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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Will Tapioca Pearl Tea Conquer Starbucks?
n 30 years a single Starbucks cafe in Seattle's Pike Place Market has spawned 4,700 attitude-packed locations worldwide. Its secret? Taking the Italian espresso bar and fitting it to American values by upsizing cups and downsizing chichi. How successful has that been? Starbucks has replaced McDonalds as the bladder break of choice for discriminating panhandlers and savvy cabbies.
A more evolved brew?
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But no sooner had cultural pundits and standup comics retooled their schticks for an Italian-roast future when from the mysterious east (Taiwan, to be exact) emerged an unlikely challenger.
Some call it tapioca pearl tea. Others call it bubble tea, or even boba (mama's breast) tea. The "pearl", "bubble" and "boba" refer to tapioca starch balls typically the size of the plumpest, most expensive salmon roe you've ever seen. They are usually the shade and translucence of beluga caviar but also come in an array of rainbow colors -- or are even colorless. They settle several layers deep at the bottom of an ice-cold cup of sweetened milk tea -- or any flavored beverage from lychee or mimosa to coconut. They are served in clear plastic cups with a fat 1/2-inch-diameter straw. The moment of truth is when the first sip rolls up the straw and you feel, along with the beverage, one or more pearls invading your mouth. It's an alien sensation -- and that's half the fun. The other half is chewing them while swallowing the drink.
Since 1999 cafes selling pearl tea have been mushrooming in every major Asian population center in the U.S. on the heels of hundreds of bubble tea parlors that have opened in Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia and China. The explosion of boba shops has made the Starbucks growth seem downright sober. Boba tea was first concocted around 1988 by a Taipei street vendor for sale to a local clientele of grade-school kids. The kids loved it. So did their elders. By the early 90s the craze had swept the island and spilled over into Southeast Asia. In about the time it took for Starbucks to open its 17th location, tapioca pearl tea became the beverage of choice for tens of millions in a dozen Pacific Rim nations. And their enthusiasm is very very catching.
The sheer fun of sipping a visually and sensually oddball beverage is an important part of it, but other factors may explain its legs. Tea is healthier than coffee, and milk tea is far healthier than the rich concoctions served up by Starbucks and similar establishments. Even the tapioca bubbles are a healthful component made from cassava roots which actually supply modest but significant amounts of iron and calcium. Some even consider tapioca a promoter of regular bowel movements.
Is boba tea destined to wean the world of its coffee addiction? Or is it just another crazy teen fad?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:53:47 PM)
I think that it will take a lot of work to bring boba tea into mainstream American cutlure. Whenever I try to get my white friends to drink it, they get all freaked out by the balls on the bottom because they don't know what they are. Additionally, I have to warn them about the tapioca balls because if I don't, they're suprised by the balls and start choking. I know it sounds stupid but I've been there many times when tapioca balls have been chockingly spat out of unsuspecting mouths. Plus, a lot of people view sipping coffee as sophisticating (the whole I'm going to go to college and debate philosophy while sipping coffee thing) and for some reason, I just don't think that drinking boba tea will replace coffee in that respect. Even if white teenagers get on the badwagon, boba tea is too teeny-bopper for most white adults.
baybee510
Wednesday, April 17, 2002 at 16:41:31 (PDT)
getting thirsty reading all this:
It depends upon what flavors you get. Over at Suzhi Tea House, the fruit flavored ones (i.e Strawberry, Blueberry and Raspberry Milk bubble) do taste sort of sweet, like a smoothie or a shake. The coffee versions are sweet, but not as sweet as a Starbuck's Frappucino. The tea flavors (i.e. Jasmine, Green, Bo) are much less sweet.
I personally like the chewy texture of the Tapioca pearls in the bottom. The big straws make them easier to consume--yummy!!!
Hank Lewis
Wednesday, April 17, 2002 at 10:58:16 (PDT)
Bubble tea is very popular here in the DC area. My family also likes to go to NYC and have it there, where our favorite bubble tea cafe is. People of all races drink it here in the DC area. It is becoming well known as it was featured on CNN last year also.
To God of Asia, I agree that hopefully they will stay with the same yummy formula and not change it, but there are better ways of saying that then saying "catering to whitey". As my Filipino friend said to me when reading that line...."How would it sound if you wrote somthing about not wanting to "catering to chinky?". And we agreed, it would sound equally ugly and racist, just as your words were.
Hannybunbun
Wednesday, April 17, 2002 at 05:37:53 (PDT)
Starbucks to bubble tea is not a fair comparison.
Starbucks is just one brand name selling a product that has been around forever, and just repackaged it. They are one of hundreds of gourmet coffee sellers.
Bubble tea, on the other hand, is a newer, non established drink, with no major single company backing it. They are pretty much all mom and pop shops. The only ones I think of with more than a few shops are Fantasia and Sweetheart.
TSJ
Eric@KristinKreuk.net
Wednesday, April 17, 2002 at 00:19:29 (PDT)
toi san jai,
lol! my friends and i do the same thing. down in houston the most popular one is Star Snow Ice.
Mr. Hann
Tuesday, April 16, 2002 at 21:27:32 (PDT)
Is bubble tea very sweet? I don't like drinks that are too sweet. In fact, I usually avoid soft drinks and colas.
getting thirsty reading all this
Tuesday, April 16, 2002 at 20:58:32 (PDT)
God of Asia,
Sorry dude, but there are still more white people then Asian people in this country. Guess what that means? Yes, you still have to cater to whitey!!!!
It's only practical!
Tuesday, April 16, 2002 at 19:52:46 (PDT)
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