Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
Speaker 1: there's Chuck and Jerry's here too, Dave's here and spirit
Speaker 1: Way to go, Dave, and this is short stuff.
Speaker 2: I think I said that's right, and hey, we want
Speaker 2: to wish Dave well he recovers from back surgery.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yep, he made it out on the other side,
Speaker 1: and we're very happy for him. That's why I said,
Speaker 1: way to go, Dave.
Speaker 2: That's right. I thought I didn't know if he wanted
Speaker 2: to leave it unsaid either way.
Speaker 1: I think Dave's happy with it, and he's like, you
Speaker 1: guys can keep talking about me the whole episode.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, where his nickname is Dave Boba TI, Well,
Speaker 2: I'm not going to say his last name because I
Speaker 2: don't want people to bother him. See, we just call
Speaker 2: him the boba t guy.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: I've never had boba t oh no no, and I
Speaker 2: need to sure.
Speaker 1: I think everybody needs to have it, at least once.
Speaker 1: I had it once. I decided immediately I didn't like it.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, I like everything about it except for the boba.
Speaker 1: That's what I do like. I don't like that the
Speaker 1: gelatinous gouey chewiness of it I'm not crazy for and
Speaker 1: I can totally see how somebody would go nuts for it,
Speaker 1: but I also see how somebody like me just is
Speaker 1: turned off by it immediately.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't want to try it as much because
Speaker 2: gelatinous is never a word I seek out for my mouth.
Speaker 1: So you can get boba tea without the boba, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure the purists will be like, shut up, you
Speaker 1: can't call it boba tea. You still can't. Everybody, settle down.
Speaker 1: You just asked for it without the boba, and you
Speaker 1: will love it. Chuck is very sweet and tasty, and
Speaker 1: there's all sorts of neat flavors that they can put
Speaker 1: into it, and it won't have gelatinous spears going down
Speaker 1: your gullet because you accidentally forgot to chew.
Speaker 2: They're gonna say, all right, we'll make you one, but
Speaker 2: you're not getting one of those big fat straws they do.
Speaker 1: They give you the big fat straw anyway, so you
Speaker 1: go through it really quick.
Speaker 2: All right, So we're talking about boba tea or bubble tea,
Speaker 2: and that is something that you know, I'm kind of
Speaker 2: a dummy the first time I say all that I
Speaker 2: was like, what in the world is going on in
Speaker 2: that cup? Because you know, you see what looks like
Speaker 2: a regular drink, but then you see all these little
Speaker 2: round pearls inside of a cup. And I didn't know
Speaker 2: what it was until I looked into it more back then,
Speaker 2: and now I know because of this that that is
Speaker 2: a Taiwanese tea and it is. There are a couple
Speaker 2: of different competing stories on how this came about, because
Speaker 2: there are two rival tea shops in Taiwan from the
Speaker 2: nineteen eighties that each say, no, my person is the
Speaker 2: one who did this first.
Speaker 1: Yeah, each one claims creation of Boba T initially. And
Speaker 1: what's weird is there the stories are separated by just
Speaker 1: a year. So the first one is Handling Tea Room
Speaker 1: in Tainan, Taiwan and their founder Two Sung Ho. The
Speaker 1: story goes that in nineteen eighty six, two found tepioca
Speaker 1: balls on sale at the market and said, I'm going
Speaker 1: to add these to my milk tea, like just had
Speaker 1: this thought, random thought, and from that Boba T was born,
Speaker 1: because basically Boba Ti is just tapioca balls added to
Speaker 1: milk tea.
Speaker 2: Right. The other story is remarkably similar. This is the
Speaker 2: tea house that is a rival of the other called
Speaker 2: Chun Shu Tang. I'm not sure if that's correct or not.
Speaker 2: I'm doing my best, and they said no. In nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty seven, we had a twenty year old woman working
Speaker 2: here named Lynn su Hu who had this tapioca pudding
Speaker 2: it's called Finnon in Taiwan, and she just dumped it
Speaker 2: in her tea and drank it, and that's where it started.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's weird is everybody separated themselves from miss Lynn
Speaker 1: immediately because they thought she was super weird. And yet
Speaker 1: she may have invented boba t.
Speaker 2: Right, So either way, we'll probably never know who's the
Speaker 2: actual first person the first tea shop. But it was
Speaker 2: a big hit in Taiwan. Eventually came over to the
Speaker 2: United States in the nineties, starting where else on the
Speaker 2: West Coast in California, mainly generally in Taiwanese communities at
Speaker 2: the time, and then you know kind of started becoming mainstream,
Speaker 2: and I feel like in the two thousands it really
Speaker 2: really broke out as like kind of the hot thing
Speaker 2: for hipsters to do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna say there's one hundred percent chance
Speaker 1: that it was proto emo kids who brought it out
Speaker 1: of the Taiwanese communities into American culture. Look at this, everybody,
Speaker 1: So the you can't really talk about boba ta unless
Speaker 1: you talk about milk tea, because that's kind of the
Speaker 1: basis of it, and boba t's really new from the eighties.
Speaker 1: Milk tea's not that old, considering how old Taiwan is.
Speaker 1: It was just in the nineteen forties that a bartender
Speaker 1: named Chang fan Chu got out of the bartending game
Speaker 1: but still could not get the cocktail shaker out of
Speaker 1: his hand and started mixing up teas handshaken milk teas
Speaker 1: that would kind of froth and have bubbles, so it
Speaker 1: became bubble tea milk tea, and that this went along
Speaker 1: for several decades. People went crazy for milk tea, and
Speaker 1: then eventually somebody thought, either to song Ho or Linceu Hui,
Speaker 1: thought to add tapioca pudding balls.
Speaker 2: That's right. So you've got milk, you've got the ice,
Speaker 2: you've got black tea, and you've got those tapioca pearls.
Speaker 2: There are all kinds of variations now, different kinds of tea,
Speaker 2: different kinds of milks, non milks, you know, things like
Speaker 2: you know, cashew milk and stuff like that, almond milk.
Speaker 2: And then if you go to one of these, you know,
Speaker 2: boba tea places in some large urban center, you're gonna
Speaker 2: have all kinds of fun and crazy variations and flavors
Speaker 2: and toppings and things like that.
Speaker 1: Yep. So I say, we take a break and we'll
Speaker 1: come back and tell everybody a little bit more about
Speaker 1: boba tea. So, Chuck, I feel like you should take
Speaker 1: the fact of the podcast. What boba means in the
Speaker 1: first place.
Speaker 2: Is it something to do with Dolly Parton?
Speaker 1: Kind of?
Speaker 2: Wasn't it about boobs?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Boba is Taiwanese slang for boob, So they're basically saying,
Speaker 1: this tea has a bunch of little boobs floating around
Speaker 1: in it.
Speaker 2: And that stuck.
Speaker 1: Still yeah, still, because most people don't know what boba means.
Speaker 2: I guess, so well, we should talk about those bobas.
Speaker 2: Which is the tapioca And I wasn't even sure. I mean,
Speaker 2: maybe I've had tapioca pudding, but it's a word I
Speaker 2: had heard, and I don't think I ever fully knew
Speaker 2: what even tapioca was, right, but tapioca or boba is tapioca.
Speaker 2: That's it's a starch apparently extracted from cassava root, but
Speaker 2: it can also be extracted from other things.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, so kassava rus from South America, but it
Speaker 1: grows really well in Asia to Southeast Asia, and in
Speaker 1: particular the maritime Southeast Asia Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore,
Speaker 1: and East Timor. Poor West Timor gets left out of everything.
Speaker 2: Is there a West Timor?
Speaker 1: I don't think so. Okay, I hope not now that
Speaker 1: I said that. But they were making these pearls, these
Speaker 1: tapioca pearls, not out of tapioca, but out of rice
Speaker 1: or palm hearts. But the point is you're using a starch.
Speaker 1: It's a ball of starch. Essentially. It's almost nutrient free,
Speaker 1: heavy in calories. But if you prepare them just right,
Speaker 1: when you add them to the bubble tea, if you
Speaker 1: like that consistency, you're in heaven. Because they're chewy, they're mushy,
Speaker 1: they're weird, and they're gelatinous.
Speaker 2: Chewy like compare to like a gummy bear or as
Speaker 2: they say in Germany, Goomi Bellin.
Speaker 1: Is it really what they call it in Germany. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: it's less chewy, but it's it's in a different way.
Speaker 2: Can you com bear to anything?
Speaker 1: Have you had bubble tea?
Speaker 2: You got me, because for about a half a beat,
Speaker 2: I was like, I don't think I have.
Speaker 1: I can't, I can't, I can't. Okay, okay, no, no,
Speaker 1: I can't imagine taking a ball of really sticky wet
Speaker 1: rice and mashing it until there's no space between the
Speaker 1: individual grains of rice and then chewing that. M Okay,
Speaker 1: that's the kind of the closest I can come up with.
Speaker 1: It's very starchy and sticky, and it can stick to
Speaker 1: your teeth a little bit. It's it's nothing good if
Speaker 1: you ask me. But again, I'm not. I'm not yucking
Speaker 1: anybody's jum. I don't care if you like it or not.
Speaker 1: It's fine, Yeah, it's it's just.
Speaker 2: Not for me, all right, Well, I just have to
Speaker 2: try it for myself. I guess if you're making tapioca
Speaker 2: pearls yourself, you buy them dry. Apparently you boil them
Speaker 2: for thirty minutes and then cool them for thirty minutes,
Speaker 2: And it sounds like to really get that disgusting consistency
Speaker 2: just right right that you hate. It's fairly specific, like
Speaker 2: if you boil them too long, it's going to be
Speaker 2: too squishy and maybe too sticky. And if you don't
Speaker 2: do it enough there you can't chew them. They're too hard.
Speaker 2: So it sounds like you gotta kind of hit that
Speaker 2: sweet spot.
Speaker 1: Yes, exactly, So there you can make your own boba
Speaker 1: t now, right, that's all it takes.
Speaker 2: I guess so. And then you know, you make your
Speaker 2: your shake up your drink, and then you add your
Speaker 2: tapioka pearls and you've got your own boba tea.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I think there's a Food and Wine article
Speaker 1: about bobat and they said that there's a word in
Speaker 1: Chinese for the perfect consistency of boba qq, like the
Speaker 1: letter que. The letter q it means chewy. So wow,
Speaker 1: we just came up with two Chinese slang words, Taiwanese
Speaker 1: and a Chinese slang word. And now you know what
Speaker 1: boba t is all about. And if you haven't tried it,
Speaker 1: go out and try it. It's definitely worth trying. It's
Speaker 1: not so disgusting that you're you're gonna just throw up
Speaker 1: or anything like that. Although they have come up with
Speaker 1: some that are really dancing right there on the edge. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the one that got me. It was mentioned in a
Speaker 1: Seattle Times post about Boba te that there's a salted
Speaker 1: cheese topping that essentially has the consistency of like a
Speaker 1: really flimsy cheesecake, but it's very salty. It's made from powdered.
Speaker 2: Cheese that sounds good to me on its own.
Speaker 1: On its own. Yes, this is floating on top of
Speaker 1: a very sweet, milky tea drink. That's a weird combo
Speaker 1: for me.
Speaker 2: That is a weird combo. I do like a milk
Speaker 2: in my hot tea, so like in my black tea
Speaker 2: or my breakfast tea. So you know, I could see
Speaker 2: me liking the tea for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah. If you ever go to one of these places
Speaker 1: and they have a tarro or a dirty torro, get that,
Speaker 1: just tell them to hold the boba or get two,
Speaker 1: get one without the bobas so you can enjoy that
Speaker 1: one and get one with the boba, so you can
Speaker 1: try it at least once.
Speaker 2: All right, I'll try it out.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, since Chuck said he's going to try it
Speaker 1: out everybody, I means short stuff is Stuff You Should
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