Hey.

And welcome to The Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck and Jerry's here too. Dave's here in Spirit. Way to go, Dave. This is short stuff, I think I said.

That's right. Hey, we want to wish Dave well as he recovers from back surgery.

Yeah, he made it out on the other side, and we're very happy for him. That's why I said, way to go Dave.

That's right. I thought I didn't know if he wanted to leave it unsaid.

Either way, I think Dave's happy with it. He's like, You guys can keep talking about me the whole episode.

All right, well, his nickname is Dave Boba Tee. Well, I'm not going to say his last name because I don't want people to bother him.

C.

We just call him the Boba Tee guy. Right. I've never had Boba Tee.

Oh, no.

No, and I need to.

Sure. I think everybody needs to have it at least once. I had it once. I decided immediately I didn't like it. Oh, okay. I like everything about it except for the boba. That's what I didn't like. I don't like that. The gelatinous, gooey, chewiness of it, I'm not crazy for. I can totally see how somebody would go nuts for it, but I also see how somebody like me just is turned off by it immediately.

Well, I don't want to try it as much because Gelatinous is never a word I seek out for my mouth.

You can get boba tea without the boba. I'm sure the purists will be like, Shut up. You can't call it boba tea. You still can, everybody. Settle down. You just ask for it without the boba, and you will love it, Chuck. It's very sweet and tasty, and there's all sorts of neat flavors that they can put into it. And it won't have Gelatinous spheres going down your gullet because you accidentally forgot to chew.

They're going to say, All right, I'll make you one. But you're not getting one of those big fat straws.

They do. They give you the big fat straw anyway, so you go through it really quick.

All right, so we're talking about boba tea or bubble tea. And that is something that I'm a dummy. The first time I saw that, I was like, What in the world is going on in that cup? Because you see what looks like a regular drink, but then you see all these little round pearls inside of a cup. I didn't know what it was until I looked into it more back then. And now I know because of this that that is a Taiwanese tea. And there are a couple of different competing stories on how this came about, because there are two rival tea shops in Taiwan from the 1980s that each say, no, my person is the one who did this first.

Yeah, each one claims creation of boba tea initially. And what's weird is the stories are separated by just a year. The first one is Hanlin Tea Room in Tai Nang, Taiwan, and their founder, Tu Song Ho, the story goes that in 1986, Two found tapioca balls on sale at the market and said, I'm going to add these to my milk tea. Just had this thought, random thought, and from that, Boba Tea was born. Because basically, Boba Tea is just tapioca balls added to milk tea.

Right. The other story is remarkably similar. This is the tea house that is a rival of the other called Cheung Shu-Tang. I'm not sure if that's correct or not. I'm doing my best. They said, No. In 1987, we had a 20-year-old woman working here named Lynn Sue-Hue, who had this tapioca pudding. It's called finian in Taiwan. She just dumped it in her tea and drank it, and that's where it started.

Yeah. What's weird is everybody separated themselves from Ms. Lynn immediately because they thought she was super weird, and yet she may have invented boba tea.

Right. So either way, we'll probably never know who's the actual first person or the first tea shop. But it was a big kid in Taiwan, eventually came over to the United States in the '90s, starting where else? On the West Coast in California, mainly. Generally in Taiwanese communities at the time. And then started becoming mainstream. And I feel like in the 2000s, it really broke out as the hot thing for hipsters to do.

Yeah, I was going to say there's a hundred % chance that it was proto emo kids who brought it out of the Taiwanese communities into American culture. I forgot to mention. Look at this, everybody. So you can't really talk about boba tea unless you talk about milk tea because that's the basis of it. And boba tea is really new from the '80s. Milk tea is not that old, considering how old Taiwan is. It was just in the 1940s that a bartender named Chang Fan-Chu got out of the bartending game, but still could not get the cocktail shaker out of his hand, and started mixing up teas, hand-shaken milk teas that would froth and have bubbles. So it became bubble tea, milk tea. And this went along for several decades. People went crazy for milk tea. And then eventually somebody thought either Tu Song Ho or Lin Hsu Hui thought to add tapioca pudding balls.

That's right. So you've got milk, you've got the ice, you've got black tea, and you got those tapioca pearls. There are all kinds of variations now, different kinds of tea, different kinds of milks, non-milks, things like cashew milk and stuff like that, almond milk. And then if you go to one of these Boba tea places and some large urban center, you're going to have all kinds of fun and crazy variations and flavors and toppings and things like that.

Yep. So I say we take a break and we'll come back and tell everybody a little more about Boba Tea.

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy is the greatest murder mystery in American history.

That's Rob Reiner. Rob called me, Soledad O'Brien, and asked me what I knew about this crime. I know 60 years later, new leads are still emerging. To me, an award-winning journalist, that's the making of an incredible story. On this podcast, you're going to hear it told by one of America's greatest storytellers.

We'll ask.

Who had the motive to assassinate a sitting president.

My dad fought JFK.

Screwed us at the Bay of Pigs, and then he.

Screwed us after the Cuban missile crisis. We'll reveal why Lee Harvey Oswalt isn't who they said he was. I was under the impression that Lee was being trained for a specific operation. Then we'll pull the curtain back on the cover up. The American people need to know the truth.

Listen to Who Killed JFK on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Daniel Tosh, host of a new podcast called Tosh Show, brought to you by iHeart Podcasts. Why am I getting into the podcast game now? Well, seemed like the best way to let my family know what I'm up to instead of visiting or being part of their incessant group text. I'll be interviewing people that I find interesting, so not celebrities and certainly not comedians. I'll be interviewing my plumber, my stylist, my wife's gynecologist. We'll be covering topics like religion, travel, sports, gambling, but mostly it will be about being a working mother. If you're looking for a podcast that will educate and inspire or one that will really make you think, this isn't the one for you. But it will be entertaining to a very select few because you don't make it your mid 40s with IBS without having a story or two to tell. Join me as I take my place among podcast royalty like Joel Olstein and Lance Bass. Those are words I hope I'd never have to say. Listen to Tosshowe on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Chuck, I feel like you should take the fact of the podcast what boba means in the first place.

Is it something to do with Dolly Parton?

Kind of.

Wouldn't it? About boobs?

Yeah, boba is a Taiwanese slang for boob. They're basically saying this tea has a bunch of little boobes floating around in it.

That's stuck still.

Yeah, still, because most people don't know what boba means.

I guess so. Well, we should talk about those bobas. Which is the tapioca. I wasn't even sure. I mean, maybe I've had tapioca pudding, but it's a word I had heard, and I don't think I ever fully knew what even tapioca was. But tapioca or boba is tapioca that's a starch, apparently, extracted from cassava root. But it can also be extracted from other things, right?

Yeah, so casava root is from South America, but it grows really well in Asia too, Southeast Asia, and in particular, the maritime Southeast Asia, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and East Timor. Poor West Timor gets left out of everything.

Is there a West Timor?

I don't think so. Okay. I hope not that I said that. But they were making these pearls, these tapioca pearls, not out of tapioca, but out of rice or palm hearts. But the point is you're using a starch. It's a ball of starch, essentially. It's almost nutrient-free, heavy in calories. But if you prepare them just right and you add them to the bubble tea, if you like that consistency, you're in heaven because they're chewing, they're mushy, they're weird, and they're Gelatinous.

Chewy, like compare it to a gummy bear, or as they say in Germany, Gummy bear.

Is that really what they call it in Germany? Oh, yeah. Okay. It's less Chewy, but it's in a different way.

Can you compare it to anything?

Have you had bubble tea?

You got me because for about a half a beat, I was like, I.

Don't think I have. I can't. Okay. No, I can't. Imagine taking a ball of really sticky, wet rice and mashing it until there's no space between the individual grains of rice and then chewing that. That's the closest I can come up with. It's very starchy and sticky, and it can stick to your teeth a little bit. It's nothing good if you ask me. But again, I'm not yucking anybody's yum. I don't care if you like it or not, it's fine. But-yeah. It's just not for me.

All right, well, I just have to try it for myself, I guess. If you're making tapioca pearls yourself, you buy them dry. Apparently, you boil them for 30 minutes and then cool them for 30 minutes. And it sounds like to really get that disgusting consistency just right that you hate. It's fairly specific. Like if you boil them too long, it's going to be too squishy and maybe too sticky. And if you don't do it enough, you can't chew them, they're too hard. So it sounds like you got to hit that sweet spot.

Yes, exactly. So there, you can make your own boba tea now, right? That's all it takes?

I guess so. And then you shake up your drink and then you add your tapioca pearls and you've got your own boba tea.

Yeah, and I think there's a food and wine article about boba tea, and they said that there's a word in Chinese for the perfect consistency of boba. It's QQ. The letter Q, the letter Q. It means Chewy. Wow, we just came up with two Chinese slang words, Taiwanese and a Chinese slang word. Now you know what Boba T is all about. If you haven't tried it, go out and try it. It's definitely worth trying. It's not so disgusting that you're going to just throw up or anything like that. Although they have come up with some that are really dancing right there on the edge.

What? Like the flavors?

Yeah. The one that got me, it was mentioned in a Seattle Times post about boba tea, that there's a salty cheese topping that essentially has the consistency of a really flimsy cheese cake, but it's very salty. It's made from powder cheese.

That sounds good to me on its own.

On its own? Yes. This is floating on top of a very sweet, milky tea drink. That's a weird combo for me.

That is a weird combo. I do like milk in my hot tea, like in my black tea or my breakfast tea. I could see me liking the tea for sure.

Yeah, if you ever go to one of these places and they have a tarot or a dirty tarot, get that. Just tell them to hold the boba or get two. Get one without the boba so you can enjoy that one and get one with the boba so you can try it at least once.

All right, I'll try it out.

Okay, well, since Chuck said he's going to try it out, everybody, that means short stuff is out.

Stuff you.

Should.

Know is a production.

Of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts to My Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app.

Apple podcasts.

Are wherever you listen to your.

Favorite shows.

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy is the greatest murder mystery in American history.

That's Rob Reiner. Rob called me, Soledad O'Brien, and asked me what I knew about this crime.

We'll ask who had the motive to assassinate a sitting President. Then we'll pull the curtain back on the cover up. The American people need to know the truth.

Listen to Who Killed JFK on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Daniel Tosh, host of a new podcast called Tosh Show. I'll be interviewing people that I find interesting, so not celebrities and certainly not comedians. We'll be covering topics like religion, travel, sports, gambling, but mostly it will be about being a working mother. If you're looking for a podcast that will educate and inspire or one that will really make you think, this isn't the one for you. Listen to Tosh Show on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Mary Kay Mcbraer, host of the podcast The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever told, where I dig into crimes where a woman is not just a victim. She might be the detective, the lawyer, the witness, the coroner, the criminal, or some combination of those roles. These are the stories we need to know to understand the intersection of society, justice, and the fascinating workings of the human psyche. Listen to the greatest true crime stories ever told on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Join me, Elvis Durant, in the morning show for a special gathering at iHeartLand and State Farm Park. It's a holiday celebration with fun talks plus a very special Elvis Durant in the morning show poem twice the night after Christmas. Don't miss this special event starting Monday, December 18th at 7:00 PM Eastern at State Farm Park in iHeartland in Fortnite, available for a limited time. Afterwards, stick around and check out all the exciting things State Farm has to offer. Stay high to Jake from State Farm on the big screen and try to beat Jake's score at the park or mini game. Visit iheartradio. Com/iheartland to start playing today.