

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#77

Post by zoomablemind »

philliphaydon wrote: post #65

I don’t understand where “boba” comes from. Because I live in Singapore, my wife is Taiwanese, so I travel to Taiwan a lot, no one calls it boba... I keep seeing American or European articles say boba. Even in this article it says boba known in Chinese... but I’ve never heard anyone in Asia call it boba... in English it’s always called “bubble milk tea” or “brown/black sugar bubble milk tea”, depending on what you wa…

In my mind it has always been named simply 'milk tea'.

As opposed to 'Thai tea', which is a milk tea too, just the flavor and color are kinda specific. Besides, Thai tea in most places is really a 'Thai iced tea', I gave up on asking if it could be served hot (which it could, and tastes good too).

Meanwhile, the milk tea in most shops I've been can be served hot or iced on demand. Moreover, the kind of tea used can also be selected.

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#78

Post by nyolfen »

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…

> Why is it that I subconsciously tried hard to prove myself to classmates that I'm an American, but on the other hand, I tried to be as "Asian" as my Asian-American classmates?

shared identity is the strongest substrate of trust; we are constantly evaluating each other for aligned incentives. imo the more granular the better -- think about the joy of stumbling upon someone else who shares your hometown or some deep passion of yours, or a potential romantic partner with many shared interests. when we share a common foundation, we can more easily model each other and project likely behavior, which lends itself to cooperation, or at least a diminished risk of defection.

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#79

Post by seanmcdirmid »

fermentation wrote: post #15

I’m a big fan of bubble tea and I have noticed that across many bubble tea shops in the western US, while a fairly large 16oz serving has been standardized, there’s little standardization on sugar content. A lot of places ask if I want it half or 25% as sweet, but that’s not a great indication of sugar level or flavor unless I’ve already had tea from that place before. Given that I think most folks can expect a cup o…

You can go no sugar on the drink and there will still be sweetness from the milk and the pearls, I think it actually tastes better that way, the added sugar isn’t needed.

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#80

Post by frankosaurus »

fermentation wrote: post #15

I’m a big fan of bubble tea and I have noticed that across many bubble tea shops in the western US, while a fairly large 16oz serving has been standardized, there’s little standardization on sugar content. A lot of places ask if I want it half or 25% as sweet, but that’s not a great indication of sugar level or flavor unless I’ve already had tea from that place before. Given that I think most folks can expect a cup o…

Gong Cha lets you can specify the sugar amount from 0-100.

Of course, even with 0 sugar, the tapioca balls are simple carbs that break down to sugar readily in your body.

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