Bubble Tea

Have you ever tried bubble tea? I first heard of it from a fellow grad student/ESL tutor, who raved about it. Then, it popped up in a Buster Bunny DVD we borrowed from the library for Little Sir. It is a Chinese beverage, served hot or cold, and comes in many flavors...almond, taro, mango and other fruits, your typical milk tea, and some that resemble latte/cappuccino. You can get it "with bubbles" or "without." The "bubbles" are tapioca beads, like pearls. You are supposed to drink and eat it with a very wide straw through which the beads can be drawn.

Wednesday evening, I was running a little early to my seminar at Stony Brook, so I popped over to Jasmine, a restaurant in the Wang Center, and bought one. I chatted with the sweet girl, a Chinese barista, also a student at Stony Brook, who gave me lots of info. about the drinks as she prepared mine. I noticed a container of small mango pieces, next to the tapioca beads, that could be substituted for the tapioca in a drink. I thought I might try that next time.

Well...I got my drink, paid for it, and scurried across campus to my class...
While waiting to cross a street, I took my first generous slurp. The liquid portion was pleasantly tasty, and my initial reaction was positive...
then, a split second later my senses registered the sticky globs of yuck sitting on my tongue. I didn't want to bite down on them, and get it stuck in my teeth, so I gingerly pressed one to the roof of my mouth, testing it that way.

Wallpaper paste.
Yup, that's it. Wallpaper paste. The beautiful black pearls in the bottom of my drink tasted like wallpaper paste. Thank God, I'd grabbed a few napkins, and quickly spat them out into one. I then lifted the straw to try to drink the liquid without getting any tapioca in my straw. This was a pretty tricky endeavor, resulting in a few accidentally slipping past, causing me to repeat the napkin process.

Once in class, I toyed with it a bit more, then finally gave up. As much as I hate to waste things, this had to be disposed of. Enough was enough.

I emailed my friend, the bubble-tea-raver. She said her first experience was pretty much the same (she never told me that before!), but she tried again, other flavors, and now she loves it. It's a special treat that she sometimes shares with her 8-year-old son.

Maybe I will try to enhance my intercultural experiences again and attempt a different flavor, perhaps with the fruit. But I think my tapioca bead days are over.