Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: Bubble Tea

Episode notes

Alex Schmidt and Katie Goldin explore why bubble tea is secretly incredibly fascinating.

Visit http://sifpod.fun/ for research sources, handy links, and this week’s bonus episode.

LINKS FOR KATIE GOLDIN:

• Katie Goldin on Bluesky
• @ProBirdRights on Bluesky
• ‘Creature Feature’ podcast (iHeartRadio)
• When Is a Bird a ‘Birb’? An Extremely Important Guide (Audubon)

RESOURCES USED TO INFORM THE EPISODE’S LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

• native-land.ca
• U.S. Department Of Arts And Culture
• The True Native New Yorkers Can Never Truly Reclaim Their Homeland (Smithsonian)
• “Finding Lenapehoking” (YouTube / Hudson River Maritime Museum)
• Why Do They Call It Beacon? (The Highlands Current)
• Dutch & Native American Heritage In The Hudson River Valley (National Park Service)

RESEARCH SOURCES:

• The Food of Taiwan: Recipes from the Beautiful Island by Cathy Erway
• Our Readers Call Us Out Over Bubble Tea. They Are Right. (The New York Times)
• Link to current, updated version of the 2017 New York Times piece that originally called boba “blobs”
• Link to a 2001 New York Times piece that was more effective as coverage of bubble tea
• NY Times Apologizes For Article ‘Discovering’ Boba After Reader Uproar (Eater.com)
• ‘It’s going gangbusters!’ How Britain fell in love with bubble tea (The Guardian)
• Coffee Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (Roasted, Instant, Ready to Drink), By Nature (Conventional, Organic), By Distribution Channel (B2B, B2C), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2024 – 2030 (GrandViewResearch.com) — this is not a particularly scientific source or a key source. It’s what Alex used as a rough estimate of the coffee market for comparison with the bubble tea market.
• What Emoji Tell Us About the History of Tea (Smithsonian Magazine)
• 15 Tea Traditions From Around the World (Mental Floss)
• Plant of the Month: Cassava (JStor Daily)
• They’ve Made Lots of Bubble Tea. Now They’ll Make the Pearls Too. (The New York Times)
• What Is Boba, Exactly? (Taste Magazine)
• This 12-Year-Old Designed a Water Bottle You Can Eat (Smithsonian Magazine)
• A Brief History of Molecular Gastronomy (Mental Floss)
• SciShow: “Make Your Own Edible Bubbles! | Spherification” (YouTube)
• The origins of bubble tea, one of Taiwan’s most beloved beverages (CNN Travel)
• The story behind bubble tea, Taiwan’s iconic drink (National Geographic)
• How Taiwan’s Boba Tea Took Over the World (Gastro Obscura)
• The politics of bubble tea: at last, Taiwanese food is getting the recognition it deserves (The Guardian)
• Bubble tea company apologizes after Dragons’ Den cultural appropriation spat (CBC News)
• Boba tea company apologises over Canada Dragons’ Den row (BBC News)
• Canadian drink company tastes controversy after Simu Liu raises cultural appropriation questions (CNN Entertainment)
• Facebook Video upload of the “Dragons’ Den” segment — Alex and Katie were able to view this. Your region may vary.