By Mariza Liaw
Calling all Bubble Tea Addicts! There might not be any Bubble Tea, this Spring! The pandemic has created a major supply chain problem for tapioca, flavoured syrup, and disposable cups, which has bubble tea businesses on edge. If this shortage continues our greatest fear of our favourite bubble tea stores shutting down may come true.
To the people who aren’t sure what Bubble Tea is, it’s a Taiwanese signature drink that contains milk tea, green tea, or black tea, flavoured syrup, and toppings like tapioca or for some people, boba, aloe vera, jelly, etc.
Now that you know about this situation, here are some thoughts from our community.
“ It’s quite sad I would say, as I really like drinking bubble tea, but it’s great to take a break from it.” – Jaimie
“To be honest I drink more bubble tea than I should so this is kind of a bit of a crisis for me…” – Anonymous
“I mean it’s ok that there’s a shortage because bbt is not essential and it gives us a chance to try out other things and u can make tapioca pearls at home with tapioca powder. It’s pretty simple too. There’s not many ingredients for it, you just take any juice or puree and and powder to it to make like a thick paste, then u shape them and boil them.” – Anonymous
“In my personal opinion bubble tea is my most preferred drink on a weekly basis. Due to the shortage I find it very unsettling and sad that there might not be these drinks in the spring following to summer. As of having cold beverages they are very refreshing in the hotter weather. Overall, even though this issue won’t hurt me, it still feels bad that one of my favourite drinks won’t be around or at least the boba part of it.” – Samantha
“Bubble tea isn’t something that people need to have in order to survive, but I’m sad.” – Alan
Coming from how the pandemic morphed the shortage society’s must-have items, toilet paper to hand sanitizer to bubble tea ingredients, what else do you think it’ll take away from us next?
Sources:
“Boba Shortage Linked to Shipping Back Up.” YouTube, 14 Apr. 2021, https://youtu.be/1WfW6-CGr_U.
Paglinawan, Denise. “No Bubble Tea This Spring? Canada Faces Boba Shortage amid Shipping Delays.” CP24, CP24, 16 Apr. 2021, www.cp24.com/lifestyle/no-bubble-tea-this-spring-canada-faces-boba-shortage-amid-shipping-delays-1.5390967?cache=yes%3Fclipid%3D104062%3FcontactForm%3Dtrue%3FcontactForm%3Dtrue%3FclipId%3D68596%3FcontactForm%3Dtrue%3FautoPlay%3Dtrue%3FautoPlay%3Dtrue.
“Why There’s a Growing Boba Shortage.” YouTube, 26 Apr. 2021, youtu.be/ThjfzAtxKAk.https://youtu.be/ThjfzAtxKAk. Paglinawan, Denise. “No Bubble Tea This Spring? Canada Faces Boba Shortage amid Shipping Delays.” Thestar.com, 16 Apr. 2021, www.thestar.com/business/2021/04/16/no-bubble-tea-this-spring-canada-faces-boba-shortage-amid-shipping-delays.html.
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