Depending on how long it lasts, the shortage could spell disaster for boba shops, many of which are still recovering from economic setbacks during the pandemic.
Businesses are reporting difficulty in getting boba, the chewy tapioca balls that s ubiquitous in bubble tea. (Boba can refer to both the drink itself and to the tapioca balls.) Coupled with unpredictable shipments, shop owners are also reporting higher costs to obtain boba. Without boba, we don t even know what we would do, said Justin Gallardo, manager of a Bing s Boba Tea location in Tucson.
Why is there a nationwide boba shortage?
A bottleneck on boba supplies is happening at West Coast ports, where shipping containers are piling up, the San Francisco Chronicle first reported on April 13. Most U.S. boba shops get their tapioca balls from Taiwan. But even businesses that make their own pearls need to get tapioca starch, which is shipped from Thailand, the main producer of the world’s tapioca starch, the Chronicle r
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Coughlin, 77, has not found a buyer for his 38-year-old bar. He hopes the summer closure will give him time to figure out his plans.
“I haven’t started anything,” Coughlin said. “I am getting close to getting someone to assess the property. Evaluate everything, which I am going to be thinking about as we get close to closing.
“I sort of talked about retiring this year. And again, age has a lot to do with it. I always wondered when that was going to happen. It just comes naturally that you can’t do the things that you used to do. I have to accept that I have to move on.”
If you drive in downtown Phoenix, it s likely you have turned down Van Buren Street, Roosevelt Road or another roadway named after a President.
Phoenix famously has a grid system for its roads. Roads running North to South are numbered and roads running east to west are named streets.
But one of our listeners asked why the streets in central Phoenix are named after United States presidents. They grew up on Portland Street, one street over from Roosevelt and always wanted to know why names of past presidents adorned the street signs of Phoenix.
In today s episode of Valley 101, a podcast from The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, we find out how this came to be and what it would take to continue it. Producer Amanda Luberto has more.