Bay Area Bubble Tea Shops Face Imminent Boba Shortage
Plus, Bissap Baobab Oakland has closed, for good this time
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Bubble tea fans, be warned shops in the Bay Area (and the rest of the U.S.) are facing a boba shortage, due to a massive backlog of shipping containers stuck at ports on the West Coast. The backlog is impacting nearly every product that comes from Asia to the U.S., according to MarketWatch, but the boba shortage is the result of “a perfect storm,” Oliver Yoon, vice president of sales for Boba Direct, told Business Insider. That’s because in addition to boba balls stuck at the ports, so are shipments of raw tapioca starch, an essential ingredient for suppliers that make their own boba in the U.S. The industry-wide shortage is already starting to hit Bay Area shops, with Andrew Chau and Bin Chen of Boba Guys warning they may run out at their cafes in the next week, and that they expect availability to be “in flux for several months.” [Mark