These Americans Claim To Make BETTER BOBA

This Portland couple just created what they call better boba. But let's see why boba drinkers around the nation aren't responding very well to it. Yeah, we're just talking about the squishy tapioca pearls, not the popping pearls. But this got explosive. Long story short, Andrew, this turned into an appreciation of culture versus an appropriation of culture argument. Make sure you like, subscribe, turn on your notifications, Andrew. But real quick, another product that is from Asia that is a fusion, Andrew, is smile live. This is smoky plus my lot. Get it at smile. Sauce dot com from Sichuan to Sicily. Andrew, why is this such a big deal? Man, this got heavily, heavily debated. And there were so many topics, so much like like dissent over. Well, let's let's talk about real quick. Boba is a symbol of Asian America. And these people are who are not even Taiwanese or Chinese or even East Asian at all are trying to revolutionize boba. So obviously a lot of people are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is our thing. You trying to come in here, act like you're doing it the best way because basically what happened and here's the story is that there was a couple in Portland who's the man, South Asian, the woman's wife and Allison Sotha. They have an organic ice cream shop. They wanted to get into boba. They like boba. And then they tried to serve boba. But all the boba that they could order off of like Amazon, for example, had a lot of preservatives, like 15 ingredients, right? More than they would want to serve. So then they started looking in how to make their own. And I think they found out that making your own boba is extremely easy. It takes three ingredients. So they were like, yo, let's make our better boba with better ingredients. It's all natural. And then they started pitching it like that. But here is probably the most controversial part. They said and they wrote it out. They said we came to this conclusion in this ingredient list because all the other bobas that we tried, quite frankly, tasted bad. And here's the other part, Andrew. They left out that there is Asian-American and Asian-Canadian second gen companies making boba with like five, six or seven ingredients. So it is true. I'll give them this. It looks like better boba has the least ingredients at four. But there's a bunch of Asian-American ones coming in at six and seven and are certainly not like the cheap one shipped from overseas with 15. But David, let me ask you, why do you care if it's four or seven ingredients? What does it mean? Just because there are less ingredients, why is that better? If that means there's less ingredients, then maybe it's not as good. Do you think it's true that that a lot of it was just them calling all the previous boba bad? Because I was almost like, what? I've been drinking a bad product for like 20 years. But like, so you are just going to tell me, Ms. White Lady and Mr. Indian Man, that the boba that I drink is bad and you know more than me. What was offensive was that I think the term better boba or is a little bit, you know, pretentious like, oh, we make better boba. Better than what? Right. And then they're really comparing their boba to the cheapest dried boba that shipped over. So, of course, they have more preservatives. Like you mean the ones that are in like a two dollar? Yeah, but they're like completely ignorant of the fact that Xing Fu Tang is like a premium Taiwanese boba chain that literally makes boba from scratch in the shop. And they're also overlooking the fact that on YouTube, you can literally learn how to make boba with three ingredients, not four, three. And not only that, Andrew, boba guys has their own OEM or the boba pearl dry manufacturer called Tea People. And that only has six ingredients. Yeah, so I guess they're really not winning by a large margin. I mean, Andrew, look, this Trader Joe's bubble tea actually only has like seven ingredients. Wait, that's Trader Joe's. This is Trader Joe's boba kit. Guys, I'm not advertising Trader Joe's, but if you try it, it's pretty good. And they actually get it manufactured in Taiwan. Plus, fundamentally, Andrew, boba is not healthy, period. I don't care what you make it out of. Right. So they're kind of trying to play the healthy lane. But boba is essentially a sweet, special snack that is really not necessarily shouldn't be part of your daily diet anyways. But I don't know, man, I think they made a mistake. That's my general take. But we can get in the comments section and see what other people say. I got one real quick thought before we get in the comments section. I feel like people, all people West, I don't know, you know, whatever. Like people think that East Asians have no definitely no bite. But I think that some people think that East Asian people or Asian people in general, Southeast Asians have no bark, too. You know what I mean? Because like they just went and did this without even thinking about the community. And of course, the boba lovers, they bark back. Yeah, it's almost like they made this without ever going to any boba shop. Honestly, they might not have. They're like organic ice cream. I don't you know, like like salt and straw. Yeah, I don't know if they went to a single premium boba shop. Like, yeah, if they went to the you know, the old spots that were bobas like three dollars, two dollars. Yeah, I can see they're using a lot of preservatives. I get it. Yeah, that's true. But anyways, guys, let's get in the comments section. Somebody said you're making the Western version of bubble tea. Someone said there are plenty of Asian American, Asian Canadian companies doing it that are healthier. And you completely ignore them in your comparisons. I hate white folks from Oregon trying to be white saviors to boba, claiming that they make the better one. Portland is the home of cultural appropriation. This reminds me of Lucky Lee's trying to revolutionize Chinese express food. The congee lady from Eugene who said that she made a better congee. And the white women who tried to say they made a better version of mahjong. I mean, apparently a lot of this stuff comes out of Oregon. But I'm not going to lie. I don't think all I don't think any of those businesses did well. So I don't think this is a good way to start a business is what I'm saying. So I'm not I'm not hoping that their business shuts down. But if it's a bad product with this bad press, it will not last. But they are well within their right to try. Oh, yeah, everybody can try. Everybody can try to make whatever product they want, man. But but I think that people are very not sensitive about Asian products from Kim Kardashian trying to trademark kimono. Yeah, like to be honest, like I don't think any Asian people would try to. And I'm not, you know, shout out to South Asians, but they would not try to make like a better chai. Yeah, no, I don't think they would. I think that Asians and boba drinkers alike have to speak up about this and let people know that even for something as trivial as boba, even though it's a symbol of Asian America, oddly enough, that they're going to stand up for it and be like, yo, you're doing it wrong. Right. You're doing you're at least talking wrong. Somebody said that it's clear from their marketing materials that they're doing, putting like their boba on waffles, that they are trying to appeal to white people who have never been exposed to boba before. So even though they are offending a lot of Asians and they know that they are, they don't really care because the Asians that are mad are not even falling within their marketing demographic pie that they desire anyway. Do you think any white people are like better boba? Well, what the hell is boba? What are you talking about? Those little chewy pearls, I guess I only had them once. You're right. Um, somebody said, I can't believe they're also talking about how other bobas are unhealthy when they are promoting putting their bobas in alcohol. There's no way that is healthy. Yeah. Yeah. It's all just it's goofy, man. You know what? Listen, guys, if you guys have tried better boba, let us know what it is in the comments section below. And be honest. I mean, if it is good, then just say it's good. You can still if I'm not saying it is a good product, but if it is a good product, you can still chastise them for dissing Taiwanese or dissing Asian people, but then still acknowledge that it's a good product. If it is, I'm not saying that it is or not. Yeah. I mean, my overall takeaway is like, listen, man, anybody can make any product. This is America. It's a melting pot global market. Right. But just be respectful. They did not go about it the right way. Right. And but is anybody also allowed to clap back? Yeah, man, you have you have a public Instagram page. Guess what? You can get comments from anybody. So if you, you know, piss people off, that's what it is. You know what? If people really want to be proactive, they should send some of the better boba over to the Asian manufacturers and just be like, hey, guys, this is the new wave right now. You guys might want to get on it, because I'll tell you this. They made it sound like a little bit like the people from Asia didn't know how to make it without the 15 ingredients of preservatives. I'm sure they know how they just do it for cost reasons and like shipping overseas because they got to be on a boat for like six months or whatever. So it's like that would be another way. Like once the Asian manufacturers know that four ingredient boba is the way they'll get on it and they'll just up the prices. Yeah. But I do think, again, there have been Asian American and Asian Canadian brands already trying to do like high quality, you know, less ingredient boba. But why like for who cares about your four ingredients, whatever the five or six, whatever, like boba is not healthy for you. Right. But fundamentally, guys, it should be a treat only. How much do you think Andrew, the Asian community needs to get bark? I think, you know, there's different bark about it. There's different types of dogs, right? Some dogs, they bark and they bite. Some dogs bite. They don't bark. Some dogs do everything. Some dogs do nothing. I think the reason why Asian Americans are mad or East Asians in particular is because people have identified them as the Japanese chin. The Japanese chin is a small dog that does not bite and does not bark. No, I'm talking about neither of them. Oh, so so even a dog that just barks is going to feel more stronger than a dog that just doesn't do anything right. And especially dogs that bite and bark are going to feel way stronger. Oh, yeah, I do agree. I think Asians should speak up about it. Boba drinkers, if you feel passionate about it, speak up about it. I will say this in their defense, not every white person that ever does anything from another culture is trying to be a white savior about it. They kind of had that tone in the marketing, which was their mistake. I'm not saying they're bad people, but just don't do that, guys. Just remember, you can make whatever you want in America. An Asian should be able to wear dreadlocks and a white person can make boba. And this person like but just be respectful. There is a general respect that you just have when you do stuff like that. Well, let us know what you guys think in the comments section below. Keep it civil. We encourage debate. Is this an explosive idea? Even though it's not popping pearls, but the squishy tapioca pearls. Until next time, we'd hop our boys. We out. Peace.