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Free Crystal Glass! Culinary Adventures in Asian Dessert Cafes By Caitlin Donohue San Francisco Bay Guardian (2nd Largest Publication in Northern California, USA) Special Spring 2010 Feast Edition

Should ceaseless hangovers and clumsy, inebriated behavior ever sour you on the drinking scene, you could do worse than while away an evening in one of SF’s many pan-Asian dessert cafes. Cheap prices, pleasant late-night crowds, cultural cachet… the sole caveat being that, for the neophyte dabbler in casual Asian cuisine, menus can approach this side of incomprehensible. This thought came to me midway through ordering at Tapioca Express (1522 Fillmore, (415) 346-6600, [Please visit their website to see all their many international locations near you] www.tapiocaexpress.com). A whim had struck me for bubble tea, but in my naivete, I had come unprepared for what lay ahead. A universe of flavors, forms, and toppings were at my fingertips – it’s not unusual for a cafe to feature more than 80 bubble tea options; variations on form, flavorings, and toppings (“free crystal glass,” which to me sounds like a great deal...). Even ignoring the savories, I was at a loss. But I squashed the disorientation and walked away with an avocado [Snow BubbleTM], a tapioca-beaded milkshake whose creamy taste will dispel any hesitation you have toward desserts made from nacho ingredients. Sitting with my prize and savoring the peaceful, nonalcoholic hum around me, I knew: I was hooked. I needed more… thus it began, the adventures of a white girl in the land of taro, grass jelly, and [tapioca].”

The forefather of the bubble tea invasion, Tapioca Express... The Los Angeles Times April 28, 2010 Updated

The forefather of the bubble tea invasion, Tapioca express is still the go-to spot for quality bubble tea. Highlights include almond bubble tea and lychee icee (with bubbles or boba). Throw in bubblegum-pop tunes and you'll be sliding down that sugary slope in no time.

Asian Business Association Theme Award Acceptance Speech October 24, 2003

Good evening, Distinguished Guests, ladies and gentlemen, It is our great honor to be awarded tonight. Tapioca Express was founded in the fall of 1999.?After four years of hard work and dedication from all our partners and employees, we grew from one store to more than fifty stores in the U.S. and Canada.?Tapioca pearls, some people call it boba, are made from all natural cassava root starch.When you add the pearls into our tea, coffee, or juices, you have a drink that fun to eat! We are proud to be a part of positive contribution to the enjoyment of good food and creative drinks. We would also like to congratulate all other winners.?We are very fortunate to live in this great country at this time.?This is truly a land of inspirations and opportunities.?As long as there is dedication, courage, and teamwork, we stand a very good chance to succeed. Tapioca Express will continue to try our best to be a good corporate citizen. As we celebrate tonight we want to express our appreciation to our staff and our family members who have gone through many challenges with us.We would also like to thank our partners who run the stores day in and day out, trying to provide the best possible quality drinks to our customers. Last but not least, warmest thanks go to Asian Business Association for their good work to encourage the Asian American businesses and community.

Newest drink craze: It ain't heavy, it's my boba By ANH DO The Orange County Register Published on July 8, 2002

One hundred thirty-two people stream through in the space of an hour. Guys and gals behind the counter greet them, pouring chilled tea into a cocktail shaker, mixing, serving. The menu boasts 149 flavors -- sprinkles of peppermint honey, mocha snow, hot grass jelly. Nothing costs more than $2.59. Customers lounge, their lips glued to the hottest craze found at the bottom of a beverage -- boba -- marble-like balls that are not swallowed but beg to be sucked and chewed, one by one, through imported, plump straws. This is Tapioca Express, south county's place to be for the young, hip and Asian, who swarm the Irvine shop from noon to midnight, twirling convertible keys, lugging tots and ordering up a storm. "We sell at least 1,000 drinks on a Saturday, some 700 on a weekday," says owner Christina Chan, who can barely be heard above the din, sitting in her hip-hugging jeans. Boba is made of tapioca and it's addictive, youths say, like Skittles, Gummi Bears or M&Ms. They roll into your mouth, melt and your taste buds scream for another round, "I get it, totally, every week, It's more fun than Starbucks, and I work at Starbucks, but we don't have these juicy treats in our drinks," offers Jenny Le, 17, tossing back highlighted blond streaks. "We can go to Jamba Juice and get a smoothie, but this isn't heavy," adds her cousin, Nguyen Le. "It's cool." Boba bars carne about in Taiwan nearly two decades ago, when they popped up block to block and a lack of zoning saturated the market. It didn't hit Southern California until a few years ago when places from Monterey Park to Koreatown to Little Saigon opened their haunts, advertising milk tea, iced coffee and red bean pudding laced with the irresistible swirl of boba. Parents started dropping their teens at hangouts, hardly worried, because there's no alcohol. At Chan's shop, which she runs with partners James Chuang and Sergio Yang, two chenille couches lure those wanting to play checkers or channel surf, some tapping their feet to tunes blaring overhead. Asian adults load grocery carts at the nearby 99 Ranch Market with kumquats and sashimi while their kids hang out here, discovering their own community within the much larger communities. North of this shop, wedged between Love Music and a plastic-surgery clinic is Boba Express in Garden Grove, where customers get a free drink with every order of jumbo popcorn chicken. Happy hour starts late -- 9 p.m. -- but that hardly matters to the fanatics. "Pizza? Who cares? " shrugs Matt Tran, 23. "That's too much for this time of the night, when this, this is like a light meal," he says, slurping from a cup filled with coconut At Cha for Tea in Westminster, some boba enthusiasts like their drinks a just tad sugary, others really sweet. The bars -- unlike cafes -- count on students and young professionals rather than early-morning commuters simply because they often don't do business until the middle of the day. And as a way of keeping the clientele, some are starting poetry readings and art shows. Classmates bring their buddies to soak up the atmosphere, as Viktor Corpuz does with Clint Collins one afternoon. He first tasted boba in the Philippines; it surfaced in his cereal. Corpuz wanted to introduce it to his non-Asian pal, Collins. The juniors at the University of California, Irvine, study biology. They lean back with snow bubbles in peach and watermelon, similar to Icees, and survey the scene. "Lots of girls," Collins murmurs, his eyes lighting as a skater breezes in wearing an Abercrombie & Fitch crop top. At the next table sit two women with Burberry bags; near them are other women in pastel capri pants. Some basketball players put down a stack of PC and e-Gear magazines, leaving and making way for a bigger group. We are what we eat, but we are also what we drink, Chan knows, as she details plans to open a franchise just down the way from this walnut Avenue joint, across from UCI. She has 23 employees and is still hiring. "It's a cultural drink, it's fun and it's not a fad," she says, revealing the next step. They plan to head south. "Mission Viejo,? she says. "I want to take it beyond the traditional areas."

TRENDS: The tapioca-based drink is becoming a staple for young South Bay consumers. BOBA: Tapioca drink is latest culinary trend By Nick Green, Editor of DAILY BREEZE Daily Breeze Published on July 22, 2002 on Front Page

It's the summer of boba for the South Bay's young and hip. Stores selling boba - sweet, gelatinous marble-size tapioca balls added to cold teas, coffees, smoothies, juices and slushies that are sucked up through an oversize straw - have been popping up in areas with large Asian populations such as the San Gabriel Valley for the past couple of years. Now the black boba "pearls" are making inroads on South Bay suburbia where college students and children are enthusiastically embracing the trendy drink. Boba Zone opened in May in a west Torrance strip mall at Anza Avenue and Del Amo Boulevard catering to a clientele that is 60 percent youngsters, said 25-year-old manager James Choo. Alhambra-based Tapioca Express, the nation's largest boba chain with sleek, stylish stores that often play pop music videos, has opened franchises in Rolling Hills Estates, Torrance and Carson in the past four months - in addition to existing shops in Gardena and Torrance - and plans to open a second Gardena ___location shortly. And even some coffeehouses are adding the drink to their menu - the Caffeine coffeehouse in Gardena near EI Camino College began serving boba at the start of the year and has seen its overall business leap by 20 percent, said owner Michelle Kim. "It has been expanding very fast in the past half year in the South Bay area," said Laura Lin, a former Rancho Palos Verdes resident who recently moved to the San Gabriel Valley to become marketing director at Tapioca Express. "We are expanding into the mainstream market for sure." Boba was invented in 1981 in Taiwan - the name is Taiwanese slang for "big breasts" - and has gradually expanded its reach throughout Asia and overseas. Asians have long been familiar with the beverage, but now the market is rapidly expanding to other ethnic groups. When boba paradise in Rolling Hills Plaza opened last fall, its customers were primarily Asian, said owner Jerry Yeh, 25, an Orange resident who opened a store in Torrance because of the South Bay's steadily increasing Asian population. Today, in a "surprising development," 90 percent of the store's customers are non-Asian, he said. "I'm an addict," admitted Katherine Russ, 21, of Wilmington, an unemployed graphic artist taking advantage of boba paradise's free Internet access. "It's kinda like eating and drinking at the same time." Boba appeals on several levels. There's a boba drink for every taste it would seem: Tapioca Express has about 150 variations on the theme on its menu - and will soon offer even more. The cool drink is the perfect antidote for a sweltering summer day - although some people also drink boba in hot teas or coffees. And it's a fun drink with an element of surprise in more ways than one, which is perhaps why Boba Zone has posted a sign outside its store that warns its young customers, "Please do not spit out boba." "I love boba, it's cute," said 24- year-old Carson-based paramedic Jessie Cordray, while conceding the drink is an acquired taste that she didn't initially like. "I kind of got addicted to it - these kind of funny, sweet, chewy things in your drink." " It's like a phenomenon. They (Tapioca Express) could be the Starbucks of tapioca drinks. - PAUL GIANNOTTI, whose company supplies equipment to boba stores

Boba imbibers are a social bunch - the solo drinker is rare at Tapioca Express, Lin said. "A lot of (boba) stores are open really late, so it's a good hangout place," said 21-year-old college student Aki Inoue, a three-year boba drinking veteran. "Every one drinks it." Still, the scale of the boba craze has caught even those in the restaurant industry unaware. Paul Giannotti, whose company supplies equipment to boba stores, said he was amazed to see people lining up outside a Tapioca Express store in San Diego before its grand opening. "It's like a phenomenon," he said. "They could be the Starbucks of tapioca drinks." If trends continue, boba stores could soon be as ubiquitous as coffee houses. Tapioca Express, which has 37 stores, plans to have 100 locations by year's end, Lin said. Choo, of Boba Zone, opened a store in west Torrance because other areas of the city are becoming saturated with sellers of the drink. Yeh, of boba paradise, which opened last fall, said he has counted at least 10 boba stores in Torrance. "After we opened up all these other places started opening up," he groaned, adding that boba paradise has begun offering free delivery to offices and other places that order a minimum of 10 drinks in an effort to differentiate itself from competitors. "(The marketplace) is getting tough," he added. "There's only so many boba drinkers." Although part of the challenge of boba entrepreneurs is educating the uninitiated, some are already wondering whether boba is a fad that will peak and wither. Consultant Janet Lowder of Rancho Palos Verdes-based Restaurant Management Services, said juice and yogurt stores are closing. Not only has the craze for those products faded, but the demise of stores that specialized in them was hastened when larger outlets such as Dairy Queen and Baskin-Robbins muscled in on the market, she said. The same thing could happen to boba. But Giannotti believes the thirst for boba won't soon be over. "I don't think it's a fad because it's already a staple in other parts of the world," he said. "I see absolutely no signs of it letting up. It's too late to say it's a fad and too early to say it's a permanent fIxture. ... I think the end of the tunnel is a long, long way away."

By SAMANTHA LEE Staff Reporter Los Angeles Business Journal August 19, 2002

Wayne Lin wants his business to become the Starbuck's of "boba" drinks.

For the uninitiated, boba refers to the globules of tapioca that sit at the bottom of a cup and then are covered by a tea, milk or fruit juice concoction, sealed and sucked through a large straw. The drinks, with flavors ranging from the familiar coconut or strawberry to the more exotic sesame or Iychee, originated a decade ago in Taiwan and have been gaining popularity in the United States for the last two years - especially in areas like West Los Angeles and Pasadena. South EI Monte-based Tapioca Express Inc. claims to be the first company to bring a "boba" franchise to the United States and currently has 40 stores, with plans for 100 units by 2003. Tapioca Express' original store opened in Alhambra, and began franchising in areas with large Asian communities in Southern California and the San Francisco Bay area. "Word of mouth" The drinks became popular through word of mouth, allowing the company to grow rapidly, said Lin. Tapioca's president and chief executive. He owns the business with three partners, all originally from Taiwan. Interested franchisees need $65,000 to $195,000 to open a Tapioca Express. The company's corporate office receives at least 12 calls a day from people interested in franchise possibilities, according to Laura Lin, marketing manager for the three-year-old company (no relation to Wayne Lin). A typical Tapioca Express store generates $30,000 to $40,000 in monthly revenue, according to company officials. "Their revenues are on par with a yogurt, bagel or juice shop," said Janet Lowder, president of Restaurant Management Services, a restaurant consulting film. Comparatively, a fast food restaurant like McDonald's typically brings in more than $100,000 monthly. The Tapioca Express menu consists largely of hot and cold teas, coffee, shakes and smoothies, which are most commonly served with the tapioca "boba" balls. A few snack items are available. Prices for a 12-oz. drink average $2.50.While the company's formula has worked in areas with many Asians, the true test will be the appeal of the drinks outside the two coasts as the chain expands nationally. The company plans to open stores in areas like Co1orado and Texas where demographics are less likely to be primarily Asian. "They might encounter the same problems as El PolIo Loco." said Lowder. "Its concept came from Mexico and had a tough time outside of Califonia. It's going to be a challenge to attract customers in Middle America." Laura Lin said, however, that the clientele in its Old Pasadena shop is 80 percent non-Asian and the company is using its San Diego ___location as a testing ground for their nationwide expansion. Retooling the concept Company President Wayne Lin began by hiring a store manager who worked as a trainer for Starbucks in Taiwan. He also added typically un-Asian fare. like mochas, lattes (coining the phrase "Iattea") and a selection of cheesecakes to its menu to appeal to Amcan tastes, he said. While "boba" has been a hot commodity for Tapioca Express, basing business around one product is risky, and can easily be wiped out if a large chain adds it to their menu, Lowder said. "It happened to yogurt companies in the late '80s when chains like Dairy Queen and Baskin-Robbins added yogurt to their menus, "she said. South Pasadena-based Panda Restaurant Group has introduced the "boba" beverages into eight of its Panda express locations. The Chinese food chain currently offers three flavors -- honeydew, passion fruit and milk tea. But no competition from Starbucks yet. "Starbucks is always looking to expand our tea business and has looked into a variety of tea beverages, including the 'boba drinks." said Starbucks Corp. spokeswoman Kelly Hewitt. "But we do not have plans to introduce a similar drink in our stores at the time."

By ANH DO The Orange County Register Published on July 8, 2002

One hundred thirty-two people stream through in the space of an hour. Guys and gals behind the counter greet them, pouring chilled tea into a cocktail shaker, mixing, serving. The menu boasts 149 flavors -- sprinkles of peppermint honey, mocha snow, hot grass jelly. Nothing costs more than $2.59. Customers lounge, their lips glued to the hottest craze found at the bottom of a beverage -- boba -- marble-like balls that are not swallowed but beg to be sucked and chewed, one by one, through imported, plump straws. This is Tapioca Express, south county's place to be for the young, hip and Asian, who swarm the Irvine shop from noon to midnight, twirling convertible keys, lugging tots and ordering up a storm."We sell at least 1,000 drinks on a Saturday, some 700 on a weekday," says owner Christina Chan, who can barely be heard above the din, sitting in her hip-hugging jeans. Boba is made of tapioca and it's addictive, youths say, like Skittles, Gummi Bears or M&Ms. They roll into your mouth, melt and your taste buds scream for another round,"I get it, totally, every week, It's more fun than Starbucks, and I work at Starbucks, but we don't have these juicy treats in our drinks," offers Jenny Le, 17, tossing back highlighted blond streaks. "We can go to Jamba Juice and get a smoothie, but this isn't heavy," adds her cousin, Nguyen Le. "It's cool." Boba bars carne about in Taiwan nearly two decades ago, when they popped up block to block and a lack of zoning saturated the market. It didn't hit Southern California until a few years ago when places from Monterey Park to Koreatown to Little Saigon opened their haunts, advertising milk tea, iced coffee and red bean pudding laced with the irresistible swirl of boba. Parents started dropping their teens at hangouts, hardly worried, because there's no alcohol. At Chan's shop, which she runs with partners James Chuang and Sergio Yang, two chenille couches lure those wanting to play checkers or channel surf, some tapping their feet to tunes blaring overhead. Asian adults load grocery carts at the nearby 99 Ranch Market with kumquats and sashimi while their kids hang out here, discovering their own community within the much larger communities. North of this shop, wedged between Love Music and a plastic-surgery clinic is Boba Express in Garden Grove, where customers get a free drink with every order of jumbo popcorn chicken. Happy hour starts late -- 9 p.m. -- but that hardly matters to the fanatics. "Pizza? Who cares? " shrugs Matt Tran, 23. "That's too much for this time of the night, when this, this is like a light meal," he says, slurping from a cup filled with coconut. At Cha for Tea in Westminster, some boba enthusiasts like their drinks a just tad sugary, others really sweet. The bars -- unlike cafes -- count on students and young professionals rather than early-morning commuters simply because they often don't do business until the middle of the day. And as a way of keeping the clientele, some are starting poetry readings and art shows. Classmates bring their buddies to soak up the atmosphere, as Viktor Corpuz does with Clint Collins one afternoon. He first tasted boba in the Philippines; it surfaced in his cereal. Corpuz wanted to introduce it to his non-Asian pal, Collins. The juniors at the University of California, Irvine, study biology. They lean back with snow bubbles in peach and watermelon, similar to Icees, and survey the scene."Lots of girls," Collins murmurs, his eyes lighting as a skater breezes in wearing an Abercrombie & Fitch crop top. At the next table sit two women with Burberry bags; near them are other women in pastel capri pants. Some basketball players put down a stack of PC and e-Gear magazines, leaving and making way for a bigger group. We are what we eat, but we are also what we drink, Chan knows, as she details plans to open a franchise just down the way from this walnut Avenue joint, across from UCI. She has 23 employees and is still hiring. "It's a cultural drink, it's fun and it's not a fad," she says, revealing the next step. They plan to head south. "Mission Viejo," she says. "I want to take it beyond the traditional areas."

Taiwan tapioca tea on tap in Palo Alto, Mountain View... Staff Reporter Lydia Lee San Francisco Chronicle Friday, August 23, 2002

It's almost midnight on a Thursday, and the nearby Starbucks has long since turned its chairs upside-down on the tables and locked up for the night. But at the newest cafe on Palo Alto's California Street, Black Pearl, if you want to lounge on one of the black leather couches, you might have to ask someone to move over. On one couch sits Christa Demeke, 26, who is sipping the cafe's most popular drink -- taro pearl milk tea. It's pale purple, and sitting on the bottom are what look like black marbles. "We're the pearl milk tea fan club," says Demeke, who comes by a couple times a week for late-night study sessions. "I love it -- it's a special treat, like dessert." This Taiwanese import, which used to be found only in Asian specialty stores like Ranch 99, is now winning over the cappuccino and chai crowd. Pearl milk tea, also known as bubble tea, is a unique beverage experience -- it's kind of like drinking Thai iced tea and eating Gummi Bears at the same time. The milky black tea is often flavored with something like taro or mango. And spheres of chewy black tapioca wait to be slurped up through an enormous straw. It's a mouthful of entertainment. "If (pearl milk tea) were hot, it would be British and I would be sitting here talking in an accent," says Hamilton Tran, 27, one of Demeke's friends. "But it's cold and sugary, and has these pearls -- it's fun." Since the late 1990s, close to 1,000 pearl milk establishments are estimated to have opened in the United States. In the Bay Area, a recent mini- boomlet has introduced a new kind of cafe culture to the Peninsula. Strolling around downtown Mountain View, you can get a good indication of how trendy pearl milk tea has become. >From the corner of Villa and Castro Street, there are four establishments within a block of each other. In the past six months, Lucy's Tea Shop and Verde have been joined by Tea Era and Tapioca Express. On a recent afternoon, Verde was packed with young Asians standing in line. The atmosphere was peppy; the walls are bright lime, the stylish stainless- steel tables were packed closely together, and cheerful Asian pop music mingled with the sound of blenders and other drink machinery. Two Asian guys, one with long bleached blond hair, sat at the counter, putting together the plastic pieces of a Toyota Celica model toy. The ambience agrees with Peter Godden of Mountain View, 19, one of the few white guys in the cafe. He's playing Othello with his buddy Steve Lai, also 19."It's a different scene, a different environment," says Godden. "Do you ever see board games like this? People in coffee shops are serious and don't smile."Verde supplies board games and stacks of Asian magazines. "When there's nothing to do, it's the first place that comes to mind," says Lai. "It's a cool place to chill." Pearl milk tea got its start in the early 1980s, when an enterprising street vendor in Taiwan added tapioca pearls to his drinks. Today, the drink is as ubiquitous as soda, and the tea shops are practically on every street corner. They've become a major social gathering place for the younger set, from middle-school to college-age kids. "In Taiwan, parents are not so comfortable with their kids going to KTV (karaoke bars) and other dimly lit places," said Laura Lin, the marketing director for Tapioca Express, the first pearl milk tea franchise in the United States. Alex Rosten has never been to Taiwan, but one of the reasons the 23-year- old Stanford grad decided to open Black Pearl was to create an after-hours place for students. "When I was an undergrad I hated that there was no place to hang out," he says. "Everything closes at 10 p.m. and, if you're under 21, there's no place to go except for doughnuts and Denny's." On most weekdays, Black Pearl stays open until 1 a.m.; on the weekends, until 2 a.m. Over at Tea Era, owner Danny Han has noticed how his clientele includes businesspeople, not just the young Asian crowd. He's hoping to win over more non-Asian customers by steering them toward a specific flavor. The sign in his shop reads: "Special Recommendation: Roasted Barley Milk Tea." It may not sound like a hit, but Han says it's their best selling drink. "It tastes a little bit like coffee, so lots of Americans like it,' says Han. The variety of flavors can be mind-boggling. Compared to Baskin-Robbins, most pearl milk tea stores are way ahead when it comes to choice. Tapioca Express, for example, offers plain old tapioca milk tea, plus 147 other drinks. You can get 20 different flavors of milk tea, but you can also get pearls in a latte, a snow bubble (a sort of fruity milk shake), and even something called honey and egg juice. While some of these drinks sound pretty far out, they're offered in nearly 40 other Tapioca Express stores around the country. "It's always fun to look at a million different flavors," says Irene Yeh, 20, who likes her pearl milk tea made with green tea. "I look at the board for 20 minutes, even though I always get the same thing." While the pearls get all the attention, it's the tea that connoisseurs focus on. Ten Ren, a Chinese company that has been producing tea for 50 years, is said by some to have the best pearl milk tea in the area. Fans will also tell you that eating while drinking requires a little bit of concentration. "If you run out of liquid first, you have to be careful with the pearls," says Raheleh Mansoor, 24, who just graduated from Stanford Law School and is studying for the bar. "Once I was here (at Black Pearl) studying for 11 hours. I had two pearl drinks -- and I choked on both of them. But I keep on coming back for more."