This episode is full of gross exaggerations, dizzying arrays and many stupifications as we chat about the eating and drinking experience of boba. We traverse the peeks and hills of the early espresso era as we discuss bathing in boba, open mic dreams and moving up to a size Small. Shaken, not sealed.
The article in the Taipei Times by Edward Jones
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Matthew Amster-Burton 0:00
Hi I'm Matthew
Molly 0:04
and I'm Molly and
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:05
this is Phil belt The show where we cook something delicious. Eat it all and you can't happen
Molly 0:10
today we are talking about boba.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:13
Yes and this episode was suggested by pretty much everybody and it's taken us too long to get around to
Molly 0:18
it and the sad thing is is we're recording it on a Monday morning but it's too early for the local like Boba shop to be open so we're not going to be drinking any Bobo while we record this.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:29
Yeah, it's it's interesting. There's like, you know, I noticed this like after I started going to traveling to Asia that there's like, American Cafe and Bakery hours and then there's East Asian Cafe and Bakery hours and Lexotan American bakery opens at like 6:30am and a Japanese or you know, Taiwanese bakery or cafe opens at like 10 or 12.
Molly 0:53
Oh, okay, so the boba shop is operating on the East Asian time right
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:57
so there's two boba shops within like a five minute walk by apartment and both of them open at noon.
Molly 1:02
Okay, but wait, let's think about this because boba like people don't go get boba the way they go get coffee is a like, sweet treat.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:11
That's totally fair.
Molly 1:12
I mean, it's not like I'm gonna go get Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:15
Like, I think I'm conflating like different things. In Japan they're like you know, tea Caf like non non boba tea cafes and like, you know, patisserie shops that open at like 10 or 11am.
Molly 1:26
Okay, okay, fair. Okay. Well, we just caught Matthew in a gross exaggeration. That's
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:31
gross. Well, that was super gross, and it won't be the last time.
Molly 1:35
Okay. Matthew, I'm going to lead off with with memory lane here because I don't have much All right memory lane. I definitely learned about boba tea, or you know about bubble tea, also known as boba at some point after moving to Seattle, which was 20 years ago. Yeah, so I think it was probably while I was still in grad school, because I think of the university district and the app, which is what we call University Avenue. Here in Seattle. I think of the app as like the original location of like boba tea shop.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:09
I think that's true. And like, you know, if there's gonna be a new like a new chain from Taiwan showing up in Seattle, like probably their first Seattle outpost is still gonna be in the U district. Because students college students love boba,
Molly 2:24
but I don't remember the first time I ever had it. And I think that I have had it more in the last year, then any other time sure has or than any, you know, then then the total of all years before because my kid is really into boba my
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:40
kid is too and like, not even as much as some of their friends are like the to the Columbia high school students are also just like, you know, going for bubble tea is like a thing you do.
Molly 2:50
I wish that. So when I was in high school, as I've mentioned on the show before, you know, it was like peak Early Espresso drink era. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Earliest presso drink.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:02
A eed. A PD. Yeah.
Molly 3:06
So there was a peak in the earliest press where there was the real peak. It's like foothills,
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:12
I'm trying to, in my mind.
Molly 3:15
Anyway, we used to go out to like, the only coffee shop that we knew of in Oklahoma City, and it was called medinas. Okay, or Medina's Medina's I can't remember, I'm all messed up now. But anyway, I would get like a mocha and then there'd be an open mic night and I would read poetry. They're so good. Anyway, I really wish that boba polices cultivated this kind of embarrassing open mic night culture for the teens of today. Oh,
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:44
that would be great. And like, you know, like, singing like Kpop songs and stuff. Yeah. I there's an open mic that a friend told me about at the at the Fremont Abbey, I believe do they do once a month and I've been trying to like get up the courage to like go play a song there.
Molly 4:00
Oh, that seems so right. You should go I would come watch you. Okay, yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:05
So I have a little boba memory lane. I also don't remember the first time I had it but it was definitely in Seattle and almost certainly the either in the U district or the International District. Okay, but I have been to one of the two cafes in Taiwan that claims to have invented
Molly 4:21
boba now you're just showing off yeah. Curious to check.
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:25
So there what we'll get into this in the in the history, but there are two two cafes in Taiwan, each of which claims to be the originator of boba and the one I've been to is the one in Thai Chun which is called Dutch French way tongue. It's really beautiful. Like Cafe like restaurant tea house. I had the black sesame milk tea and it was delicious. Was it like better than any other pub I've ever had? No, but it was a it was a delightful experience.
Molly 4:51
I have a question. So you say it was it was beautiful like a tea house? So did it. You know, most boba places in Seattle at least are designed to appeal to young people. Yeah, this
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:03
is a totally different aesthetic. A lot of exposed wood.
Molly 5:07
Oh, yeah, like it like one might think of in an East Asian tea.
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:11
Yeah, okay, probably there were some teak involved. And
Molly 5:15
we did the boba cup. So you know, I always think of boba coming in like a tall plastic cup with like a thin plastic lid that sealed on top and you poke your big straw through it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:24
Yeah, we went for lunch because they serve food at this place also, that's that's pretty good. And they serve the the the bubble tea and like a like a milkshake class, kind of with a foot I think. Oh, I
Molly 5:36
love that. That feels really right. But I bet if you get it
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:39
to go, it's in a plastic cup with the cellophane seal. Okay,
Molly 5:43
okay. Okay, well, let's I'm very curious about the history of this because I know nothing about it. Okay, please. Hell, I went
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:50
in expecting this to be like a really murky and contested history. And it is a little bit but not as much as I expected. So some of what I'm going to I'm going to go through comes from an article in the Taipei times by Edward Jones, which we'll link to in the show notes and some from Wikipedia. Okay, so first of all, the term bubble tea predated the term boba, and to this day, like bubble tea can refer to any drink that any iced drink that you get at a Boba shop, because the bubbles refer to the bubbles from shaking the drink. Not the boba pearls. What?
Molly 6:22
Is it shaken?
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:24
So yeah, so you you're supposed to shake it yourself? That's that's the point of the cellophane seal you get you get the I mean, not everybody likes to shake and everybody has their own order in their own way of doing it. But the basic idea is you you order your iced boba drink, it comes with a seal so it's safe to shake it. Okay, you like invert it and shake it so that it's to cool it and then start drinking. Oh, and cool it and aerate it a little I had no idea okay, when you get boba do you do this? Always?
Molly 6:54
I am absolutely stupefied. I had no idea. Okay, wow, come on. I'm already I'm doing so much learning.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:01
Okay, and of course of course like nowadays if you say bubble tea in the US people people assume probably there's going to be boba involved and that's fine. Okay, words change Okay, the term boba probably everyone knows this by now refers to big breasts.
Molly 7:14
I didn't know this.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:17
So this was like Taiwanese slang that like first referred to like you know boobs, and then and then refer to like, you know, anything round by extension and so like, do you want to but in this tea,
Molly 7:28
we're all just walking around saying like, big boob T
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:31
i so from the the impression that I got from reading a bunch of stuff is that like this, this meaning has, like, you know, fallen out of like, current slang in Taiwan and like, now, if you say it, people will really only think of tapioca pearls
Molly 7:44
is that how, like in in American English, you know, you say knockers, and we all just think of like the thing on a door with
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:50
Yeah, I think yeah. Like that, that that might be some slag that like, you know, your grandma's Grandma,
Molly 7:57
what are you? Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:00
And so this definitely originated in Taiwan. Yeah, we can go back to the slang like throughout the episode, if you want. It is pretty great.
Molly 8:07
Thanks for giving me permission to make dumb jokes. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:11
It. Bubble Tea definitely originated in Taiwan. And there are two shops that claimed to have invented it Chang Wei Tong Tong and Thai Chang and Han Lin Tea Room in Taiwan. And it was invented in the mid 80s and became popular throughout Taiwan in the late 80s. And then internationally and several waves starting in the late 90s. Okay, so I think that's when I remember it First appearing in Seattle. I think I probably first tried it, like during the egullet era, like early 2000s.
Molly 8:38
That seems right for me to I mean, I moved here during that era. Yeah, yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:42
So the heartland Tea Room claims that invented boba in 1986 Chang Wei Tang claims that they invented in 1987. They sued the heck out of each other, but neither was able to establish the intellectual property rights. So no one got the patent and anyone can make boba and call it whatever they want.
Molly 8:59
I'm really disappointed that they sued each other. I just thought that that suing people for dumb things was like an American was a purely American thing to do. But I think there was a lot of money on the line. Okay, so it wasn't a dumb thing. Well, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:15
don't know. I mean, it is still kind of, okay. All right, go on. And so like the why did they start making this like, where did the idea come from? It's clear that that boba tea is related to other like jellied tea drinks that go back like well over 100 years, and in particular, probably to, like Chendol or sometimes called Sindall, which is like a Malaysian Singaporean drink that is tea with grass jelly, which is it's another starchy thing that you could put in your in your tea.
Molly 9:47
And is it purely a textural thing? I mean, how did people come to start making jelly teas?
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:54
That's a good question. So I think it was probably like a textural and and like nutritional thing like like Not not in terms of like micronutrients but like in terms of like adding some like bulk and calories to to this beverage and also just people like the texture okay yeah and so like this is the these these particular textures and particularly like putting them in drinks is something that's really associated with like maritime Southeast Asia so like like Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan Philippines that there is like a huge appreciation for for like jellied and other like you know chewy textures and combining that with drinks and so that goes back a really long way because like the idea of like something starchy that you can boil at a gels something up is not new, right and so like making making a jelly like a grass jelly and like you know, cutting into cubes or just kind of crushing it up and putting it into your tea would not would not have been like a great leap. Okay, okay, but then taking you know, figuring out like, okay, we can we can take these tapioca balls and do the same thing. Like this is gonna be the hit drink. That was a Taiwanese innovation.
Molly 10:59
Okay, got it. Got it. So what is boba I mean, so there's there's bubble tea, which was the original term but that just had to do with like this shaking and air rating. Yeah, of a tea drink. Right. And then there's boba which is like the round chunky stuff,
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:17
the chunky stuff.
Molly 11:18
Okay, so what is boba today?
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:21
Okay, so there's two components obviously there's the tea and there's the tapioca pearls. Okay, so the the basic tea that you would order like you know first you know, you'd already your favorite word of course, but like like the classic tea at any boba shop is milk tea. And what that means usually is so it's easy to find like if you look for online for like how to make boba shop style milk tea, you will find lots of people saying like, I tried to make this and it didn't taste anything like I had at the boba shop, and it's because they kind of tried to make it too good. And I don't mean any of this is like a derogatory way at all. But like your basic milk tea at a Boba shop is made with really cheap tea leaves like Lipton tea bags or instant tea, non dairy creamer, simple syrup and water. And that is delicious. It's delicious. Yeah. And it's particularly like, I think the non dairy creamer is a big part of what people like about the milk tea at a Boba shop. Not all of them do that. Some use real milk, some use like a combination of like half and half and milk. Although that sounds expensive, but the you know, it's that thickness.
Molly 12:29
I was gonna say I think of a certain viscosity. Yes. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:32
Great. Um, right, so you can also order lots and lots of different flavors of tea at any boba shop, of course, which is lots of fun. The most popular ones these days aside from milk tea, tend to be tomorrow, which I've had it a bunch of times and I think I might buy precious that people mostly order it because they love like the purple color.
Molly 12:51
How do they get the Tarot in there? Is it like powdered, it's powdered?
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:55
Like, is it is it like a big hit of Toro flavor? I don't think so. Yeah, I found it to be but I do like it because the because I like purple things. And then the other the other most popular one these days is brown sugar, milk tea, which usually contains no tea. It's milk and brown sugar syrup. Oh, I
Molly 13:12
didn't realize that June has gotten the brown sugar mill. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:15
the first time I had that was in Japan at a place that was known for that I think really pretty much only served that and it was fantastic.
Molly 13:23
Oh my god, I bet that could be really carried belly and delicious. Okay. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:27
so let's talk about the pearls. Wow, am I talking a lot? Please no, go ahead. So the boba pearls are typically five to 10 millimeters in diameter. So bring your calipers and made from tapioca starch and you you often see like a choice of white or black pearls. The black pearls are by far the more more popular but most shops also have white pearls. Oh, they have added
Molly 13:49
brown sugar. That's what makes them dark in color. The black pearls. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:54
Yeah, the white ones are just pure cook tapioca starch. Got it. And they're also flavored pearls which I've seen occasionally, but I don't know if I've ever tried. So here's here's a description from Wikipedia on how to make tapioca pearls quote to create pearls. Tapioca flour, also known as tapioca starch is mixed with boiling water until a kneadable consistency is achieved, the dough is cut and rolled into a spherical shape. One method of achieving the correct shape is called the Gung sore method. The starch is inserted into a long cylindrical twill cloth bag and a jerking motion is used to toss the starch lumps back and forth, the lumps will become more firm and game up gain a more spherical shape spherical. The process is repeated until the pearls have roughly become the desired size. Afterward the pearls will be sorted according to size.
Molly 14:38
Hold up this cannot be how it's made. No.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:42
It's made industrially but doesn't it sound great? It does sound like you put you put some like goo in a bag and shake it around and then like different sizes of balls come out. So cool. Like it's a magic trick that you get to drink.
Molly 14:54
I remember you and December once made Udaan noodles or ramen noodles Udaan okay because you had to like stomp on the dough you before December goes off to college you guys should really make some boba
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:10
we could do this all we need is a twill a cylindrical twill cloth bag
Molly 15:13
yeah great sure we can get I'm definitely convinced that we're gonna get this right the first time
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:20
okay, but so oh ye of little thin
Molly 15:23
but then there are these things called popping boba and Jun explained this differentiation, please they have like this thin it seems like a very molecular gastronomy thing. It has this like thin membrane so it looks almost like a tapioca pearl. But when you bite into it the membrane like propers and inside is like a flavored goo.
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:45
Yeah, so so they are the molecular gastronomy thing they're made exactly like you know, like sphere of fied fruit whatever that you would get at a fancy place you know his favorite sodium alginate or whatever that is and with yeah with like a thick and fruit syrup inside i don't think i've tried them have you
Molly 16:02
I have because June let's see the last time we got boba Jun got half like black pearls and half popping boba
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:10
Oh no. And I like in the same drink in the same dress. Nice.
Molly 16:13
And I tried one.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:15
Oh, so this was it like the self serve. This is okay. We're gonna come into this place. Okay, so one more like one more thing about about the pearls and we'll talk about like Boba shops. The the pearls are sold in a dried rectangular block, which if you've never seen them, like for sale like Eduardo, Maya like I was very surprised at how they look like what they look like before they're prepared because they're they're like a gray brick kind of okay, and then they need to be cooked and cooled before serving in order to rehydrate them and like this is considered like you know how you how do you test out like a good boba shop like is the do they have the right texture of pearls? Because if they're undercooked they will be impossible to chew and if they're overcooked they'll be mushy and clumped together. Having said that, I haven't noticed a big difference like you know, texture between different boba shops I think probably it's a pretty standardized process at this point.
Molly 17:06
That makes sense.
So well, I wanted to mention this self serve fo please so I think it's the first self serve boba to open in Seattle right?
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:22
Yeah, what's it called?
Molly 17:23
It's called boba up okay. And it's in the U district. It is in one of those those storefronts where you walk down a few stairs. Yeah, so it feels very it almost feels very Tokyo. Yeah, like it felt a little bit like going into remember when we went into this cotton candy place in Harajuku
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:41
cotton candy place, maybe
Molly 17:42
you're with us,
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:43
they'll remember that anyway.
Molly 17:45
Okay. So you go in and you stop at a cash register right inside the door and you say what size you want. Okay? And if you want you can get like an elaborate sort of drink with a name like they have behind the cash register on a menu. But what most people do is, you know, you say I want a regular sized regular and they give you a cup and then they give you like a plastic glove to put on. Because, of course Koba Koba go to the coffee shop, open and get COFA with your boba. Anyway, then you you walk through it's like going to mend cheeser. So
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:25
yeah, that's how I'm envisioning it.
Molly 18:27
You You start at the end with the pearls. And I
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:31
assume you just like reach in with your plastic lava lake up.
Molly 18:34
Yeah, yeah, no. So the pearls are there. There's, there's black pearls. There's some sort of popping boba. And then there are a lot of jellies, more jellies than pearls.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:45
So when you said so self service, I assume they were gonna give you a bag and some goo and you have to shake. Yeah,
Molly 18:50
exactly. That's right. It takes a really long time. Okay. No, it's like a little salad bar with this nice shirt. But the thing I have noticed is they keep the black pearls off to the side on like a little rolling cart. And they're in like a like a six pan.
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:06
What's what's a six?
Molly 19:07
It's a certain size pan in restaurant service. Okay, like a small but deep metal pan. Yeah. Okay. And they bring them out and they're still hot. Oh, interesting.
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:16
They're still making them I think like you have to make them throughout the day because once they've been once they've been made they don't hold very long like Yeah, well ours may be but not longer than that. So
Molly 19:26
they're not under the sneeze guard with all the others or they haven't been a couple of times I've gone anyway so you take a scoop of that. Strangely the ice machine is beyond that. Is that normal? You think you would get the boba first and the ice
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:40
I think so because like the ice gets gets put in at the top. Oh,
Molly 19:43
okay. Well the way it works there is there's the the boba and jellies area. Then there's the ice machine and there's a little thing telling you roughly how much ice to put okay. And then there is like a crazy array of different numbers of teas and things. In those dispensers with like a rotating wheel inside and a clear plastic vessel, so you can see the liquid in there. And their signs hanging from the ceiling. And you basically just go up and put your cup underneath whichever one you want. And it's a dizzying array. I have only ever gotten like the basic milk tea. Yeah. Anyway, you mentioned well, you'll talk about this in a minute, but you like to get like the sweetness level, like a certain percentage. And I haven't noticed, I've noticed that at Boba up, you can add extra syrup if you want at the end. But I have not seen like a lower sweetness, variety of that. Well, how do you? How would
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:47
you rate the sweetness of the basic milk tea? It's sweet, but not the sweetest I've had Okay, cuz I'm guessing probably their basic is like what you would they would call a 50%. Okay, they can on self service shop, and then you can like additionally sweeten it, this is just a guess. Then
Molly 21:05
at the end of that, there's another little counter with a person working behind it, you hand them your full cup, and they do the seal on top of it and give you a straw. But it's always overwhelming. Yeah, it's really hard to choose. And there's a part of me that wonders. So I haven't had boba that somebody else has assembled for me in a while. And I always wonder if I'm getting the right amount of ice even though they roughly indicate like, I don't know if I'm getting the right proportion. Well,
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:33
I don't think there is a right amount because like some people like there's with no ice and like so. Okay, so I I've been going to the two places in my neighborhood recently. And you know, I'm probably like generalizing some things based on two boba shops that are not in the EU district. So it's not the epicenter of Seattle Bo, but it's certainly not the world epicenter. Oh, no, but both of them use like an iPad ordering system, which, like, I guessing is partly like a social distancing thing, but also partly like, I imagine because there are so many things on the menu like it would get really frustrating to like after like, negotiate an order with a customer because there are just so many choices. Yeah, like Did you mean this one or this was just like a computer I always think
Molly 22:17
that way at Starbucks when somebody's like, I want a half caf with a with vanilla syrup. No whip, bloop, bloop,
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:24
beat by a couple. Yeah, a couple of bloops of syrup. Yeah. Okay. And so I always like ordering on a computer like, it feels feels like I'm talking to a friendly robot who's gonna make me a drink. But to be clear, the humans make the drinks. Like once you've chosen like your flavor of tea, then there are options for like, you know, what, what do you want in it? Like, you know, do you want like the standard black pearls? Or do you want like a popping pearl or grass jelly or coffee jelly or something like that? Or an orange no add ins, that's totally fine too. And then you choose your sweetness level which which can range from like zero to 100% and go like zero? 3050 80 100? Something like that. And I usually get 50% Okay, because I find the the standard 100% Way too sweet for me. Okay, and then the amount of ice and I like regular ice and teenager the show December likes half ice.
Molly 23:20
Okay, so regular ice. Like, how much would you say?
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:26
It's it's definitely less than like, you know, if you order like a fountain drink. Yeah. And like let the person it's not like a non self serve fountain drink and let the person at the movies or whatever. Like put ice in the cup. Like it's less than that. Can
Molly 23:39
you move your straw around freely? All the ice? Okay, and so does does December prefer half ice? Because they want more tea? Or because they don't want it that cold or because they don't want it to get watered down?
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:52
That's a good question. I should have asked them I don't know. Okay, I'm guessing I'm guessing watered down? Yeah. Fair. That's my guess.
Molly 24:00
Okay. And then oh my god, I have never know. So you literally shake the cup like vertically? Not just like a little the little Rabbit
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:08
sight like inverted a couple of times before you poke the straw for I poked the straw. Okay, if I did that after I poked the straw they would kick me out of the shop and put put a picture of me up by the cash register like Don't let this idiot anywhere in here actually, I
Molly 24:22
had no idea I was supposed to invert Okay, okay, but I do okay, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:25
just I was just remembered a story that I've like blocked out for years which is that one of the first times I got boba maybe the first time actually I like peeled the cell. Yeah, it's stuck by straw in and they like you monster Yeah, the person like came over and explained to me. Oh my god.
Molly 24:43
So is that how you learned you're supposed to shake it? Probably. Okay, okay. Okay, so what is your and you do usually get just regular milk tea. Yeah, that's my
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:52
favorite. Okay, yesterday I went to timeless tea down the street for me and I got the coffee milk tea, which I'd been one wanting to try which is it has both coffee and tea. Do you taste both? You taste both it took that took a little getting used to I did end up enjoying it. I am gonna go back to the regular milk tea next time.
Molly 25:12
Okay, and how big are like how big a cup do you get? Because they're always it's quite large.
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:17
Yeah, I'm glad you asked. Like I realized yesterday that I was talking to my family about a meal that we had once enjoyed in Tokyo. And I was saying that I remembered the food as being like, not that great. And realizing and they were both very surprised by this because they thought the food was great. Just like every other place. We've been in Tokyo and I realized that what I meant was, they served me more food than I could eat and that makes me uncomfortable. And I have the same experience with boba because I prefer timeless tea because they're their regular size or they have a small size that's like a little smaller than the regular super tall size. It's still too much for me and I still don't like that, but it's less like totally over the top. Okay, so like I wish there was like a like I could order like a baby boba, and maybe they could charge me the same price that it would be fine.
Molly 26:11
Like, it's like I love that Wendy's makes like a kid's frosty McDonald's makes like a kid's or a snack sized flurry. I really appreciate these things, even though absolutely order those things actually over time. Like now when we get MC flurries, which is not infrequently I always get a small like I've sized up is Yeah, snack size too small. Yeah, you're growing up. I'm growing up. Yeah, yeah. Just just a big, big kid in the world.
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:39
Yeah. All right. Did you have one of those big wheels?
Molly 26:42
No, but I definitely wrote a lot of those are sick. Yeah, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:47
got a lot of big wheel injuries. Do you
Molly 26:49
remember? Once on the show when we talked about how nice it would be if there were like giant people who could like just last, you know, like as though we were like big adult babies. Yeah, I think it'd be really nice if there were like giant big wheels. Yeah, you know, Hot Wheels.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:06
Or like ATVs but like being like, not motorized,
Molly 27:09
motorized pedal, and it's gonna make a lot of noise. Like,
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:13
oh, those things were so loud. Like, wheels against the pavement. Yes. Yeah. And sooner or later, the wheels would get big old. Yeah, I'd have to throw it out. Yeah.
Molly 27:24
Okay. So what are some? I mean,
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:27
they're say they should make a Boba cup so big you can bathe in it. Oh,
Molly 27:32
I mean, I do think that there would be worse things than like lowering yourself into like that kind of like the boba. I mean, I think I'd get a wicked yeast infection. Sure, but But I do think like, in terms of like sensations, it'd be really nice like pulling both out in various crevices and open them soba would be big. It would be to scale. Oh, I see. Yeah. Like a ball pit. Like
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:00
yeah, go and take Baba back to its original meaning. Like a like a bubble ball pit?
Molly 28:06
Yeah. Okay, so there are always a lot of other tea flavors available. Right? I mean, you and I are pretty you know, pretty. Pretty basic bitches. We Yeah. And that we just get the milk tea. Yep. So what are some other options? I was
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:21
I was looking at the menu at timeless tea. And these are just some of the things on the menu. Okra lemon tea, red bean pomegranate, fruit tea milk cream four season green tea. Milky black sesame with waffle. I don't know what that means. But that is the next thing. I'm going to order. purple rice milk, purple rice milk tea, and peach gum fresh milk. I had to look up what peach gum was. And it is the sap of the peach tree that's made made into like little morsels.
Molly 28:48
I wonder if it has a peach flavor or even like flavor right? Because Because of peach pits or Yeah, I don't know. It's really interesting.
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:59
Okay, so like yeah, like just it's still even though like you know boba is no longer like a new thing at all. Like it still feels very exciting to me to go to the boba place even if I don't even order anything interesting. I really
Molly 29:11
wish we could go some time soon. Okay. Oh, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:16
forgot to mention a there's this product did that already talk about this on the show? There's this product they sell it timeless tea that we tried one time which is a dog cheesecake that is is a design for dogs? No, it's It's formed it is in the form of a very realistic Bulldog. And it's available in like original cheesecake flavor or chocolate is does it stand up on four legs? No, it's like a like a like a bulldog. Sleepy. Sleepy Bulldog lying down, down Bulldog. Okay, and so and so like, Oh, we got to try this. This is gonna be funny and like eating it is very disturbing, because you're like, I'm like, I'm gonna have to just go in and get this. Get this process underway and eat the face of this cute dog. Okay, I did and it was tasty and we're never getting it again.
Unknown Speaker 30:03
Okay. Wow.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:05
It's really funny.
Molly 30:06
Oh my god. Okay, hold on. Can we talk about the actual eating of the boba? Yeah, yeah, so when you are drinking boba when you are eating boba it's an eating and drinking drinking experience. Do you want boba in like every straw suck? i Every straw.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:25
I do I want to get like two or three at every sock. Okay, okay, that's my goal.
Molly 30:30
Okay. And you know, I know that you say you don't always finish it or you often don't finish it. Do you leave tea behind the LIFO budget leave an equal amount of each.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:39
I think I kind of leave both. Yeah, okay. Okay. Like like, Is it is it like proportionally the same as when I started? I don't know. We'd have to get out the calipers or the centrifuge, baby. Yeah, the centrifuge. Okay. Oh, something important that I learned that there's a public service announcement that I forgot to even put on the agenda but it's really important. Do not try to put boba down your garbage disposal. It does not work at all. What does it just gum stuff up it just gum stuff up and then you have to like get in there with your fingers. Take out like a ball after ball that's that's when they're
Molly 31:12
known. No. Nope. Did you run plenty of water with it?
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:16
Uh, do eat me You mean do I know how to use a garbage disposal? I
Molly 31:20
look you are looking so indignant right now. I think you forgot to run the water I
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:24
ran all the water gallons okay fine. Like our Yeah, our next water bill was $5,000 and it and there was a note on it that said you put Bo buy in the garbage disposal didn't use Java
Molly 31:37
as I don't have a garbage disposal anymore so yeah, that's not
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:42
a very useful thing. So there there are bulbous spin off products I can get like you know boba and a cake are that sort of thing. The one that seems to be a real big hit that I've tried and it's very good are the the brown sugar Bobe ice cream bars
Molly 31:57
like what's the format here?
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:59
It's it's you know, it's like an ice cream bar on a stick and like it looks kind of like a fudge circle but with like with this the brown sugar syrup swirl and like a few boba pearls in each bar but they're frozen Yeah, but like they they like soften enough to be chewable pretty quick.
Molly 32:17
Oh, that sounds really nice.
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:18
Yes it really really good Where do you buy them? They sell them at Costco? I think they sell them like at QFC now it's become a really popular product I think wow. Okay for a while like I would see them only at a watch Amaya but not anymore
Molly 32:30
Good to know. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:31
well this definitely have made M to M which I'm going to go to after we record today.
Molly 32:35
Of course you are of course you are. I wish I could go okay, um, anyway, Matthew, do you have a now but wow for us this week
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:51
I do have a now but wow. And this one is going to be so simple for the person who said we recommend too many books and they can't keep up this. This one's going to take us six minutes. Our friend of the show question mark we wish Japanese breakfast Michels downer was on Saturday I live this it's this little like improv comedy sketch comedy show. Yeah, maybe you've heard of it. And you can you can watch it free on YouTube. It was incredible. And there is a gong involved.
Molly 33:17
Oh really?
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:18
Like a full a gong that is like bedecked with flowers and lights up. It was incredible performance.
Molly 33:25
Also, you know the reason we say friend of the show question mark is that we had Michelle on the show. Yeah, not that long ago even was it like a year ago?
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:35
Yeah, yeah, it was it was 2020 Maybe?
Molly 33:38
No, it was 2021 Okay. Anyway there's like
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:42
right right when when crying in H Mart came out right before yeah for Yeah.
Molly 33:47
Anyway guys look it up. I think it was a like a Korean rice cakes episode.
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:52
That's actually what I need to get it M to M today. Perfect. All right.
Molly 33:56
Congratulations on your success. Michelle. I feel like you don't you don't have to be a friend of the show. But we still claim you
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:03
right it's as if we'd had like Bradley Cooper on the show while he was on Alias and then then like forever could say we had Bradley Cooper on the show yeah, we have not had Bradley Cooper on the show but we would let's see
Molly 34:15
who else we can get on the show right before they make it big because then we can we can claim their successes our own
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:20
that's true like who who's gonna make it big next I hear I'm hearing a lot about this Harry Styles. Oh, yeah, I think he might have what it takes. Yeah,
Molly 34:28
I think he might do Harry call us we've been doing all this late night talk in about everything you want on killed
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:41
I was gonna try and get remember to listen to it today. Okay. Yeah, call call Molly on her on her personal number. It's 206555.
Molly 34:53
All right. And by that I mean, big breasts
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:58
and our producer is Abby circuit's
Molly 35:00
hella. And you can rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts you can hang out with
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:05
other people who like the show virtually at reddit.com/are/everything spilled milk. Maybe someone from there is about to make it big.
Molly 35:13
Maybe let us know if you're about to make it big. You feel like you're on the cusp of something. Maybe
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:17
Maybe moderator Yong Benz is about to really have a breakout hit.
Molly 35:21
Yes. Okay. All right. Well, thank you for listening to spilled milk.
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:25
The show that if you if you put us in a sack, and you shake us
Molly 35:30
all up, then we come out and we're pearls by Matthew Amster-Burton. I'm Molly Weissenberg.
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:44
Oh my god,
Molly 35:45
I hadn't thought about a garbage disposal in a long time. I use it every day. Truly. Like a kitchen gadget that I never use. It's
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:53
not important.