Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict • Hacker News Board

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#91

Post by aksss » Sun, Jan 31, 2021, 5:56 PM UTC

legulere wrote: post #75

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.

A guy I know in India once remarked that, say what you will about the British but one good thing they brought was milk in tea.

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#92

Post by redisman » Sun, Jan 31, 2021, 6:04 PM UTC

legulere wrote: post #75

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.

Same reason Italians love tomatoes and Thais love chili peppers I guess. Non-native ingredients seem to sometimes have a much greater influence in the new place than it’s original one

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#93

Post by ronyclau » Sun, Jan 31, 2021, 6:27 PM UTC

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…

One of the origin story of the term links to a once-popular Hong Kong actress Amy Yip[1], who was known for her cup size and sexy appearances in movies. The "nickname" 波霸, roughly translated to "Boobs overlord" in English, or transliterated to "Boba" (sounds similar in both Cantonese and Mandarin), was given to her by the media.

It was said that one bubble tea maker in Taiwan made large tapioca bubbles to put in milk tea, when tiny bubbles were used in milk tea at the time, and he named it "Boba tea", associating the relatively huge size of his bubbles with the actress well-known body feature.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Yip

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#94

Post by JCharante » Sun, Jan 31, 2021, 6:30 PM UTC

JCharante wrote: post #36

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 A…

Spotted a typo:

does not proportionately benefit the *people* of the countries that are funding it

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#95

Post by sudosteph » Sun, Jan 31, 2021, 6:33 PM UTC

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…

I'm from North Carolina, and even though sweet (iced) tea is the norm here (literally every restaurant serves it) - I've never seen any kind of standardization attempted for that either, and it does vary wildly. When I'm at at a fast-food restaurant, I can usually pour myself a little to try first, and then mix in some unsweet tea if it's overly sweet. If it's undersweetened, then I usually just toss it and get a soda. It really would be nice if you could do something similar with boba tea, but I understand that the way it's made doesn't facilitate that.

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#96

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Jan 31, 2021, 6:34 PM UTC

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…

[deleted]

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#97

Post by spike021 » Sun, Jan 31, 2021, 6:56 PM UTC

derwiki wrote: post #70

spike021 wrote: post #19

I love boba and have since my Asian friends in high school introduced it to me years ago. Granted, nowadays when I order "boba" (and say I'm ordering boba) I'm just referring to the tea by itself without the pearls/bubbles/boba. I mostly do this to cut down on sugar, since boba itself just has way too much. Though occasionally when I really am in the mood and I know the shop I'm at makes great boba, I do order it wit…

There’s also a Ten Ren on Grant in SF Chinatown. I still have a punch card..

Whoa, never knew this! Well, here's hoping COVID finally ends and I make my way back to my office, which is nearby. Then I can check out this location.

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#98

Post by zamfi » Sun, Jan 31, 2021, 8:42 PM UTC

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.

Perhaps those who suffer from isolation find solace in both cigarettes and the socializing that occurs with their use?

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#99

Post by Deivuh » Sun, Jan 31, 2021, 9:02 PM UTC

thih9 wrote: post #42

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…

Interesting to see sport on the list, I never thought about it this way. If anyone else is interested: https://aeon.co/ideas/how-people-with-sports-addiction-are-l...

Makes sense, back a few years ago I was so into weightlifting that I would spend around two hours at the gym. And whenever I had to skip or move my workout from my schedule because of an early meeting or an errand I would be very irritable for the rest of the day.

Re: Chronicles of a Bubble Tea Addict

#100

Post by hnick » Mon, Feb 01, 2021, 12:12 AM UTC

michaelscott wrote: post #67

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…

Had a Taiwanese friend who ran a bubble tea store and also always referred to the bubbles added as pearls. He only changed it when he realised that his predominantly non-Asian market didn't know what "adding pearls to your tea" meant.

I've also seen bubbles and pearls here in AU, but never boba. e.g. https://sharetea.com.au/bubble-tea-menu/