A BQBA DETQUR

San Jose, Calif. - I didn't mean to have boba today.

Don’t worry – this is not an imposter who hacked into my account, pretending to be me. (Although if Boba Hacker really did log in as me, he certainly wouldn’t gain anyone’s trust by writing that I, Cat, didn’t mean to have boba.)

Anyways, I really didn’t mean to. But I was at the mall picking up an engagement card for one of my best childhood friends who just got engaged (Yay congrats! And Ellen, would you consider serving boba at your wedding?! If not, I might have to reconsider my participation…), and there was a Q-Cup on the way to Hallmark and…


A cup of Q-Cup! Heh heh heh! *Twittery laughter*

…well, you can figure out the rest. If you can’t, well, maybe you should just stop reading and go to a bar.

There are many issues to address in this post.

• Some background info about the name, Q-Cup. I can only assume (though we all know that makes a you-know-what out of U and ME) that the “Q” refers to “QQ,” which is one of the many synonyms for tapioca pearls. Incidentally, QQ is also the name of a popular instant messaging service in China, not unlike MSN. My point is: props for the cute – albeit obvious, in a hit-me-over-the-head kind of way – play on words, Q-Cup.

• Apparently there is some legal controversy over Q-Cup’s franchising. Then again, my source is Wikipedia, which means I could be reading lies written by a precocious nine-year-old who has access to Daddy’s laptop.
  

• I guess there were really only two issues. Sometimes I just get a little excited.

Pros, cons, and other basic info about Q-Cup:

Pros:

• Their standard black milk tea isn't bad. Reminiscent of Quickly, it's on the sugary side. I tasted a subtle hint of coffee flavor, which should NOT have been there, but I like coffee so I have an unfair predilection for coffee-flavored tea (a weird concept, if you think about it).
  
• The pearls are pleasantly chewy.

Cons:

• The Q-Cup I went to (it's a chain, with another location in Cupertino) was right next to a children's indoor playground at a mall. Now if you know me but at ALL, you know that screaming kids are far from my cup of tea. Tea! Ha! Yeah, I don't really like kids running circles around my knees when all I want to do is sit down, do a crossword puzzle and drink/chew my boba in peace, g'dammit. A visual of why this is not okay:

Notice the proximity of small children to boba. Meh.

• Secondly, $3.50 is definitely on the pricier end for boba, especially since it was $3.50 for just regular boba, not even a slush or fancy boba that comes with, I don't know, flowers or a Dwight Schrute bobblehead or something.

One of these days, I'll bring Boba Briefing back (click here for an example) faster than Justin brought...you know...other stuff back.