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Short Stuff: Boba Tea · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck and Jerry's here too, Dave's here and spirit
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Way to go, Dave, and this is short stuff.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: I think I said that's right, and hey, we want
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: to wish Dave well he recovers from back surgery.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yep, he made it out on the other side,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: and we're very happy for him. That's why I said,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: way to go, Dave.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: That's right. I thought I didn't know if he wanted
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: to leave it unsaid either way.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: I think Dave's happy with it, and he's like, you
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: guys can keep talking about me the whole episode.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: All right, Well, where his nickname is Dave Boba TI, Well,
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to say his last name because I
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: don't want people to bother him. See, we just call
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: him the boba t guy.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: I've never had boba t oh no no, and I
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: need to sure.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: I think everybody needs to have it, at least once.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: I had it once. I decided immediately I didn't like it.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Oh okay, I like everything about it except for the boba.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: That's what I do like. I don't like that the
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: gelatinous gouey chewiness of it I'm not crazy for and
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: I can totally see how somebody would go nuts for it,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: but I also see how somebody like me just is
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: turned off by it immediately.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Well, I don't want to try it as much because
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: gelatinous is never a word I seek out for my mouth.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: So you can get boba tea without the boba, and
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: I'm sure the purists will be like, shut up, you
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: can't call it boba tea. You still can't. Everybody, settle down.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: You just asked for it without the boba, and you
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: will love it. Chuck is very sweet and tasty, and
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: there's all sorts of neat flavors that they can put
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: into it, and it won't have gelatinous spears going down
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: your gullet because you accidentally forgot to chew.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: They're gonna say, all right, we'll make you one, but
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: you're not getting one of those big fat straws they do.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: They give you the big fat straw anyway, so you
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: go through it really quick.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: All right, So we're talking about boba tea or bubble tea,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: and that is something that you know, I'm kind of
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: a dummy the first time I say all that I
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: was like, what in the world is going on in
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: that cup? Because you know, you see what looks like
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: a regular drink, but then you see all these little
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: round pearls inside of a cup. And I didn't know
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: what it was until I looked into it more back then,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: and now I know because of this that that is
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: a Taiwanese tea and it is. There are a couple
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: of different competing stories on how this came about, because
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: there are two rival tea shops in Taiwan from the
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: nineteen eighties that each say, no, my person is the
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: one who did this first.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, each one claims creation of Boba T initially. And
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: what's weird is there the stories are separated by just
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: a year. So the first one is Handling Tea Room
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: in Tainan, Taiwan and their founder Two Sung Ho. The
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: story goes that in nineteen eighty six, two found tepioca
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: balls on sale at the market and said, I'm going
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: to add these to my milk tea, like just had
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: this thought, random thought, and from that Boba T was born,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: because basically Boba Ti is just tapioca balls added to
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: milk tea.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Right. The other story is remarkably similar. This is the
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: tea house that is a rival of the other called
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Chun Shu Tang. I'm not sure if that's correct or not.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: I'm doing my best, and they said no. In nineteen
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: eighty seven, we had a twenty year old woman working
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: here named Lynn su Hu who had this tapioca pudding
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: it's called Finnon in Taiwan, and she just dumped it
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: in her tea and drank it, and that's where it started.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what's weird is everybody separated themselves from miss Lynn
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: immediately because they thought she was super weird. And yet
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: she may have invented boba t.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: Right, So either way, we'll probably never know who's the
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: actual first person the first tea shop. But it was
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: a big hit in Taiwan. Eventually came over to the
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: United States in the nineties, starting where else on the
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: West Coast in California, mainly generally in Taiwanese communities at
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: the time, and then you know kind of started becoming mainstream,
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: and I feel like in the two thousands it really
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: really broke out as like kind of the hot thing
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: for hipsters to do.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna say there's one hundred percent chance
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: that it was proto emo kids who brought it out
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: of the Taiwanese communities into American culture. Look at this, everybody,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: So the you can't really talk about boba ta unless
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: you talk about milk tea, because that's kind of the
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: basis of it, and boba t's really new from the eighties.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Milk tea's not that old, considering how old Taiwan is.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: It was just in the nineteen forties that a bartender
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: named Chang fan Chu got out of the bartending game
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: but still could not get the cocktail shaker out of
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: his hand and started mixing up teas handshaken milk teas
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: that would kind of froth and have bubbles, so it
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: became bubble tea milk tea, and that this went along
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: for several decades. People went crazy for milk tea, and
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: then eventually somebody thought, either to song Ho or Linceu Hui,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: thought to add tapioca pudding balls.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: That's right. So you've got milk, you've got the ice,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: you've got black tea, and you've got those tapioca pearls.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: There are all kinds of variations now, different kinds of tea,
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: different kinds of milks, non milks, you know, things like
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: you know, cashew milk and stuff like that, almond milk.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: And then if you go to one of these, you know,
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: boba tea places in some large urban center, you're gonna
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: have all kinds of fun and crazy variations and flavors
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: and toppings and things like that.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Yep. So I say, we take a break and we'll
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: come back and tell everybody a little bit more about
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: boba tea. So, Chuck, I feel like you should take
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: the fact of the podcast. What boba means in the
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: first place.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Is it something to do with Dolly Parton?
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Kind of?
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: Wasn't it about boobs?
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Boba is Taiwanese slang for boob, So they're basically saying,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: this tea has a bunch of little boobs floating around
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: in it.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: And that stuck.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Still yeah, still, because most people don't know what boba means.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: I guess, so well, we should talk about those bobas.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Which is the tapioca And I wasn't even sure. I mean,
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: maybe I've had tapioca pudding, but it's a word I
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: had heard, and I don't think I ever fully knew
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: what even tapioca was, right, but tapioca or boba is tapioca.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: That's it's a starch apparently extracted from cassava root, but
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: it can also be extracted from other things.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, so kassava rus from South America, but it
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: grows really well in Asia to Southeast Asia, and in
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: particular the maritime Southeast Asia Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: and East Timor. Poor West Timor gets left out of everything.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Is there a West Timor?
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: I don't think so. Okay, I hope not now that
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: I said that. But they were making these pearls, these
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: tapioca pearls, not out of tapioca, but out of rice
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: or palm hearts. But the point is you're using a starch.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: It's a ball of starch. Essentially. It's almost nutrient free,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: heavy in calories. But if you prepare them just right,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: when you add them to the bubble tea, if you
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: like that consistency, you're in heaven. Because they're chewy, they're mushy,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: they're weird, and they're gelatinous.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Chewy like compare to like a gummy bear or as
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: they say in Germany, Goomi Bellin.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Is it really what they call it in Germany. Yeah, okay,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: it's less chewy, but it's it's in a different way.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: Can you com bear to anything?
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Have you had bubble tea?
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: You got me, because for about a half a beat,
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: I was like, I don't think I have.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: I can't, I can't, I can't. Okay, okay, no, no,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: I can't imagine taking a ball of really sticky wet
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: rice and mashing it until there's no space between the
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: individual grains of rice and then chewing that. M Okay,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: that's the kind of the closest I can come up with.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: It's very starchy and sticky, and it can stick to
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: your teeth a little bit. It's it's nothing good if
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: you ask me. But again, I'm not. I'm not yucking
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: anybody's jum. I don't care if you like it or not.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: It's fine, Yeah, it's it's just.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Not for me, all right, Well, I just have to
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: try it for myself. I guess if you're making tapioca
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: pearls yourself, you buy them dry. Apparently you boil them
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: for thirty minutes and then cool them for thirty minutes,
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: And it sounds like to really get that disgusting consistency
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: just right right that you hate. It's fairly specific, like
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: if you boil them too long, it's going to be
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: too squishy and maybe too sticky. And if you don't
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: do it enough there you can't chew them. They're too hard.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: So it sounds like you gotta kind of hit that
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: sweet spot.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: Yes, exactly, So there you can make your own boba
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: t now, right, that's all it takes.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: I guess so. And then you know, you make your
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: your shake up your drink, and then you add your
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: tapioka pearls and you've got your own boba tea.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And I think there's a Food and Wine article
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: about bobat and they said that there's a word in
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Chinese for the perfect consistency of boba qq, like the
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: letter que. The letter q it means chewy. So wow,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: we just came up with two Chinese slang words, Taiwanese
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: and a Chinese slang word. And now you know what
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: boba t is all about. And if you haven't tried it,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: go out and try it. It's definitely worth trying. It's
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: not so disgusting that you're you're gonna just throw up
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: or anything like that. Although they have come up with
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: some that are really dancing right there on the edge. Yeah,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: the one that got me. It was mentioned in a
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Seattle Times post about Boba te that there's a salted
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: cheese topping that essentially has the consistency of like a
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: really flimsy cheesecake, but it's very salty. It's made from powdered.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Cheese that sounds good to me on its own.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: On its own. Yes, this is floating on top of
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: a very sweet, milky tea drink. That's a weird combo
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: for me.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: That is a weird combo. I do like a milk
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: in my hot tea, so like in my black tea
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: or my breakfast tea. So you know, I could see
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: me liking the tea for sure.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah. If you ever go to one of these places
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: and they have a tarro or a dirty torro, get that,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: just tell them to hold the boba or get two,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: get one without the bobas so you can enjoy that
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: one and get one with the boba, so you can
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: try it at least once.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: All right, I'll try it out.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Okay, Well, since Chuck said he's going to try it
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: out everybody, I means short stuff is Stuff You Should
• 11:28
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• 11:30
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• 11:34
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