 The debate rages on which city has the best boba in the entire world? We'll try to figure it out for you. Hey guys, you better remember, Tentu Naita, it comes from Taiwan. So okay, we should be number one. We're talking about this discussion that took place on the boba subreddit. Believe it or not, Andrew, this is a hyperactive subreddit all about boba. People said, listen, so what's the best region in the US or even the entire world for boba? Who has the best boba of all time? This is a valid question. So make sure you like, subscribe, and turn on your notifications because we are going to break it down for you. But I can tell you which region has the best smala sauce. The internet does. Go to SmalaSauce.com or check out our Instagram. I just posted a whole bunch of new chefs that tried smala. They all like it. So anyways, continue. I would say this, you got to look at Taiwan, right? Because if boba comes from Taizong, Taiwan, there's what? But in 2023, I'm not going to say that just because a place invented something, they have the best version because a lot of people prefer New York or American pizza, the top ranked ones over pizza in Italy. I'm not saying that's fully true. I think a lot of things are a matter of preference. But I'm just saying just because you created it, doesn't mean you got the greatest hit. Okay. First of all, before we delve into this, because I think that there is a debate, I do want to focus on the United States just because I do think Taipei probably has an argument for it because they're from Taiwan. It's boba's from Taiwan. I don't, maybe Taizong maybe doesn't even have the best overall boba. They probably have, maybe they have the best milk tea, but maybe not all the different flavors. It depends on what you're defining as the best boba. There's probably more diversity in Taipei than Taizong. There might be more diversity in America. All right, Andrew, what even is boba? Because a lot of people were debating the other day, what is a burger? Because a lot of people are coming out with stuff that's wrapped in a bikini in Australia and whatever. Listen, we got to have some rules here when we talk about stuff, David, or else things are going to get out of hand. So to me a boba shop, this is how you define a boba shop. And this is what I'm judging it on. Not just one, oh, who has the best boba drink of all time. This is one single drink is not enough. Who has the best boba shops of all time in the entire world? What is a boba shop? It is a place that specializes in milk tea and pearls and drinks that are alike that. So milk tea as in there's loose tea leaves that have been brewed to create some sort of liquid that is then mixed with either milk or non-dairy creamer. Right, it can be. And then has pearls thrown into it. Yes, that is the singular drink that every boba shop has to have and specialize in. And their milk tea needs to be good. It doesn't have to be their best drink, but it needs to be a good drink. You're saying just like in the same way a coffee shop needs to have some sort of not necessarily caffeinated drink produced from a coffee bean. Listen, that's why Dunkin Donuts when they release their popping pearl summer drinks, that's not a freaking boba shop because there's no tea in that there's no milk and they're not even the tapioca pearls. Those are the popping pearls. They don't count. All right, so I don't like how a lot of these spots there. Everybody's judging it on the milk drinks. We're not. These are not Asian milk bars. Okay, I'm talking about boba shops. That's my thing. Okay, you're defining it with the tea. Yeah, a lot of people are going to consider half and half boba, even though it's mostly milk. We're not talking about Asian milk bars with your pandan jelly and your ube cream. And then your salt sea salt foam on top of just whole milk. That's not a boba. Okay. You know, here are the regions in the running, Andrew. The Bay Area, the LA area, the OC area, New York City is on an upward trend. But let's be honest, it's starting way behind on the West Coast on the boba development. Other people said, hey, guys, you guys always forget about Canada in these discussions. Vancouver, specifically Toronto. Toronto is a bigger city. They're going to have a larger markets. Can I tell you this? I think the American market, the American boba shops definitely innovate the most. I've seen the craziest stuff, whether you're talking about urban ritual over in the Bay Area. You're talking about coffee on boba now. You're talking about Bopomal Fall over in LA. Shout out to Phil Wink. And I'll just- Boba guys. Boba guys. They got five seasonal flavors every month. Americanized boba. Asian American boba shops doing some ridiculous things. Actually, in Asia, they're doing different things as well, but they're different than the American different things. I'll tell you this. The best boba I ever had personally is when we were filming Ronnie Chang Takes Chinatown for Netflix. And we were in Oakland filming at the park. And I got a butterfly pea flower, caramel brown sugar layered boba in Oakland, California. I was shocked as well. Okay. So that's your best singular, your most favorite boba drink. I'm a big fan of the butterfly pea flower, which is a more recent trend because it's a natural blue. Do you have any comment on where your favorite boba was? If I'm just talking about milk tea, I think Xing Fu Tong's milk tea is pretty good. Okay. But my favorite boba drink is a fruit tea, is a Yee Fong fruit tea. That's probably my favorite boba drink of all time. What do you think about some of the Yee Fongs going out of business in the U.S. recently? Well, I think people, they're either not ran well, or I think people, they're not on the fruit tea trend. They don't appreciate it. They don't appreciate fruit tea. They want these dessert drinks. You guys want these high caloric milk drinks where there's a little bit of boba. You're saying something essentially Frappuccinos. You're just talking about these, what is even in these milk, these are not even bobas. Be real. Right, right, right. You took the tea out of boba. Give me tea. It is true that the youth trended against what you like. Give me tea. What are you going to get? You're going to drink 600 calories, no caffeine. What are you going to do after that? They want to drink a nap. Like Steph Curry hitting four threes in a row. You're going to take a nap. They want the drinks that are being banned in Singapore right now. Yeah. Listen, that's a dessert. Just say you like dessert. That's not boba. Let's take a look at new boba trends globally, Andrew. Many boba tea businesses are now offering low sugar or sugar-free versions. Alternative milk options, almond, soy, et cetera, et cetera. That is one of the current trends. Another one of the trends right now, Andrew, bottling the boba in like sealing it, like you pop it open like carbonation to keep it fresh. That is like different types of cans and different types of containers. A lot of people are matching the boba flavor, the pearl flavor with the topping flavor. So for example, at Shing Foo Tong, you can get a strawberry cream boba with maybe with or without tea, but the bobas will be strawberry as well. So it's like matching your laces or matching the air bubble. Strawberry pearls and that. This is like crazy now. A lot of places are like child defined. This is in Roland Heights, Andrew. They're doing coconut avocado strawberry. So typically ingredients, they're working like from the Caribbean, you know, more tropical, incorporating them into the boba world. Andrew, there's ones from different countries. There's now Korean American bubble tea where they're taking the Korean bingre banana milk and making bobas out of that. There's Vietnamese ones where they're doing the mung beans or the rambutan bobas. More like cha, kind of like a seven leaves type deal. There's a chain from Indonesia that is entering the U.S. market called Taeguk that is making chendol, ice chendol bobas. Had that in New York. In Asia, both mainland China and Taiwan, they're putting more like almost like oatmeal kernels or wheat kernels at the bottom. That's always been bing over their multigrain. The multigrain stuff never made it to America. Andrew, here they give you the pearls on the side and you put the pearls in yourself. Almost like a sukkamen, like a dipping pearls. So basically, long story short, there's just a lot of stuff going on in the boba world globally. But of course, we're talking about America. Andrew, somebody said Taiwan got to be the best, but honestly, man, it's just cheaper over there too. So I don't know. Maybe America does do it different. It depends on what flavors you like. Well, I can tell you this. In Taiwan, probably the whole pandan ube wave is not as popular because that's an Asian-American thing. Because it's more Pan-Asian here. Because it's more Pan-Asian. Right. But I'm sure the quality of tea in Taiwan is, by the way, levels beyond. What do you think about places? You know how like the Philly cheesesteak, Andrew, it's so traditional in Philadelphia, they put whiz cheese on it outside of Philadelphia. People don't like that. So it's almost like where something's created, sometimes it stays too traditional. No, it stays in its most purest form usually. Right. But then it's really high quality for the base-level ingredients that they use. Somebody said it got to be the bay area. Andrew, I'm going to go ahead and say this. That's my pick. That's your vote? My pick goes with the bay area. And let me tell you my... All right. First of all, how can you just say bay area? That thing is huge. That's kind of cheating. Give me a city. All right. Not the East Bay. No. Tell me a city. Specifically... Give me one city that we can compare head to head because I got my city. I got my city. I got to pick a city in the bay? Yeah, because you can't say bay area. Then I'll say 626. The cities are pretty small. Then I'm going to say San Gabriel Valley. It's the whole region, bro. The part of the bay area that's right below the SFO airport all the way down to about Sunnyvale. So do you think Bay Area Trump's San Gabriel Valley? All right. I thought a lot about this. And it's because the night clubs in LA are too good. So people got to split their energy between the mixology at the clubs, getting the ABGs, the bottles with models. And then they got to dedicate whatever remaining brain power they have to the mixology of the bobas. But in the bay area, the club nightlife is generally pretty poor. So they're going to take the tech brain, whatever is left over from the work week, and translate that into the boba mixology, urban ritual, amongst other ones. All right. So that's why I'm picking the bay. Okay. Some people were saying, what about places in the OC like Oro Bay, which is a very popular chain in Irvine, Andrew? But they were like, it doesn't have cool containers or cool flavors. Like they're not necessarily doing the tiger striped striations on the side. How much does that matter? Because everybody wants the striations. Let me tell you this, David. And I got a reasoning on why I'm picking my city. Rollin Heights, California. So here's my thing about Rollin Heights. Traditionally, a upper middle class Taiwanese area. So you need Taiwanese for a good boba. I don't care. Diamond bar. I don't care. I'm sorry, everybody else. You need Taiwanese people to demand good boba. They care about it the most. They care about it the most. That's their life source. All right. Now, here's the thing where Rollin Heights is situated. It's situated in the San Gabriel Valley, but West San Gabriel Valley. It brushes up against the 909. It's nearby OC. So you're going to be taking influences from how OC does boba and how 626 does boba. And it converges in Rollin Hacienda Heights area. Okay. So you're saying OC has a little bit more of that like ABDC Asian American vibe and 626 is almost more FOB. It's going to have FOB Taiwanese chains, but it's also going to have your Asian American Pondon avocado ube, sweet salt, on top of each other. Right. That's what I think. So you're saying is just... And Rollin Heights also does have other types of Asians. It has a significant Filipino population nearby. Some Vietnamese, obviously other types of Chinese people. We get that. So there's a lot of Koreans in Rollin too. Yeah. Oh yeah. A lot of Koreans not to discount that. So I think if I have to pick one singular city, I'm just going to go ahead and just say Rollin Heights, Kalimaro. I don't know. Maybe they got it. That's my reasoning. I felt like you made a pretty good case for a singular city. So with that said, I haven't been to Rollin Heights in a while. I just, I just yelped. It's pretty far from my legs. I yelped it and it looks pretty good. Somebody said Toronto. Everybody forgets about Canada. Do you think when it comes to these list people, do count out Toronto? Toronto got some stuff. Toronto, Markham, they got the foods. North York, they got the foods. Toronto, when it comes to overall Chinese food, I think makes a case for itself in North America. It really does. But especially Cantonese food, I think Toronto might have it. But it's very cold up there. And two, there's not enough Taiwanese people, I think for the bow would be top notch. I just think you got to have a good sizable amount of Taiwanese people, man. They care about it the most. They take it the most serious. Dude, they're going to be the harshest judges. Let's be honest. And that's where you're going to get all the traditional Taiwanese chains coming over first. Because Taiwanese people are going to operate them and bring them from Taiwan originally. So then that's going to set this gold standard. So yes, the Bay Area I think has a case, but I think West 626 or 626 in general. Somebody said, how much does it matter whether you buy the pre-dried pearls or you make your own? Because Andrew, there is a chain of 626-1zo. You can see them make taro pearls, various pearls. But other people said, it doesn't even taste any different than them. Xing Fu Tang makes theirs fresh. Is that much better? I think it's a little bit better. You can see them rolling the batter in the dough. Yeah, you can see them cut up with the little soft balls that roll out of the dough. A lot of people are saying, really, ultimately it boils down to what style you like. If you like the traditional style with ultra-high quality 10 out of 10 ingredients, but simple recipes, get Chi Cha San Chen. Yes, that might be the singular best traditional chain. That is really good. It's really good. Or a lot of people like 50 Lan as well, or Koi Plus, those are chains from Taipei. But you know, a lot of people were saying, you know, all the chains are coming over from Taiwan right now, but it really comes down to the execution because some of them, they don't execute their recipes very well. Not every spot is ran the same. We know this. So it doesn't matter on the manager, even Xing Fu Tang, you can have bad managers. Even a Chi Cha San Chen can have bad managers, okay? And then maybe if it's just that one shop, that mom-and-pop shop, where the owner whose life depends on it is making every single drink, the drinks there are probably pretty good too. That's true. Usually when the owner's there, everybody's like on their peas and queues, more so when the owner's gone. They're on the phone. I won't feel weighing making my boba at Ball Paul Mall fall. That's all I'm saying. People trying to make TikToks and stuff when the owner's not there. Urban Ritual does a ton of ube flavors, Andrew. They do matcha toffee. They do creme brulee. These are all based off Western flavors. So a lot of people are just like, if you want Western flavors, you got to go to a Western chain that's going to give you more of that Hershey, Oreo, et cetera, et cetera. That's fair. Chocolate vibe. That's fair. Because in Asia, they don't eat those flavors as much, right? That's fair, man. Yeah? Somebody said do not sleep on Texas. A lot of new Asian-American enclaves are popping up here and it's easier and cheaper to open up a business with better taxes. Okay. So that makes a good argument for running those chains properly. But you got to, you got to, but those chains, you can't run those chains any differently than the chains themselves. So when we're talking about Best Boba, I think that obviously in the areas like 626, Bay Area, they're going to have the cool mom and pop shops. Right. That are like $9 of Boba, to be honest. Yeah. Maybe even 11. It really depends on what add-ons you get. Somebody said, what about Chinatowns? Should they be good at Boba or not? So here's the interesting thing, Andrew. Whatever. Chinatown's not traditionally very Taiwanese. I'm not saying there hasn't always been a Taiwanese element to some Chinatowns, but it's not the majority. Yeah. They're called Chinatowns, not like Taiwan town. Yeah. Like for example, in Manhattan, I'd say there's a lot better Boba by NYU than in Chinatown, actually. Because Chinatown is more canto. Canto is drink price. Price not taken into consideration. Yeah. Yeah. Ultimately, what are you rolling with? You're rolling with rolling heights. I went with the Bay Area. Specifically, I'm going to go ahead and say Cupertino. All right, guys, guys. For the cheapest milk tea, in my opinion, that is really good. Just traditional milk tea with grass jelly or Boba, I think. Actually, Cocos does a really good, cheap one. I like Cocos. You're saying per dollar. That's a chain from Taiwan. That's legit to me. It's still delicious to me. On the higher end, Chi Cha San Chen, I think traditionally. But if you want a milk drink with no tea, something that I would barely consider Boba, then partake in the $8, $9 Asian-American chains. Shout out to them. Those are our friends. They do a great job. Yeah. You're talking about strawberry, vanilla, matcha, right? The triple A's, et cetera. Popo Mofo, the rituals, all those stuff. Watermelon milk at Popo Mofo. That's fine. Yeah. Corn milk. They squeeze their own corn. I've seen that. Anyways, guys, you let us know which city has the best Boba. But really, where was the best Boba you had? I just thought of a crazy collaboration. What if somebody did a collab with Lady M crepe cakes and turned that into a Boba? You'd go against it. Guess what? There is a Prince tea house. They do a milk crepe cake with Boba toppings on it. And it's pretty good. Let us know what you guys think of the comment section below, guys. It's not Boba, man. Are you a traditionalist? Are you more with the new school way that doesn't have any tea in it? How do you define it yourself? Obviously, not a serious topic. But like we said, the market cap in about like 15 years is going to be like $5 billion globally. So it's actually not a small money topic. Stop taking the tea out of Boba, okay? MBTA, make Boba tea again. Let us know what you guys think of the comment section below. Until next time, we're going to hop up. Boys, we out. Peace.