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/ck/ - Food & Cooking

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17609395 No.17609395 [Reply] [Original]

Why is bubble tea so ridiculously expensive in the west? Is it just them ripping off dumb white people?

>> No.17609424

>>17609395
It’s not for white people. It’s for second generation pretentious Asian kids to feel connected to their “culture” even though they are 100% westernized

>> No.17609460
File: 168 KB, 1080x607, 130573006_142504680710640_5963261299418301524_n.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
17609460

>>17609395
How much should it cost?

>> No.17609487

>>17609460
I wouldn't pay more than two dollars for the best tea in the world.

>> No.17609573

yes

>> No.17609577

Virtually all expensive food is just a scam to rip people off

>> No.17609590

Virtually all expensive food is just supply and demand.

>> No.17609667

>>17609460
wtf this menu doesn't even make sense?
>milk tea costs 6.25
>but then 5.75 for 'original' flavor
>everything comes with tapioca or lychee
>random preference bar
what da fuq

>> No.17609708

>>17609395
They know people will pay for it so they'll charge as high as possible. Just like almost everything else.
>>17609460
Dunno but not 7+ dollars Canadian. Yeah, sometimes I miss not having a huge variety of flavours and I like cheese foam but I can buy a pack of uncooked pearls for $5 which lasts for 20 cups.

>> No.17609862

i make it at home for less than $1 cup and it tastes exactly the same because all those places are using the same flavoring powder

>> No.17609893

>>17609708
Used to cost like 3.5 - 4 leaf bucks a decade ago. Then it got insanely popular insanely quickly, prices went up to take advantage of demand, and "famous" chains like ChaTime and Coco started showing up and pushing up prices even further

>> No.17609899

>>17609395
Starbucks happened, they can get away with charging 7-8 for a single instagrammable drink so now all the instagrammable drink shops have to charge that too because they're just leaving money on the table otherwise

>> No.17609926
File: 44 KB, 640x480, 9052BAE9-1DC3-473E-8593-B31592A1856B.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
17609926

>>17609395
It can be ridiculously expensive in Asia too. A lot of fancy hipster milk tea boutiques have been popping up over the last decade and middle upper class young adult Asians love that shit.
Otherwise, the cheap bubble tea from wet markets made entirely with just powder displayed in containers is what I grew up with. Pic related. Costs a couple of US dollars.

>> No.17610241

>>17609487
In Taiwan, high-end bubble tea will max out at ~$3.50
Absolutely insane that burgers are paying $10 for flavored milk (probably not even fresh) and tapioca

>> No.17610250

>>17610241
I guess need to consider the strength of the dollar. In Taiwan you are earning different money than you would earn in US. But if you earn USD then move to taiwan it is extremely cheap. Even cheaper in somewhere like Malaysia the ringgit is so weak, so a bubble tea there will be like 1 USD.

>> No.17610256

>>17609395
because women buy it. they can charge whatever they want and women feel special

>> No.17610262

>>17609395
The price is whaterver people pay for. There's a place near my house that charges 5 bucks for 24 oz and a place near my uni that charges 5 bucks for 16 oz. They have different potnetial clients so they charge diferent

>> No.17611041

>>17609395
Years ago that shit was much cheaper.
Now dumbasses are willing to pay more because it's trendy.
Simple as.

>> No.17611048

>>17609460
holy shit
wtf?
is this how much people are paying for them in the west?

>> No.17611050

$3.50 is expensive to you? How poor are you?

>> No.17611054

delicious but it really shouldn't cost that much. you're paying for the meme

>> No.17611065

>>17611050
I could spend 350$ on milk tea, doesn't mean it's an acceptable price

>> No.17611076

>>17609395
you can buy those bubble like 2$ per kilo, and 5$ for the "tea"
just by in bulk and made it at home, bitches love it

>> No.17611086

How do you guys flavor your bubble tea when you make it at home? I am starting to get bored from the simple tea+milk+syrup combo.

>> No.17611415

>>17611086
Bubble tea is supposed to be an occasional treat. Do people really drink it so much at home that they get bored of it?

>> No.17611445

>>17609395
some stores here are starting to charge .50 cents to a dollar if you ask for no ice
bubble tea was a mistake

>> No.17611463
File: 1.30 MB, 3508x2480, newmenu1.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
17611463

these are the prices of the place I go to run by chinks in Texas

>> No.17611539
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17611539

>>17610250
>Malaysia
That's wear my clothing is made.

>> No.17611541

>>17609395
>dumb white people
no that would be you

>> No.17611642

>>17609395
Yea, you can just make your own cheaper probably.

>> No.17611645

>>17609395
more to the point, why does anybody other than ultraweebs drink this hysterically gay shit

>> No.17611687

>>17609395
Paid $6 for 2 after using a coupon special and cash back offer. Usually $7 each for a brown sugar black tea with boba. Was good but I drank both and within 2 hours I had explosive diarrhoea. Never again.

>> No.17612540

It's for ripping off dumb people, racist.

I applied for a job at one of those places several years ago, and after getting the job offer I got a better job offer with much better pay. I called the owner and told him that I got a job that will pay better than anything he could ever offer and what's the number for the phat ass asian chick that walks around in side-stripe shorts there and he's like "DAT MY DAUGHTA YOU FUCK! FUCK YOU!" and hung up.

>> No.17612557

>>17612540
Fuck off attention whore.

>> No.17612565

>>17609424
your power level is high

>> No.17612566
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17612566

>>17612557
no

>> No.17612585

>>17609395
Blame starbucks for normalizing paying 6 dollars for coffee/tea themed deserts. Bubble tea is just Asian themed starbucks.

>> No.17612602

>>17609395
i used to work at a boba shop and yes you are correct. my chinese boss steadily raised her prices slowly and people still came in to buy boba. they're a bunch of fucking suckers, its really cheap to produce boba.

>> No.17613728

>>17611065
>$3.50 is not an acceptable price
Then I have a simple solution for that. Don't go to a bubble/milk tea place and don't buy any.
Alternately, buy your own stuff to make your own bubble/milk tea. IINM, it's like $20 for a bag of the powder and and like $2 for the tapioca pearls but that makes around twenty-jillion-kazillion servings so it works out in the end.
>but i want the real stuff, not the powder
K. Tea bags/loose leaf tea and evapomilk are even cheaper so there you go.

>> No.17614286
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17614286

>>17609460
Here's a standard menu from last time I was in Taiwan (prices are in NTD, divide by ~30 to get USD). A regular milk tea is 1.39 dollars, plus 18 cents for boba.
In my American city, the cheapest milk tea from a boba shop is generally 4.5 dollars plus 50 cents for boba.

>> No.17614337

>>17614286
And the median salary for Taiwan is 2,000 USD. May as well round down to a dollar a bubble tea and you can buy 2000 bubble teas a year. Compare that to the median salary of the US, 34,000 USD. At 6 dollars a bubble tea you can buy 5,666 bubble teas a year.

See which one is "more expensive" now?

>> No.17614743

>>17614337
I don't think salary is the right statistic, we should compare disposable income or income after paying for housing, taxes, and healthcare (lol Americans)

>> No.17614758

>>17614337
That's monthly, not yearly salary

>> No.17615154

>>17609395
>Is it just them ripping off dumb white people?
yea basically. u can buy packs of tapioca bubbles at an asian store for like $5. these packs make around 10 drinks conservatively.
>>17609424
unironically this.
>>17614286
when did u take this? i remember it being about the same price when i went there.
>>17609577
>>17609590
boba is not "expensive"
>>17614337
u fucked up ur math. taiwan is not africa.

>> No.17615165 [DELETED] 

>>17609395
There's a lot of mustard in my panties.

>> No.17615198

>>17609395
bubble "teas" are expensive everywhere. It's a meme beverage bourgeois """educated""" class keep promoting because it looks autistic and exotic

>> No.17615213

>>17614337
That's median monthly salary

>> No.17615216

>>17615198
Meds

>> No.17615227

>>17615216
He's right though, or does it bother you to find out you're bougie?

>> No.17615425

>>17609395
There was one place in my town serving these and then that one bigass freight ship got stuck in the middle east and they ran out of flavors and only had original for like a month and a half and even the original ran out so I stopped going there. I don't know if they're still in business and I don't care to find out. Their actual food sucked.

>> No.17615427

>>17609395
they are super expensive in japan too ...

>> No.17615456
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17615456

>>17615216
I live in a tropical country and yet a single boba tea would cost me like 5-7 dollars per serving despite the ingredients being locally available in my cunt. Imagine, it's more expensive than fruit smoothies. Literally glorified fruit juice. Boba tea is a mere status symbol the "educated" managerial class consume to feel validated

>> No.17615516
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17615516

>>17615154
I guess my pics are from 2019. It's possible things have spiked during the lockdowns in the last couple years but I doubt it, given how crowded the tea market is and how cheap people are with food there. Also all the tea is probably produced locally and they barely shut down internally.

>> No.17615555

I go to a place owned by a nice taiwanese couple. 5 dollars for any large boba tea, they also use real ingredients. Their taro milk tea is the best

>> No.17615764
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17615764

I still don't know what the point of the pearls are

>> No.17615775

>>17615764
they are subtly sweet and they offer a enjoyable mouth feel and chew
makes the drinking experience a little more complex, sip chew chew sip chew chew

>> No.17615845

>>17609460
$1 here in SEA lmao

>> No.17616215

>>17615456
i drinks it cuz i likes it

>> No.17616221

>>17609460
>$7+
I could have 2 whole meals with this lmao

>> No.17616226

>>17616221
I could get three and a flu shot. lrn2shop

>> No.17616299

>>17615845
it still doesn't make sense. I can get a meal with 1$

>> No.17616620

>>17609395
>Is it just them ripping off dumb white people?
it's actually just ripping off dumb 3rd generation asian people

>> No.17616699

>>17609395
It's actually cheaper in the west than in China when you account for differing costs if living. I don't know how much shit costs in Taiwan though. I am suspicious of your thread nonetheless.
No; what the West genuinely charges so much more for is mapo tofu and noodle soup.

>> No.17616700

If you have yellow fever like me do not go to these tea places. They're literally exclusively filled with cute Asian girls drinking tea

>> No.17616708

>>17616700
Yeah, it's a weird trap. On the one hand they love going there as part of a casual first date; on the other, a white guy asking you to grab some bubble tea together is such a cliche for them.

>> No.17616712

i don’t care for bubble tea, now Thai tea is where it’s at, love that shit.

>> No.17616715

>>17609395
>Is it just them ripping off dumb white people?
Yes.
We also overcharge roundeyes in our grocery store.

>> No.17616729

>>17616712
Isn't Thai tea just Hong Kong milk tea

>> No.17616770

>>17616729
No. Thai tea is a whole'nother thing entirely. Looks different. Tastes different. Smells different. It's different.

>> No.17617400

>>17615216
>having an opinion I personally disagree with
I hereby diagnose you with paranoid schizophrenia. Please take your medication as recommended by your doctor.

>> No.17617680

>>17609460
For me, it's lychee tea with mango jelly 50% sweetness

>> No.17618697

>>17609460
>eating aloe vera
what the fuck?

>> No.17618751

>>17609395
I heard boba is indigestible and can constipate you. Is this true?

>> No.17618802

>>17618697
Shit's good. Try it some time, your in for a treat

>> No.17619185

>>17609424
Fucking rich second gen ABCs spending six dollars on boba.

>> No.17619213

>>17609926
I still remember what I think was buy one get one free boba near my middle school for a dollar.

>> No.17619238

>>17615216
I bet you felt personally attacked.

>> No.17619643

>>17609395
tapioca trees aren't native here

>> No.17619777

Tea is one of those things u gotta experiment and take time to perfect, and most people don't wanna do that

Also it's trendy (and very tasty)

>> No.17620123

>>17618751
Impossible, they are basically just sugar. They dissolve on their own after like a day which is why you can only buy them dry.