Boba-Boba

Windsor, Ontario - Prepare yourself for a story so sweet it'll leave you with cavities. The co-owners of Waku-Waku Tea House are engaged, and opened the store together in 2000 when they were students at the University of Windsor. They were dating at the time. (Wow, talk about commitment - I'd never be able to walk away from a guy who owned 50% of a boba joint.) Susie is from Malaysia, Edmund is from Hong Kong, and they're getting married in August 2008. "Waku-waku" means "excitement" in Japanese slang, and it looks like they have lots ahead of them!

That's Susie's head behind the counter. I opted not to take photos of her and Edmund, seeing that it might seem creepy I was so interested in their story.

BOBA BRIEFING
Name: Waku-Waku Tea House
Address: 1901 Wyandotte Street West, Windsor, Ontario N9B TJ6
Phone: (519) 977-5539
Date visited: Most recently, Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2007
Goes by: Bubble drinks
Price: $2.99-3.99 Canadian dollars. $0.50 extra for bubbles or jelly
Form: Black tea, green tea, milk black tea, milk green tea, coffee-flavored blizzard/hot, juicy blizzard, yogurt blizzard, green tea blizzard, milky blizzard, yogo drink*, fresh fruit blizzard**

*Yogo is like Yoplait, but blended with ice, and less sweet
**Blizzard is like a milkshake

Flavors:128. Jelly flavors: strawberry, grape, pineapple, passion fruit, coffee
Hot/cold: Both
Flavors tried: Black milk tea, coffee milky blizzard

Black milk tea


Coffee milky blizzard

Smiles: This is probably the best combination of tea and tapioca I’ve had...maybe ever. The milk tea isn’t too sweet, and has that classic sweetened tea flavor that brings back memories of drinking zhen zhu nai cha (literally translated: "pearls milk tea") while my mum shopped for produce and fish at Marina Food. Sigh. The tapioca is VERY well made – just chewy enough, and not too soft.
More reasons to smile:

• Wireless internet

Wi-fi, boba-style

• College towny hours:
• 6 p.m.-2 a.m. M-Th
• 6 p.m.-3 a.m. FSat
• 6 p.m.-12 a.m. Sunday
• You write down your order on a menu, where you can indicate size (S/L), hot or cold (H/C), bubbles or jelly (B/J), and quantity

Menu

• They play music, some Chinese, some American
• Young people hang out here. Some come from nearby high schools, some from the University of Windsor. Reminds me of Old Teahouse in Berkeley.
• The food looks promising. Noodle bowls, rice bowls, curries, dumplings, toast, ice cream and "Waku-Bing!" - red bean topped with shaved ice and ice cream with syrup

Scowls:

• With about two inches of tea left, I ran out of tapioca. This has NEVER happened before. If anything, I'll have leftover tapioca after I've finished all the tea. Ungodly.
• I couldn't get my wireless to work, so all that cute sign did was piss me off.
• When I said "boba," Susie said, "You mean 'bubbles?'" NO, I MEAN BOBA.
• I know the menu said "small," but the small is awfully small. On the bright side, I felt like a giant holding it.
• The place itself is kinda dingy. If I ever dragged coerced took you here, you'd probably think I was planning on beating you up and stealing your money. (I probably won't, though.) The outside is a little rundown. Inside, the tables and chairs look pretty flimsy, and I imagine they'd collapse if I drank one too many boba.
  

Most memorable bo-ment: Haha. This is embarrassing. The first time I came here, I thought they’d take American credit card, and it turns out they don’t. Cutting to the chase, I ran to the 7-11 a couple blocks away to find an ATM, and ran (and I do mean RAN) back to where my boba was waiting for me at the counter. Oops.

Overall rating: 9.5/10