Bobalicious

District of Boba

2011-06-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

Rockville, MD - I've officially lived in DC for eight days, seven of which I spent thinking about Chinese food. Today, I finally did something about it and hopped on the red line to suburbia to check out A&J. Here's what happened:

Got asked if I work at Whole Foods. (No. -1.)
Found good, cheap authentic Chinese food within a 15-mile radius of my apartment. (YES. +10.)
Found acceptable boba. (Eh, it wasn't awful. +5.)
Serendipitously passed a Petco on the way back to the metro. Because Petcos are hard to come by the city, this also gets +10. The kitty Patty gets a new scratching post while we wait for her old one to make its way from a moving truck in LA. Patty might give this +45.

Back to the boba. To be clear, the boba at A&J definitely doesn't make my Top 3 best boba of all time list (which, btw, I still stand by, three years later). But it's decent, reasonably priced at $2.55 and the tapioca is prepared with some degree of expertise. I give it a C+ overall.

And as an added bonus, no one wants to sit by the girl on the metro who's clutching a scratching post with one hand and a cup of boba with the other. Personal space is priceless. + infinity.

I lost track of the math, but to sum it up, it was a positive day. I kind of like DC. Well, let's not get carried away. DC is all right. Could be worse.

100% bomb

2011-01-10T23:30:00.000-08:00

Rowland Heights - Until recently, Half & Half was like an urban legend - much talked about, yet never reviewed by the self-anointed Boba Queen. I remedied this a couple weekends ago while showing a college buddy around LA. And let me tell you, Half & Half is as good as they say. Their specialty, iced milk with honey boba, is a twist on standard milk tea and it is BOMB. Frothy and pleasantly sweet.

But I'm not going to lie. The best part about it was the cup. It's shorter and stouter than most boba cups. Kind of like the Danny DeVito of boba.

B boba

2010-04-27T23:20:00.000-07:00

Los Feliz, Los Angeles - For months, I've relied on my go-to boba provider, Ten Ren in Chinatown, anytime I was too lazy to drive to San Gabriel Valley (where all the really good stuff is). But, as I've learned recently, it's always good to have a back-up plan. Especially one that's closer to your house.

Enter China Express on Hillhurst and Franklin. I've generally avoided this place because (1) It's called China Express, and (2) The words "China Express" are written in that stupid font everyone uses to signify that something is Asian.

But their boba is surprisingly decent, especially for being in a neighborhood that's not known for having Asian things. The milk tea is a solid B, though a bit on the sweet side. But considering I used to spoon up condensed milk as a kid, I didn't mind. And when I say "kid," I mean last week.

Almond blechhhhhhhh

2009-10-07T17:38:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles - At the behest of a co-worker who, like me, is not normally fond of almond milk tea, I braved the 5 p.m. downtown traffic, only to get some concoction that falls somewhere between diluted almond extract (barf) and almond tofu i.e. xingren doufu (yum, but not in liquid form. In liquid form, it's barf.). My, that was a long sentence.

I don't know why I thought it'd be okay. I actually don't like almonds at all.

Judgy wudgy was a bear

2009-08-31T11:22:00.001-07:00

Santa Monica - I'll admit that I pre-judged Urth Caffe boba before I tried it. Mostly because I'm highly skeptical of things that claim to be earthy and organic, and things that have attracted a celebrity following because they claim to be earthy and organic.

But the mango boba was not repulsive. It doesn't come close to making my list of Top North America Boba (TNAB), but it was a hair above average. Maybe a B-.

Incidentally, TNAB is topped by:
1. Verde (Mountain View, Calif.)
2. Guppy Teahouse (Cerritos and Rowland Heights, both Calif.)
3. Waku-Waku Tea House (Windsor, Ontario. The reason I had to call this list "Top North American Boba" and not just "Top U.S. Boba.")

I tried Guppy over 4th of July but was so exhausted from sitting on my ass watching fireworks - a very taxing activity - that I forgot to blog about it afterward. So I'm now recruiting interested parties who'd like to come with me to Rowland Heights or Cerritos for Guppy Round 2.

Volcanic fail

2009-08-18T14:51:00.000-07:00

Westwood - The idea of drinking milk with tapioca makes me want to puke. Milk tea should taste like tea with milk (weird, I know), not MILK....milk. Someone pass that message along to Volcano Tea, which should consider renaming itself Volcano.

Catch-up

2009-06-09T13:23:00.001-07:00

A lot has happened since I last blogged, but my commitment to boba has remained unwavering. A couple highlights of my nearly two-month-long absence:

1. Blogspot is so 2000 and late. How do I make Bobalicious Twitter-compatible? I don't think I can get it all down in 140 characters...

2. Cafe Spot in Alhambra reminded me how delightful coconut milk boba really is. I used to get this all the time in Shanghai, at this place between campus and our dorm. Spot Cafe's version certainly doesn't disappoint, but is a thicker, frothier version than what I was expecting. Nonetheless, a solid effort. Another perk: it's served in a jar with a handle, which seems odd but is actually quite amusing. It makes you feel like a kid again, drinking out of receptacles that were never meant to be put in your mouth.

Boba in bulk

2009-04-15T17:34:00.000-07:00

The advantages of buying boba for numerous co-workers:

1. Filling up your free boba card in one transaction

2. It's good practice for the boba delivery service I'm gonna start if journalism doesn't work out. And if my genius idea for a plush igloo company falls through, too. In other words, get ready to place your orders. I'll write them down in what used to be my reporter's notebook. FML.

BOBAma

2009-04-15T17:32:00.000-07:00

Mini boba

2009-03-25T16:29:00.001-07:00

Sucks.

My new thing

2009-01-27T22:46:00.000-08:00

Alhambra - I really like mango. And I really like boba. So you'd think that I would drink mango tea w/ boba all the time, right? Fail. I have this thing where I'll only drink tea or milk tea w/ boba, because how would I be able to compare boba places if I don't have a consant by which to compare them?

But that has all changed. Call it renegade, but my last two boba experiences have been with mango tea so delicious that as a result, I've revised my boba-reviewing methods. So watch out world, I'm tackling flavors now!

FYI, the aforemented killer mango bobas were at TenRen in downtown LA (on Broadway), and Tea Station in Alhambra (on Main). If you like obscenely sweet mango-flavored tea, you'll love it! Promise. We did:

Braving the drizzly weather for boba goodness

Boba at work

2009-01-14T14:25:00.000-08:00

Los Angeles - For the record, I would never bobablog at work. Off the record, I'm doing it right now, and it's awesome.

I'd like to take this opportunity to revise my previous assertion that Little Tokyo is a boba-less hole. In fact, Senka Cafe in Weller Court serves some quality milk tea with boba. They don't have a lot of flavors though, which is fine by me since I stick to standard milk tea so as to have a fair point of comparison from place to place.

It was so good, in fact, that a co-worker summed up its goodness by saying, simply: "Mmmm. I. Want. More."

Me too, Giggles. Me too.

What: Senka Cafe

Where: 123 Astronaut E S Onizuka St. #103, downtown Los Angeles 90012 (Little Tokyo)
Price: $2.90 for milk tea w/ boba

Memorable bo-ment: The guy behind the counter had a tattoo of Chinese characters on his arm, and when I asked him what it meant, he muttered something about prison. I ended the conversation right about then.

Update: It should be noted that the ratio of tea:tapioca leaves much to be desired. We all ran out of balls when there was still a lot of tea left.

Meh-ba

2009-01-13T14:13:00.000-08:00

Los Angeles - I'm drinking what's got to be the most subpar green tea w/ boba ever, from a place in Little Tokyo that dares to charge $3.75 for crappy green tea that isn't even real green tea. I can't figure out WHAT this crap is - it's really green, so I'm guessing matcha green tea? Whatever it is, it's noticeably thicker than normal tea, and has a distinct powdery residue. Is it so much to ask to get normal green tea? Is it?!?!?! And I specifically asked for JUST TEA, because last time they gave me some blended icy crap that tasted like powder and ice. (And you know I'm not fond of blended boba drinks anyway. I'm not convinced they even deserve to be called boba drinks, as boba should be consumed in its purest tea or milk tea form. Just my opinion, feel free to disagree. And be wrong.) You try to be a nice person and give a meh boba place a second shot, and this is what happens. I hate people.

What's worse is that I had actual (legit) green tea w/ boba over the weekend, from TenRen, which is still the most legit boba chain I've encountered during my brief time in LA - far better than Tapioca Express and Lollicup. Except for the TenRen in Chinatown, which inexplicably closes at 6 p.m. What the fuck kind of respectable boba place in Chinatown closes at 6?

In conclusion: TenRen good, Little Tokyo bad. The place had some nondescript name like "Ice Cream and Yogurt" or "Yogurt and Ice Cream" or "Don't Ever Come Here For Boba." I blocked it out.

Guest bloggers

2008-12-12T23:25:00.000-08:00

Thoughts?

What I'm thankful for

2008-11-27T20:10:00.000-08:00

Boba on Thanksgiving.

Grandma who drinks boba on Thanksgiving.

Would you rather...

2008-11-24T22:40:00.000-08:00

...Drown in mayo or be stoned to death with pickles? Be invisible or fly? Do cartwheels constantly or be striped like a zebra? Eat a bar of soap or drink a bottle of dishwashing liquid? Speak backwards or only be able to mouth words silently? Be married to Bush or Palin?

And most importantly, drink boba everyday or never drink boba again, EVER?

I think I know what your answer would be. And I think you know mine, too.

Anyways, I'd gone a whole month without boba until tonight, when I hit up Boba Loca near USC. It was meh, but it's kinda like this: If you haven't had ________ in a month, any ________ is good.

I know what you're thinking. And you probably know what I'm thinking, too.

(Boba, of course.)

It's all for you

2008-11-19T18:19:00.000-08:00

For my loyal readers: If you don't know this already, Boba Find will hook you up with boba places in your zip code. Of course, this makes my blog less relevant and useful to you, but I'm hoping you love me enough to overlook that fact.

(Thanks to the future Dr. Lin, who introduced me to this gem.)

A first

2008-11-17T23:21:00.001-08:00

Los Angeles - This is my first blog entry that's not about boba. Rather, it's about the absence of boba in my life. I think I've gone a solid month without a single sip of boba. A month! How did I function these last 30 days?

I didn't even celebrate the election with boba. (And really, if there was ever reason to celebrate...) That's pretty weird, given the fact that I've actually made up reasons, and possibly holidays, to celebrate just so I could justify having boba.

I think I need a boba buddy. Someone to keep me motivated and on my game. My reader(s) are counting on me, after all. Their bad.

Boba a.m.

2008-10-02T08:15:00.001-07:00

Los Angeles - This sounds gross, but have you ever had boba first thing in the morning? It's kind of awesome.

Inconsistencies

2008-09-29T20:59:00.001-07:00

Los Angeles - Since my hideous TenRen experience in Sydney (followed by an equally appalling TenRen experience in Melbourne), I'd been reluctant to try TenRen here in the States. However, in the spirit of generosity, I decided to give the T to the R another shot. Third time's the charm, apparently, because the TenRen in Monterey Park is baller. I immediately texted my friend J in Boston to share the good news: "You were right. TenRen is good. Our friendship may now recommence." (paraphrased)

Conversely, the Lollicup I grabbed in Koreatown today was not nearly as impressive as the Lollicup I had in Guilin, back when I was a crazy kid traipsing around China. In fact, Guilin Lollicup (or GL, if you will), tops my list of Best Boba Ever.

Which brings me to my point: I guess you can never really pre-judge any given boba, even if you've tried the same chain in another country. I find that alternately frustrating and exciting.

Up next: Things that look like boba. This is weird, but I think you'll like it. You are friends with me, after all. Here's a preview:

Any guesses?

2008-09-26T00:31:00.000-07:00

Monterey Park, Calif. - Break out the champagne - $1.50 boba has been located! More importantly, it's GOOD $1.50 boba. Get your own cheapie fix at King Express Tea Cafe, at the corner of Atlantic and Emerson.

Disclaimer: To be clear, I'm not saying this is Verde-caliber boba (which, to date, is still my favorite boba on American soil. I think.). But it's a good milk tea paired with decent tapioca, at a very attractive price. I am quite pleased.

Cats

2008-09-10T23:11:00.000-07:00

San Francisco - At the request of my friend Cat Chang (not to be confused with Cat Ho - you would not believe how many of our friends were confused by this. Seriously, guys. Guys, seriously.), here are some photos of my most recent boba outing. It was a rather unsatisfactory culinary experience, given the obscene amount of sugar in the milk tea. However, I have notably fewer complaints about the company, which was just right.

To be clear, that's HO on the left, and CHANG on the right.

And a Leslie. Try to keep up, I know it's confusing.

Goodbye, San Francisco. Hello, L.A.!

Hella illegit, pt. 2

2008-08-28T01:06:00.001-07:00

Melbourne - Going off of advice from my friend J, who said "TenRen is good, I swear! It just depends on location," I gave TenRen another shot. Round 2 was still hella illegit, and left me questioning my friendship with J. (Haha. Jk. Sorta.)

Xoxo,
Cat

(If you know what this is in reference to, we need to talk about season 2!)

Foreground: Boba from TenRen. Background: Flinders Station.

Hella illegit

2008-08-15T04:40:00.000-07:00

Sydney, AUS - I am NOT happy. Ten Ren's black milk tea w/ pearls was one of the worst teas I've ever had. And to think, I was really enjoying Sydney, too. Unacceptable.

If you ever walk by this sign, DO NOT go in.

If you ever see a friend with this boba, DO NOT let them drink it.

That's more like it

2008-08-13T22:49:00.000-07:00

Brisbane, AUS - Boba twice in two days. Not bad, huh? Brisbane boba part deux was infinitely more successful, even though it didn't involve a cute elderly Chinese couple. It's the trade-off, what can ya do.

BOBA BRIEFING
Name: Tea Bar (motto: "It's made in heaven")
Address: Food court inside Queen St. Mall
Date visited: Wed., Aug. 14, 2008
Goes by: Bubble tea
Price: $3.60 AUD (~$3.15 USD)
Form: Milk tea, tea
Flavors: A couple dozen
Flavors tried: Green milk tea
Lid style: Sealed plastic wrap

Smiles:

Green milk tea flavor isn't bad, but tastes a bit watered down. Very Tapioca Express-esque.
Cups come with a handy "history of boba" blurb so accurate it could've been lifted from this blog. Impressive.
Cups also contain this text: "The pearls are made from cassava plant juice and are so addictive that they've been called the faux opium of the Orient." Lofty claim, but I guess it explains my addiction.

Scowls:

Scowling takes too much energy.

Most memorable bo-ment:

Thinking of one takes too much energy. This is a lazy post. Blame the opium.

Overall rating: 8/10

Tea Bar

Read the fine print

BRISBANE ROX

2008-08-13T00:13:00.000-07:00

Brisbane, AUS - I em so eggcited I ken hardly tipe. C? My copy editor friends are probably grinding their teeth reading this. Haha, suckas.

Anyways, I AM HELLA EXCITED. I arrived in Brisbane about 2 hours ago and found boba approximately 1 hour ago. Since then, I've been on a tapioca high that I have no intention of coming down from. A timeline would probably sum up the last hour better than sentences right now (I know, and I'm supposed to be a reporter, right? Oh, the shame.), so here goes:

4:20 p.m.: Leave hostel, walk 15 steps to the right, spot sign for pearl milk tea (PMT), flip out.
4:21 p.m.: Walking into restaurant, see patrons with cups w/fat straws. Flip out more.
4:22 p.m.: Find out restaurant just sold out of tapioca. Am crestfallen.
4:22:30 p.m.: Walk next door into another Chinese restaurant, see sign for pearl milk tea, continue flipping out.

Note the yellow sign for milk tea on the door

4:23 p.m.: Start chatting with adorable elderly Chinese couple who own the restaurant. Grandmotherly lady makes my PMT and insists, in true grandmotherly fashion, that I get it hot instead of cold. Charmed by her cuteness, I relent.
God, I'm tired of writing "p.m." over and over.
4:24-4:45 p.m.:

Couple asks me if I'm from Shandong, because Chinese people from Shandong are tall.
Grandmotherly lady asks me if I'm 18. Forgive her because am still charmed by her cuteness.
Not believing that I'm 23 (Being an Asian girl under age 30, I look 15, welcome to my life), couple asks what year I was born, and what zodiac sign I'm under. (1985, Year of the Ox, and god why would I lie, is this a bar?!)
Chat about their time in Brisbane (immigrated 30 years ago from Hong Kong).
Chat about China, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Canada and other places w/ lots of Chinese people (this is what Chinese people do, and about all my limited Chinese vocab will allow me to do).
Chat about how tall my parents are (this is also what Chinese people do when discussing height).
Realize that hot PMT really is better than cold PMT. Grandma was right.

Cute Chinese couple, owners of Yee Foong (HK BBQ restaurant)

Boba

Oh right, the boba. Sorry. The tea is quite good. She really took the time to brew it and mix in milk and sugar. The tapioca is VERY soft, softer than I usually like it *that's what she said* and has a strong ginger flavor, which I REALLY don't like (and is weird). Still, I just couldn't get over how friggin cute they were, so really, it was all good. Brisbane rox.

Reef to Boba (R2B)

2008-08-05T00:31:00.000-07:00

Cairns, Queensland, AUS - Cairns is sweet not only because you can do cool stuff like swim with turtles at the Great Barrier Reef, but also because you can do cool stuff like swim with turtles at the Great Barrier Reef and THEN GO DRINK BOBA.

That's right - after a relatively painless search about town, I found Onigiri Cafe/Omu on the second floor of Orchid Plaza, an indoor shopping center with mostly Japanese and Chinese food counters and trinket shops.

Boba briefing:

The milk tea is decent, but not spectacular. It has a strong tea flavor, which I like, but is a little bland. Or maybe I've just become so accustomed to gulping salty seawater that I've forgotten what sugar tastes like.
The tapioca is inconsistent in size and shape. Some are smaller than others, and some are lopsided. Some are even clumped together, presenting a challenge for the weak sucker.
There aren't enough balls to last you through the entire drink. Btw, Michael Scott is apparently the name of a local Kuranda artist who makes colorful glassware.
Overall, I'd recommend dropping by Onigiri Cafe/Omu if you're ever in Cairns. I'd also recommend dropping by Cairns. Ha.

Boba tidbits:

Onigiri and Omu both mean "rice ball" in Japanese.
The cafe opened in 2004.
The owner is from Japan.
The atmosphere mimics a mini-Asia, with lots of Japanese and Taiwanese high school students hanging out. (At least, they appear to Japanese and Taiwanese, judging by their hair. Then again, we all look the same, so you can imagine my confusion. -____-)

This is a 3-foot sign that I totally walked by w/o noticing until I asked the noodle shop next door where I could get bubble tea.

Vegan balls

2008-07-30T20:53:00.000-07:00

Chicago - Oh you dirrty. But no seriously, vegan boba - look into it! Argo Tea did, and they've come up with a quirky twist on the traditional tea drink, using coconut gelatin instead of tapioca. (Tapioca, like Jello, apparently contains bone marrow extract or something equally appetizing.)

Okay, I went to Berkeley and not even the nuttiest nutjob in the Capital of Weird came up with vegan boba (that I know of), so I was pretty impressed.

The gelatin cubes have the consistency of firm Jello, and are like tiny bursts of fruity juiciness when you bite into them. The tea itself (I tried mango and my friend had the coconut) is light and refreshing. Overall, a very pleasant summer drink to top off a very pleasant summer week in Chicago.

Just when you thought I had nothing left in my boba arsenal

2008-07-29T20:20:00.000-07:00

I don't think I've ever posted the following DIY boba instructions. It's not groundbreaking, but I threw it together for a presentation a while back (um, don't ask) so I figure someone other than me should benefit from it. Knock yourself out and let me know how your boba turns out!

I'll be in Australia for the next month, so look out for updates from the land Down Undah!

The world's going green

2008-07-01T15:39:00.000-07:00

I just had the greenest green tea ever. No, f'reals, I think my stomach lining is the color of Kermit the frog covered in slime.

News

2008-06-19T21:41:00.000-07:00

The good news: My work is about 50 feet away from a Happy Donut that serves 20+ varieties of $2 boba.

The bad news: The nice grandmotherly lady behind the counter takes about a week and a half to make one.

I mean, I love old people. They play a mean game of backgammon and tell the best stories about what it was like having a president that read books instead of comics. But damn.

2008-06-11T23:35:00.000-07:00

What the world is missing: drive-thru boba. The first presidential candidate to suggest this will get my vote. Unless it's McCain. Haha...

It would probably be a Democrat though, no?

A taxing drink

2008-05-31T21:36:00.000-07:00

Today, I hit up Tapioca Express in Cupertino with Mom. During the car ride back, we were both vexed by the following:

Jasmine Milk Tea (delightful, if a bit sweet) cost us $3.30. But the menu listed it as $2.75. Now, tax in Santa Clara County is 8.25%. So how does a drink that's less than $3 ratchet up a tax of $0.55? We then spent a good two minutes doing this:

Cat: Wait, wasn't it $2.75? How did it end up being $3.30?
Mom: ...
Cat: Cuz even if you rounded the $2.75 to $3, and the 8.25% to 9%, the tax still shouldn't be more than $0.27. (For the math-impaired: 3 x 9 = 27.)
Mom: ...
Cat: (doubting her mental math skills)...Right?
Mom: (silent for 30 seconds)
Cat: (silent for an additional 30 seconds, feeling either cheated by Tapioca Express and/or ashamed of being a math-incompetent Asian)
Mom: (digs up receipt)
Cat: Oh. They charged us $0.30 for tapioca.

Mystery solved. Also, I don't know if I used "ratchet" correctly. I don't think I did. But more importantly, who charges extra for tapioca? At a boba store?! WITHOUT TELLING THE CUSTOMER?!

Boba booze!

2008-05-17T17:12:00.000-07:00

Two of my favorite things in the world come together to form one unbeatable drink.

For the record, many have experimented with this combination before. I'd say the NYT is a few steps behind...

The Hills are alive

2008-04-29T16:23:00.000-07:00

...with the sound of boba!

I debated long and hard about whether I should reveal my penchant for trashy (and I do mean TRASH-EEE) TV in such a public way, but decided that if you're reading this blog, you're probably already judging me anyways.

So yes, I watch The Hills. And yes, Stephanie Pratt, the not-so-demonic sister of demon-spawn Spencer Pratt, ordered a chai boba on last night's episode of The Hills. And yes, I blushed just now as I realized I just plugged what is probably the worst show ever made. (In my defense, I'm not the only one!)

Nonetheless, boba hits MTV! Sweet.

Baby boba

2008-03-22T13:27:00.000-07:00

Little Tokyo, Los Angeles - Remember that episode of Friends where Chandler says that holding a minibar liquor bottle makes him feel like a giant?

Well, holding the boba at I (Heart) Boba made me feel like a giant. Their "small" is like, 20% smaller than most standard boba servings. This turned out to be a good thing, since their tapioca was a hot mess. Not fierce at all. It took me awhile to figure out just what went wrong, and my scientific analysis stands: it was cooked too long. So long, in fact, that it had this weird bumpy thing going on. Like I said, not fierce.

iLeft my boba in San Francisco

2008-02-15T17:56:00.000-08:00

San Francisco - I didn't, actually. Leave my boba in San Francisco, that is. And if you thought that I would EVER leave my boba anywhere unattended (especially in a city like SF, which is full of boba drinkers), you need to check yo-self!

Anyways. Despite growing up one hour south of this fine city - and going to college right across the Bay - I've never fully explored SF's boba offerings. (I blame the fog.) So, this is the beginning of what I hope will be a long and eventful journey uncovering the hidden boba treasures of the City by the Bay.

Inside iCafe

BOBA BRIEFING
Name: iCafe
Address: 1716 Irving St., San Francisco, CA 94112
Phone: (415) 665-2893
Price: $2.50-$2.95
Form: Milk tea, tea, slush/smoothie, juice
Flavors tried: Boba milk tea, mango smoothie

Background: mango. Foreground: Milk tea

Lid style: Plastic wrap. Poking needed.
Smiles:

The tea is quite good. It has a stronger tea flavor than many other milk teas I’ve tried (which are more milky and sweet than tea-esque), which I personally enjoy.
The tapioca balls are solid. Not literally, but in quality. Chewy - check. Soft but not too soft - check.
The mango smoothie is really good! It’s not overwhelmingly mango-y, but really hits the spot if you’re looking for a pleasant, light, smooth mango drink.
Wireless internet. But this also falls under the “Scowls” category. See below.

Scowls:

It is crazy hard to find parking. Ah, the beauty of SF.

Some yappy woman at an adjacent table would not get off her cell phone. To prevent myself from sucking up tapioca with my straw and shooting them at her, I proceeded to eavesdrop on her conversation, which spanned from jewelry to grad school to - what else? - hemophiliacs. No mention of Alexei Romanov, though.

You have to spend at least $5.00 to get their wireless passcode. Being illiterate, I did not read this sign, and ended up having to buy two drinks instead of, say, a drink and a snack-sized sandwich (which they also serve, in addition to coffee and Asian snacks). Normally, this would not have been a problem, but I was supposed to meet friends for dinner an hour later, and two boba drinks is an awful lot of sugary liquid to consume right before a meal. Especially if you’re parked in a one-hour zone. This conundrum prompted the following AIM conversation with my sister:

Cat: I have a problem.

Liz: Yes?

Cat: I’m at a boba café and I had to spend $5 to get the wireless here. And I’m by myself!

Liz: How is that a problem?

Cat: I have two drinks. That’s a lot of liquid. And balls.

Liz: No one said you have to drink both of them.

Cat: But it’ll taste bad later.

Liz: Well I know. JUST LEAVE IT ALONE. (what does this mean, anyways?)

Cat: Well, I’m gonna drink it. I’m just saying…I have a problem.

Liz: No shit.

My biggest problem turned out to be this sign: No Public Restrooms.

Overall rating: 8.5/10

Playing favorites

2008-02-11T23:27:00.001-08:00

What's the best boba you've ever had?

I get asked this question a LOT. Probably even more than "You nut, why do you have a boba blog?"

So here's my Top 3*, in order:

1. Lollicup - Guilin, China
2. Verde - Mountain View, Calif./Cupertino, Calif.
3. Waku-Waku Teahouse - Windsor, Ontario

*rankings based on taste and texture of black milk tea w/ tapioca

Your turn: What's the best boba YOU'VE ever had?

Quit Playin' Games With My Boba

2008-02-04T21:52:00.000-08:00

I found the Boba Blast Game while browsing Boba Tea Company's Web site. When you get to the main site, just click on the wheel until you reach Play (Fun and games). You can download the PC or Mac version of the game, which - as you probably guessed - involves shooting tapioca balls at helicopters.

Since they don't include instructions on how to play, this is what you do:

Hold down your left mouse button to reload the cannon, aim at helicopter and release.
The objective isn't to shoot down the helicopter, but rather to shoot the boba up so that the helicopter can catch it, then drop it into the cup at the right side of your screen.

If you have an addictive personality, I wouldn't suggest adding this to your bedtime/wind-down ritual. It is far too intense. O_o

A BQBA DETQUR

2008-02-04T18:57:00.001-08:00

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.

Un-Super Bowl-ba

2008-02-04T14:36:00.000-08:00

New England recently lost on two fronts:

1. Patriots
2. No boba (no-ba)

Though to be fair, Boston boba's got it goin' on. I just thought it'd be fun to make a list where I get to reuse the word "no-ba." (See origins here.)

U.S.B. (United States of Boba)

2008-01-21T01:00:00.000-08:00

San Jose, Calif. - It's been almost a week since I left Shanghai, and one of the toughest parts about moving back has been knowing I can no longer cross the street for a quality $0.50 boba fix.

I've had boba twice since returning to the States, both of which were predictably anticlimactic. The first was at Quickly in Berkeley's Asian Ghetto - what we Cal students and alumni (omg I'm an alum! How depressing.) say when referring to the cluster of cheap, mostly Asian restaurants in Southside, less than a 5-minute walk from the UC Berkeley main gate. As most NorCal-ers know, Quickly is a cheap knockoff for real boba, mostly because it's so inexpensive ($0.59 for milk tea w/o boba, $1.19 w/ boba), we tend to excuse its mediocrity as a trade-off for price.

To be honest, I never really had a problem with Quickly, probably because I like my milk tea on the sweet side. Also, I like money, and I spend a lot less of it when I get boba from Quickly instead of some other boba place, which would charge around $2.50 for the same thing. You're probably thinking, "Okay, so you save $1.31, you bargain-hunting boba-boozer, who cares?" BUT consider this:

Well, first check out that alliteration. "Bargain-hunting boba-boozer," I feel, is one of my finer literary creations on this site, which should tell you a thing or two about the quality of writing here.
If you factor in just HOW MUCH boba I drink, $1.31 definitely adds up. If I spent $1.19 every time I drank boba (and there have been times I've shamefully spent more than $3...check past entries), I'd likely be able to afford all kinds of things, including some underhanded scheme to buy my way into being named CEO of some boba company.

Anyways, I'll be on the East Coast this week, so stay tuned to see what, if any, boba tricks New England's got up 'er sleeve.

Bo-brrrr

2008-01-11T00:33:00.000-08:00

Haerbin, Heilongjian Province, China - Ever been to a place so cold your eyelashes kept freezing? If not, you might want to check out Haerbin one day. The city in northeast China is known for its ice lantern festival, Russian architecture, Siberian tiger park and Speedo-ed crazies who swim half-nekked in the Songhua River in the middle of winter. Crazy!

In between putting on seven layers of clothing (seriously), my cohorts and I tracked down boba just outside the Flood Control Memorial tower.

I THINK the place is called iooioo. It could also be called looloo. It could also be called Happy Baby. Frankly, I was too cold to care. I'll let you be the judge:

iooioo? looloo? happy baby?

Anyways, 2°F + scalding hot boba = happy babies indeed!

Conversion!

2007-11-29T05:29:00.000-08:00

My friend Sharon: "I never liked boba before I met you, Cat."

VICTORY! ^-^

Ho Ho Boba!

2007-11-28T22:58:00.000-08:00

Know what makes the holidays even better?

Hot chocolate with boba. Try it! I had my first at Tea Storm, a China chain. It's quite the dance party for your tongue.

Happy holidays!

2007-11-25T06:03:00.000-08:00

Chengdu, Sichuan Province - The boba here is definitely not spicy, but it provides short-lived relief when you're eating FIRE (a.k.a. Sichuan food...any Sichuan food). The place we went to near our hostel was sub-par: tepid milk tea and tapioca that clumped together. I've come to accept that boba around China, especially outside the big cities, is nothing to cheer about. But for <5 RMB, I can live with that.

Meh boba

Place that serves meh boba

Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan Province - A gorgeous locale with decidedly less impressive boba. In fact, the chocolate boba I ordered DIDN'T EVEN COME WITH TAPIOCA. I felt so cheated. The tea was decent, though. It tasted a little hot chocolate but not as thick, and pleasant enough. But you know what would've made it more pleasant? That's right. Boba.

Boba stand right outside the nature reserve

Too hot to boba?

2007-11-13T21:25:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, I'll be traveling to Sichuan, a province known for its spicy food and hot pot. Do you think they'll have SPICY BOBA?!

That would be disgusting. But not disgusting enough to not try it. (What a confusing sentence. You understood it, though.)

Nanjing nai cha

2007-11-13T07:33:00.000-08:00

Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China - Boba lives outside Dr. Sun Yat-sen's mausoleum (Zhongshan ling).

It tasted like tepid soup, the tapioca was mush, and the cup had a picture of a man pulling a million-pound fish out of the water. The word "relaxing" is written above said picture. Is reeling in a fish the size of Texas really that relaxing, really? REALLY?

And what would the founding father of China say if he knew they were serving such an atrocity outside his resting place?

Also, at 5 RMB, it's considered pricey. For China. Really, though, the experience of visiting Dr. Sun's mausoleum far surpasses any criticism of mediocre boba I could ever think of. I might be losing my edge.

OH, and did I mention that the hostel where I stayed was attached to a boba place? Honestly, China, you're just making it too easy for me. More on hostel-boba later. No time right now to write about the many complicated drinks this place serves (including milk tea with boba, pudding and ice cream. In ONE DRINK. I know!)

Also stay tuned for DIY boba. We're talkin' milk tea in a teapot, a mug of tapioca, and a spoon. Mix it to your own liking. As my friend Nick (creator of the phrase "no-ba") would say, "Oh, boy!"

Outside Dr. Sun's mausoleum. That sign says "boba" in Chinese.

Relaxing indeed

DIY boba at Mao Kong

Shhh, not while I'm mixing

No-ba

2007-11-05T19:34:00.000-08:00

Jiujiang (九江- Nine Rivers), Jiangxi Province, China - On my way to Lushan Mountain (where many famous Chinese poets have gone for inspiration...also where Chiang Kai-shek lived during Kuomingtang rule and, later, where Mao Tse-tung and the Communist Party met during the Cultural Revolution) I stumbled upon a boba stand.

Bei Fu

And by "stumbled," I mean I asked every store owner in sight, and proceeded to drag my poor travelmates around a freezing drizzly night until success was found.

The result: very disappointing. Have you ever heard of a boba place RUNNING OUT OF BOBA? I know, that was my reaction too.

Cat: Yi bei zhen zhou nai cha (One cup of milk tea with tapioca, please).
Boba man: Zhen zhou mai guang le (We ran out of tapioca).
Cat: (gasp) Oh my god!!!
Cat's friends: Hahahahaha!

Not cool. So I begrudgingly settled for regular milk tea with no tapioca. It was mediocre. I suppose that if nothing else, it was nice having hot tea on a cold night. At least it helped warm my cold, cold heart, in which there is a void left by the lack of boba in Jiujiang.

Milk tea, sans boba. Hrmph.

Note: the title of this blog entry must be attributed to my friend Nick who, when another friend refused a sip of my boba, said, "No-ba?" Credit where credit is due, indeed.

(Way) Lost in Translation

2007-09-24T02:43:00.000-07:00

Shanghai - Okay, I am an idiot. So I go to this little boba hole-in-the-wall across the street from my dorm, right. (For the record, that's in the Yangpu district of Shanghai.) And instead of ordering my usual milk tea with boba (here, it's zhen zhu nai cha. Zen zhu = pearl, nai cha = milk tea), I decide to be adventurous because hey, my buddy from Hong Kong is visiting and we should live it up and have some flavored boba for a change, right.

Oh, one more thing: we just learned fruits in Chinese class last week.

So, thinking I'm all cool and well-versed in my fruit, I order a honeydew ("honey-gua") boba for my friend, and a coconut (bo luo) boba for myself, which I had seriously been thinking about for a week and just never knew how to order, because I didn't know how to say coconut in Chinese, and was too lazy to look it up.

I get my boba (which is a suspicious yellowish color, instead of white), take a sip, and vehemently declare, "This is SO not coconut!" Imagine wanting coconut boba for an entire week and then getting some weird pineapple-tasting thing instead. I was pissed!

Turns out it was pineapple. Because bo luo means pineapple in Chinese.

How do you say "Oops" in Chinese?

Honeydew boba (L) and pineapple (NOT coconut) boba (R)

In any case, both were gross. You could still taste the powder they used to make the milk tea. It was only 2.5RMB, though, which is about $0.33. Forgivable? I'm still deciding.

When I have a few minutes, I'll give the complete Boba Briefing. For now, I'm going to go look for a video I took of a woman making boba in rural(ish) Huangshan, where I went for National Week Holiday. No joke - I was outside the gates of Xidi, an ancient village founded in 1047 in southern Anhui province, and there was a boba stand. Look for updates soon, as well as entries about a Lollicup near the Guilin night markets!

OMG

2007-09-03T03:11:00.000-07:00

Shanghai - OMIGOD. I didn't think I'd be able to post from China. I think this is what's going on: China blocks blogspot.com, but not blogger.com. Ergo, I can log in, post and edit my entries, but I can't view my blog afterwards. Or read the comments that people leave me. It's like having an itch you can't scratch. Infuriating!

Word on the street is that in China, "upscale" boba places serve you tea, tapioca and cream/sugar all separately so you can add the condiments according to your personal taste preferences. Will investigate further.

My life just got so much better. Didn't yours?

Bye-bye boba

2007-08-29T01:35:00.000-07:00

I should've seen it coming. My study abroad semester in Shanghai will be marred by the fact that China blocks blogspot and pretty much every other common blogging site you can think of. BUT never fear. I WILL continue the worldwide boba tour, just not on this site...at least, not until I return to the States. I don't know yet what the new URL will be, but I'll be sure to notify my loyal reader(s) of any updates on the situation.

In the meantime, please e-mail me at CatherineChangHsinHo@gmail.com. Messages sent to this account are not limited to boba discussion, though I may nudge our conversation toward that direction.

Seeing that I'm off to China tomorrow, it seems fitting to bid a temporary farewell in Mandarin. So, hui tou jian! (See ya soon!) Here's one last post to tide you over until January:

Mountain View, Calif. - Verde is one of several boba places that lots of Bay Area kids associate with their youth. And by "youth," I mean their formative high school years during which they flocked to boba places after school to overreact about SAT scores. I say "they," not "us," because I grew up in Almaden, not Cupertino/Saratoga/Palo Alto/Los Altos/Mountain View. I'm told by two trusted sources that, until about a year ago, Verde was totally camped out with neon green and blue decor, Britney Spears concert DVDs blasting in the corner, and Chinese chess boards. Today, the space is much more...hmm, shall we say...chic? Less garish, certainly. Dim lighting and rich dark brown wood ("My apartment smells of rich mahogany...") make for a less intimidating environment for non-boba connoisseurs, we concluded.

BOBA BRIEFING
Name: Verde Tea Cafe

Address: 852 Villa St., Mountain View, CA 94041. Another location in Cupertino.
Phone: (650) 210-9986
Date visited: Monday, Aug. 27, 2007
Goes by: Boba, QQ pearls
Price: $2.75-$3.75
Form: Summer shaved ice (only in the summer), smoothie freeze, frozen romance (like a smoothie, but with more fresh fruit and ice, and thicker), frothy iced tea, frothy milk tea
Flavors: About 80
Hot/cold: Both
Flavors tried: Frothy pearl milk tea, Pink Valentine frozen romance (rose petals)
Lid style: VERY hard plastic, pre-poked. More on this later.
Smiles: I really like the frothy quality of the milk tea. For one, it makes for a thicker top layer that actually allows the straw to stand alone like such:

The sizes are quite large. Plus, the dome-like lid allows for an extra dollop of smoothie or frozen romance that a flat lid would not permit. We call this lid style the BOBA MAXIMIZER. The BOBA MAXIMIZER makes for good boba bang for your buck.

The BOBA MAXIMIZER is also surprisingly strong. In fact, my friend cut her finger trying to pry it off. Bad for fingers, good for preventing boba spillage.

The tea is sweet, but the tea flavor is definitely still distinct.

The frozen romance is much thicker than I imagined a blend of ice and fruit could be. It's so thick that if you stir up the tapioca, the romance will actually support the weight of the balls, and effectively hold the balls in place. (There's a sentence I never thought I'd write.)

Scowls: This is unfair, but I don't really like the idea of eating rose petals (Pink Valentine was Angie's order, not mine), so I didn't enjoy the frozen romance as much as another person might. But, like I said, that's an unfair criticism. More importantly, though, a horde of girls came in at one point (a local soccer team, perhaps?), and one of them tried drinking boba with a NORMAL STRAW. What respectable boba place would allow for this kind of nonsense?

Most memorable bo-ment: Coming up with the term BOBA MAXIMIZER. Duh.

Pondering the benefits of boba maximization

Overall rating: 9/10

Thrice the boba

2007-08-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

Me and my sister IM-ing while she's at work (two days after having boba in LA during a visit with relatives):

E: How come the posts from LA aren't there?
C: I haven't uploaded pix yet
C: omg woman, don't you ever work?!
E: I try not to...

All right, keep your knickers on.

Rowland Heights, Calif. - Okay, the first thing you should know about Rowland Heights is that it has one of the densest Chinese populations in the United States. This is especially true with Taiwanese immigrants. Now, consider this: boba originated in Taiwan. You do the math. Here, I'll help:

B = boba

F = fobbiness*

*I am using this term out of endearment - something I can do because I am related to "fobs" and have had lifelong contact with so-called "fob culture." If you haven't, I don't suggest you do the same, lest you fancy a beating...

Anyways,

B + F = Boba in nearly every shopping center for a two-mile stretch

Alternate solution:

B + F = Hitting up three (yes, THREE. Tres. Trois.) boba places within 30 minutes. Folks, that's called power boba-ing.

BOBA BRIEFING (1)
Name: Little Bean (Chinese translation: Green bean sprout)

Little Bean entrance

Address: 18145 Colima Rd., Rowland Heights, CA 91748
Phone: (626) 965-1616
Web site: www.littlebean.com

Date visited: Saturday, Aug. 25, 2007
Goes by: Boba
Price: $2.50-$3.50
Form: Fruit smoothie, tea, milky tea
Flavors: More than 100
Hot/cold: Both
Flavors tried: Tapioca milky red tea

Tapioca milk red tea

Lid style: Hard plastic, pre-poked
Smiles: Fast, easy and sweet.

I ordered my drink and got it in about 30 seconds. Scoop, pour, cap and...*spirit fingers*

Rapid-fire boba scooping

Rapid-fire milk tea pouring

They sell seemingly endless rows of candy: Nerds, Pop Rocks, those speckled egg things (do they have a name?), and lots more.

Candy!

Their TV was playing Beijing opera.

If you've grown up suppressing guffaws over mispelled Chinese menu items and supermarket signs, you'll appreciate this category on their menu: "Tea Time and Desert"

Gift certificates and gift baskets

They deliver for orders of more than $30 within 5 miles.

Scowls: A few.

The boba was still warm when I started drinking. It cooled off quickly, but for the first couple minutes, you're slurping up warm gooey stuff while drinking cool-ish tea, which is kinda disorienting. Guess that's what happens when you try to wham-bam-thank-you-boba.

Minimum for paying with credit card is $15.00. Not a problem this time, but what happens if I get robbed on the way to boba, and dumb thieves steal ONLY my cash? I'd have to buy, like, six boba. Look, I'm not MADE of money. I just got robbed, remember?

LOTS of leftover boba after finishing the tea. I might've drank it wrong, but I've never been THIS off. I blame Taiwan.

Most memorable bo-ment: I really embarassed my sister by taking lots of boba photos. That was fun.

Overall rating: 8/10

--30--

BOBA BRIEFING (2)

Name: Ten Ren's Tea Time

Counter

Address: 18423 Colima Rd., Rowland Heights, CA 91748. Other locations in Walnut, City of Industry, Arcadia and Riverside.
Phone: (626) 854-6045
Web site: www.tenrenusa.com
Date visited: Saturday, Aug. 25, 2007
Goes by: Boba
Price: $2.75-$4.25 (Add $0.50 for boba)
Form: Milk tea, flavored tea, teazer (icy smoothie-like blends), iced coffee
Flavors: About 70
Hot/cold: Both (double check)
Flavors tried: Almond milk tea w/ boba

My sister and almond milk tea

Lid style: Hard plastic, pre-poked
Smiles:

The almond milk tea had a very pleasant flavor - not too sweet, and with just enough almond flavoring.

The boba is soft, but with enough resistance when you chew.

Gift cards

Lots of young fobby people

They sell a wide array of boxed tea and tea sets. This chain originally started out as a tea store, and later branched out to boba.

Tea, tea and more tea

Concert fliers for my boy Jay Chou!
Tacky decor - think green paper vines hanging from the windows. While others may have put this under the "Scowls" section, I chose to embrace the tastelessness. Who doesn't love crepe paper?

From the outside

Scowls:

Again, lots of leftover boba. I'm not sure who I should blame this time.

I don't like places that charge extra for boba. Who would go to a boba store and just order plain tea?

Most memorable bo-ment: Afterwards, we ducked into a fobby Asian store that sells socks that help you lose weight. I am not lying. Here:

Let's diet! With socks!

Overall rating: 9/10

--30--

BOBA BRIEFING (3)

Name: Phoenix Food Boutique

Address: 1709 Nogales St., Rowland Heights, CA 91748. Other locations in Alhambra, LA, Irvine, Arcadia, San Gabriel, Pasadena.

Phone: (626) 810-8988

Web site: www.phoenixfoodboutique.com

Date visited: Saturday, Aug. 25, 2007

Goes by: This is complicated, partly because it isn't what most people consider "normal" boba. In fact, I went back and forth about whether to blog about this place at all. Obviously, I didn't think that hard. They use regular tapioca (the little kind you find in tapioca pudding) and fresh fruit chopped up in little pieces so you can suck them up the fat straw. Moreover, drinks are coconut milk-based, not tea. Told ya it was complicated.

Price: $2.95

Form: Fruit drink, tropical drink. All in coconut milk.

Flavors: Check online menu

Hot/Cold: Cold

Flavors tried: Mixed fruit (watermelon, melon, mango); mango; taro

Mango tropical drink

Lid style: Hard plastic, pre-poked

Smiles: They definitely get brownie (boba?) points for uniqueness.

If you like coconut milk, I think you'll really enjoy this. It's light, sweet and refreshing.

Sometimes, it's nice to branch out from the same old milk tea.

I'd never really thought about what a novel idea it is to suck up actual pieces of fruit with a straw. Don't you think this would be a really clever way to trick children into eating fruit?

Scowls:

They were a little rude when asking us to move out of the way when we were standing by the register waiting for our drinks. If you want us to move, then make our drinks faster!

Mango and taro work really well in this concoction because they're firm and retain their texture in liquid, but the watermelon gets mushy.

Most memorable bo-ment: Marveling at their gorgeous mochi. (You have to keep clicking the image until you see pastel-colored balls made of sweet rice flour.) For more about mochi, click here.

Overall rating: 8.5/10

Flying boba

2007-08-25T18:48:00.001-07:00

Since I've been spending considerable time on planes lately, I got to wondering:

Do you think airlines will ever serve boba?
Do you think airports (in the States) will ever serve boba?

I think that if an airline were to venture into this territory, they should start with flights between LA and San Francisco/San Jose. Think about that demand!

And if it didn't take off (ha, ha) I would singlehandedly support them.

Bo-baw

2007-08-23T01:34:00.001-07:00

Boston, Mass. - A brief stint in Baw-ston proved QUITE fruitful in the quest for good boba. Boston Tea Stop has been in Harvard Square for about 2.5 years, after replacing what used to be a Lollicup. And here, boba goes by its God-give name: boba. After a summer of listening to people call it "bubble tea," it was like going back home!

BOBA BRIEFING
Name: Boston Tea Stop
Address: 54 JFK St., Cambridge, MA 02138 (Harvard Square)
Phone: (617) 945-0017
Date visited: Sunday, Aug. 19, 2007
Goes by: Boba
Price: $3.15 - $4.00
Form: Milk tea, tea, infusion milk tea (basically flavored milk tea), ice blended drinks, juice. You can substitute jelly for boba, or do 1/2 boba, 1/2 jelly.
Flavors: About 70. Jelly flavors: lychee and mango

Menu

Hot/cold: Both
Flavors tried: Milk tea, yogurt infusion milk tea, almond infusion milk tea

Milk tea

Yogurt infusion milk tea

Lid style: Sealed plastic wrap
Smiles: Where do I begin?

Taste, texture and proportion of tea:boba are pretty darn near perfect.
The yogurt infusion milk tea is boba-tastic. It's exactly like Yoduly, the miniature Asian drinks that all of us ABC kids used to freeze to make slush. Yum!
They call their hot milk tea "hottie." Hottie!
They sell Boston Tea Stop T-shirts for $10.50 and mugs for $3.50.
It's always nice enjoying boba with folks who understand boba: my old Berkeley buddies and kindergarten-through-HS buddy Tiff (also an MIT genius).
Wi-fi
Given its proximity to several campuses, it gets lots of traffic from college students.

Scowls:

Their Web site is down. That's all I got. Seriously.

Most memorable bo-ment(s):

Overall rating: 9.5/10

Disapproval!

2007-08-23T01:28:00.000-07:00

San Jose, Calif. - Now that I'm back in boba land for a few days, I feel immobilized by indecision. Do I go to ALL the boba places? Should I stick to Cupertino? What about Berkeley? And Oakland? And SAN FRANCISCO? I need to strategize.

My mom, on my boba blog:
"Ni you ne me wu liao, mah?"
Translation: "Are you really that pathetically bored?"

Maybe I should invest in a boba chain store. That way, at least I'd be supporting my own stock.

Abob

2007-08-10T09:24:00.000-07:00

Windsor, ON - I'll give you a second to figure out that "abob" means.

Got it?

No?

Dude, pick it up a notch. Lemme put it this way: the new bubble tea shop on Wyandotte is called Elppa, which is "apple" spelled backwards, the nice lady behind the counter told me. Okay, and that's significant because...it's not. Just cute! Let's move on.

BOBA BRIEFING
Name: Elppa Desserts & Bubble Tea
Address: 2065 Wyandotte St. West, Windsor, ON N9B 1J8
Phone: Owner's cell phone, which is in my purse somewhere...
Email: elppaboba@hotmail.com
Date visited: July 2007
Goes by: Bubble tea, boba
Price: Let you know when I go back. I think it was around $3.
Form: Tea, milk tea, fruit smoothies. They also serve drinks with jelly (more like little strips of Jell-O, but it's called jelly) instead of tapioca. You can also get your drink with both - if you think you're ready for this jelly. Oh yes, I went there.
Flavors: Many
Hot/cold: Cold
Flavors tried: Black milk tea, passion fruit with jelly
Lid style: Check me on this
Smiles: Here's the story: I joined two co-workers to lunch in Canada (half of my motivation to do so may or may not have been because I knew I'd be in close proximity to boba), thinking I'd drop by Waku-Waku Teahouse on Wyandotte on our way back, and bring back boba for my editor so he wouldn't think I'd been making up this weird-sounding tapioca drink. When that ended up being closed - on a Friday afternoon?! - I ducked into a Chinese BBQ place to inquire about other boba options. Lo and behold, Elppa was just two doors down!

The tapioca is definitely decent - chewy without being too soft. The ambiance of the place is way cute - round colorful pillows and chairs, curtains and colored lighting.

The passion fruit tea was very refreshing, and the jelly was nice and light. It's pretty hard to screw up jelly, though.

Scowls: Should black milk tea look...purple? Okay, I thought, don't judge a boba by its color, blah blah blah. But it tasted a little too much like milk, and not enough like tea. They're also really slow. It took maybe 15 minutes to make four drinks.

Most memorable bo-ment: Forcing, I mean suggesting to my editor that he try boba for the first time. He's a nice guy, so he humored me (probably while secretly thinking, When can we fire this nutjob?).

Overall rating: 7/10

That's the way the boba crumbles

2007-08-10T09:04:00.000-07:00

Detroit, Mich. - You have no idea how much it delights me to write a boba dateline from Detroit. Boba lives in the Motor City! Who'da thunk it?

Updated 8/24/07: I haven't decided what format to use when I make multiple trips to the same place and have new things to add. For the time being, look for updates in italics.

BOBA BRIEFING
Name: Orchid Thai
Address: 115 Monroe St., Detroit, MI 48226
Phone: (313) 962-0225
Date visited: Monday, July 16, 2007. Thursday, Aug. 16, 2007.
Goes by: Bubble drinks
Price: $3.95
Form: Fruit smoothies, with whipped cream on top. Blech. You can also ask for tapioca in Thai iced tea and iced coffee, for the same price.
Flavors: Strawberry, mango, kiwi, cappuchino
Hot/cold: Cold
Flavors tried: Thai iced tea, iced coffee, mango

Thai iced tea (notice the boba on TOP)

Lid style: A very unfashionable and environmentally hostile Styrofoam cup with a plastic lid. No straw-poking necessary.

An environmental evil.

Smiles: Since this was the first place I found in Detroit that serves boba, I was smiling till my face hurt. Until I tried the boba. However:

They let me into their kitchen to watch them make the boba. Check it out: (dammit, why didn't I do video? Think, Catherine, THINK!)

Pouring Thai iced tea

Boba, before contact with mango smoothie

Making mango smoothie from mango syrup

Mango smoothie

Scowls: Sigh. The tapioca is disappointingly hard, but that's not even the worst part. It's also crumbly. Crumbly! How is it even possible to MAKE crumbly tapioca? You'll have to ask these guys. Also, $3.95 for sub-par boba seems like a lot to ask for, no?

The second (okay fine, third) time here, my problem with the boba was that when it's in an icy smoothie, the tapioca gets icy and hard, and sticks together so that they're no longer separate balls, but rather chunks of icy tapioca. Yes, it's as gross as it sounds.
Okay, I'm confused. Our waitress had NO IDEA what we were talking about when we said we came for bubble drinks. It's ON your MENU! What gives?
This is also confusing: my boba drinking buddy's Thai iced tea w/ tapioca came with the tapioca floating on top. I have NEVER seen this before. I am so, so confused.

Joe and Thai iced tea w/ bubbles

Most memorable bo-ment: This quote, from a fellow Freep intern who shall remain nameless, except that his first name starts with B and ends with O, and his last name starts with T and ends with "weh":
"Boba singular is bobum. It's like data."
Ladies, he's still singular. Just kidding.

Also, this was my last boba outing before leaving the D. Thanks Joe!

Overall rating: 6/10

A Bubble Island of hope

2007-08-09T19:16:00.000-07:00

Ann Arbor, Mich. - I've now been to Bubble Island in Ann Arbor several times, the first of which I went to great lengths to harass store owners, college students and pedestrians about their knowledge of a rumored boba establishment near the University of Michigan. (In my defense, this was the first time I'd heard of boba existing in Michigan, so just picture this cat and you'll understand how excited this Cat was.)

Here is a story The State News (Michigan State's student newspaper) published in 2005, on Bubble Island's location in East Lansing. My favorite part:
"It's a real big craze out in California," said Sam Hickerson, one of Bubble Island's two co-owners. "On one block, you'll see three to four bubble tea businesses fighting for business."

Did Hickerson visit the boba haven that is Berkeley, CA?

BOBA BRIEFING
Name: Bubble Island
Address: 1220 South University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48104. They also have a location in East Lansing.
Phone: (734) 222-9013
Date visited: Most recently, Sunday, Aug. 5, 2007
Goes by: Bubble tea
Price: $3.39-$3.50
Form: Tea, milk tea, fruit smoothies and slushies called "snow bubbles"
Flavors: More than 100
Hot/cold: Both. They serve hot versions of anything with milk tea in it.
Flavors tried: Black milk tea, almond milk tea with "colored bubbles"
Lid style: Plastic-wrap top. Boba novices beware!
Smiles: The boba has a good chewy - but not too soft - quality, probably the best within 50 (fiddy) miles of Detroit. On the U.S. side, that is. They also serve mochi ice cream, which I haven't found since leaving California. Their curly fries and popcorn chicken are also yummy and cheap (both less than $4), but I feel like we're stealing focus from the boba...
Other smile-worthy attributes:

You get a free drink after you fill up your card with five stamps. If you get a card and don't think you'll go back, YOU KNOW WHERE TO FIND ME.
They're open everyday until 2 a.m., and until 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
This is an important one: Bubble Island is the only place in Michigan where people behind the counter didn't give me a quizzical look when I referred to boba as "boba" instead of "bubble tea." They speak my language!

Scowls: The colored bubbles (which you can get for $0.35 extra) are supposed to be sweeter, but they taste the same as regular tapioca, and it's not like you can see the boba while you're drinking anyways. I wouldn't pay extra for them again, even though they are awfully cute. And pink!
Most memorable bo-ment: Looking for parking in the rain with Freep buddy Sarah. Actually, forget it. I could write a separate entry about this incident.
Overall rating: 9/10

Boba-Boba

2007-08-09T19:02:00.000-07:00

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

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

The Joy (Yee's) of boba

2007-08-08T11:47:00.001-07:00

As you can probably tell, I've been brimming with boba blog material for weeks, and am just now getting around to posting it all.

Chicago, Ill. - I drove to the Windy City two weeks ago to get my visa for China, and to visit one of my oldest and dearest friends Christine Lin, who goes to med school at Northwestern (a future doctor! If a future MD condones my boba habit, it's gotta be okay, right?). Some very interesting boba consumption ensued at Joy Yee's in Chinatown, which claims to be the first in the Midwest to offer Taiwanese-style bubble teas AND the first to combine fruit smoothies with tapioca. What lofty claims!

BOBA BRIEFING
Name: Joy Yee's Noodles Pan-Asian Cuisine
Address: 2159 South China Place, Chicago, IL 60616. There are also locations in Evanston, Halsted and Naperville.
Phone: (312) 328-0001
Date visited: Sunday, July 22, 2007
Goes by: Bubble tea
Price: $3.25-$3.75
Form: Fresh fruit freezes, tapioca freezes, tapioca milk tea, green tapioca freeze, tapioca crystal jelly freeze, fresh fruit with green jelly, shave ice, mini pearl freeze, fresh fruit cream freeze. Don't ask me what all these mean. I was overwhelmed, too.
Flavors: Oh boy. We'd both be here forever if I wrote them all out. Check out this online menu, then look at this photo:

A mere one page from Joy Yee's drinks menu

Hot/cold: Cold
Flavors tried: Green bean tapioca freeze, taro freeze
Lid style: Help! I was an inattentive boba-drinker. Christine, do you remember?
Smiles: Holy cow. The taro freeze was delicious. I've never been a huge fan of taro, but this freeze tasted a little like vanilla ice cream, with similar consistency. The boba was nearly perfect - chewy, not too soft, not too hard. No wonder it's Christine's regular order!

Taro freeze

The green bean tapioca freeze was a little more controversial. It did not come with the standard size boba, but rather the little itty-bitty tapioca, like the kind that comes in tapioca pudding. Hm, I thought, this I did not know. Maybe they should make tapioca size clearer on the menu? Anyhow, the freeze itself was VERY interesting. It wasn't thick like a milkshake - it was runnier, somewhere between Orange Julius and a milkshake, and grainy from the bits of green bean. If you're Chinese or Chinese American, you know what I'm talking about. Green bean, like red bean, is semi-sweet, and used a lot in Chinese desserts. (It's definitely not the same green bean used in American cuisine.) Plus, the green bean freeze was a beautiful concoction, complete with strawberries, watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe. I mean really, just the prettiest boba I'd ever seen.

Green bean tapioca freeze

Scowls: Only because I'm nitpicky: the lighting in this place was hideous. I would never go out on a date here - you'd look awful. But if we're sticking to the boba, I have zero complaints.

Most memorable bo-ment: Walking back to the L with my boba and Christine and getting a call from my dad, that went like this:

Dad: So you're in Chicago, huh?

Cat: Yeah.

Dad: How long did it take?

Cat: Oh, about four hours.

Dad: So you drove non-stop?

Cat: No, I stopped to go to the restroom and stuff.

Dad: You can drive four hours without going to the restroom, can't you?

Cat: Well, some people can. I can't.

Dad: You could put on a diaper.

Cat: .......

Dad (in Mandarin): Isn't that what that NASA astronaut did...?

Overall rating: 9/10

A pricy addiction

2007-08-08T09:36:00.000-07:00

I haven't done real math since calculus my freshman year of college. Basic arithmetic, though, I can deal with. Check it out:

I drink boba twice a week, low-ball estimate. Each boba costs $3-3.50. For calculation purposes, let's say $3.25. (In Berkeley, though, I used to get Quickly for $1.19. Boy, I sure miss Berkeley.)

$3.25 per boba x (2 boba/week) x (52 weeks/year) = $338 spent on boba each year

$338?! That's rent! Or a puppy! Or...

1. A digital camera
2. Gas for like, three months
3. A plane ticket to Hawaii
4. Three tandem skydives
5. Two iPod nanos
6. Food for a third-world country for...a long time

Oh my god, I am a terrible person.

When life gives you lemons...

2007-08-08T08:05:00.000-07:00

Miami, Fla. - Warning: this is the first and ONLY time I've ever sent boba back. The Lan Pan-Asian Cafe Web site claims that the restaurant has gotten good reviews from several prominent newspapers. Maybe they were reviewing the food, not the boba. WE SHALL SEE. To be fair, though, the site does include some interesting tidbits about the origins of boba - first served at tea stands in front of Taiwanese schoolhouses. Well, allegedly. I don't know if I can trust a place that tries to serve me lemon cleaner disguised as lemon milk tea.

BOBA BRIEFING
Name: Lan Pan-Asian Cafe
Address: 8332 South Dixie Hwy. Miami, FL 33143
Phone: (305) 661-8141
Date visited: Saturday, Aug. 4, 2007
Goes by: Bubble tea
Price: $3.50
Form: Tea, blended fruit smoothies, milk tea
Flavors: TEAS: original milk tea, Thai iced tea, jasmine tea, green tea, taro, almond, Thai coffee, green tea latte. FRUIT SMOOTHIES: mango, strawberry-banana, strawberry, coconut, passion fruit, orange, apple, lychee, kiwi, pineapple, pina colada, cantaloupe, avocado, mixed berry, banana. MILK TEAS: black cherry, raspberry, strawberry, white/dark chocolate, mango, peach, lemon, orange, caramel
Hot/cold: Cold
Flavors tried: Lemon milk tea, original (black) milk tea, raspberry milk tea
Lid style: Hard plastic that comes with the straw hole already punched for you
Smiles: Well, I was smiling when I first walked in.
Scowls: Okay. First of all, the lemon milk tea (or "lemon milk tea"). Man, I'm so upset I can't even type in complete sentences. Don't order it. DON'T! It comes looking all innocuous - a pretty pale yellow, almost the color of banana cream pie. You just want to pat it on the head. Figures something so cute would be so lethal! After all, don't blowfish look like they're smiling until they KILL YOU?

Okay, but seriously. The lemon milk tea tastes like how you'd imagine lemon cleaner would taste. No trace of tea flavor, just really strong lemon...something. Lemon Fresh Pine-Sol, maybe? A big Strike One. I ended up sending it back for regular black milk tea, which was less repulsive. In all fairness, the black milk tea wasn't terrible. A little too fruity for my liking, but not bad. The raspberry milk tea wasn't gag-worthy either, but definitely too syrupy-sweet. Regardless of tea flavor, though, the tapioca was a little mushy. It could use some firming up. Strike Two.

Furthermore, I'm never in favor of putting ice in boba. Why? If you drink boba like a pro, you finish the tapioca and the tea at the same time. Ice messes with this proportion, and dilutes the tea flavor when you get near the end. Strike Three.
Most memorable bo-ment: Strolling around Bed Bath & Beyond afterwards, with boba and AAJA buddy Kristi Hsu, who kindly humored me and my boba obssession, and later endured a cab ride with World's Shadiest Cab Driver (WSCD) to get home. Thanks Kristi!
Overall rating: 5/10

"It's better to be too soft than too hard"

2007-08-08T07:09:00.000-07:00

Birmingham, Mich. - I didn't want to set the tone of this blog with a dirty joke, but what else would you have me do with an 800-pound gorilla in the room?

The reference, of course, is to the consistency of the boba at Sy Thai Cafe, which serves surprisingly (but not unpleasantly) soft tapioca balls.

BOBA BRIEFING
Name: Sy Thai Cafe
Address: 315 Hamilton Row, Birmingham, MI 48009
Phone: (248) 258-9830
Date visited: Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2007
Goes by: Bubble drinks. They call the bubbles "Tropical Tapioca Pearls." How bold!
Price: $3.25
Form: Fruit smoothies, but you can ask for tapioca in Thai iced tea
Flavors: Mango Breeze, Strawberry Surf, Watermelon Wave, Green Apple Mist, Pineapple Sunrise, Lychee Splash, Peach Sunset
Hot/cold: Cold. Can you imagine a warm strawberry smoothie? Eeeshk.
Flavors tried: Thai iced tea, Mango Breeze
Lid style: You gotta poke a hole in a hard plastic lid (only if you get it to go - it comes in a glass if you're dining in), but it's already halfway punched out for you. None of the silly plastic wrap that gives boba rookies so much trouble.
Smiles: I was very impressed with the mango! Very smooth, light and tasty. Its uber-mangoness is not for mango-haters, though. The Thai iced tea is pretty standard-tasting. The tapioca is VERY soft and chewy, which I personally like, but others may frown upon.

Thai iced tea+tapioca = :)

Thai iced tea

Mango Breeze

Scowls: Perhaps a demi-scowl to the fact that the tapioca was still slightly warm when the drinks came. Also, call me old fashioned, but I still think boba should come in its purest form, milk tea. Which they don't do.
Most memorable bo-ment: My partner in crime, roommate and fellow Free Press intern Sarah Welliver, made an egregious error: she attempted to take my boba from atop my car as I was trying to lock her out of my car. Or perhaps because I was trying to lock her out of my car...Interesting. I sure showed her!

Sarah and Mango Breeze

Overall rating: 8/10

Boba beginnings

2007-07-17T07:21:00.001-07:00

I'll try to make this more interesting than the standard food blog, but I can't make any promises. The only thing I can say for sure is that boba, and lots of it, will be had.