Many people
may have heard about the Lollicup Tea Zone in Denver on the south Colorado
Blvd. Lollicup is probably the most famous boba place in Denver. More
specifically, boba is little pearl-sized tapioca ball at the bottom of drinks.
It is made by the starch of the cassava root and would become sweet and chewy
ball after cooking. Americans love it because it’s attractive by adding some
chewy balls in milk tea. Compared with boba, British milk tea became a kind of
plain and boring drink. Boba gradually
became popular in America nowadays. In 2001, Jeffrey Ressner described the
diffusion of Asian boba in states on U.S. TimeMagzine, “It (Boba) traveled to North America via the large Asian community in
Vancouver, then migrated to Chinatown areas in New York and other U.S. cities
before popping up at trendy college campuses in Seattle, San Francisco and Los
Angeles. America as a big multi-culture country, Lollicup Tea Zone in
Denver is a great example shows how various cultures from outside of America be
diffused and influenced in states.
The
Lollicup Tea Zone mainly serves guests boba drinks. Many students in Denver enjoy
spending time in Lollicup, especially high school students and college students
from DU (University of Denver). According to my observation, a fair amount of
peoples who from other ethnic groups love Lollicup Tea Zone too except Asian
people. The boss was a nice Asian young lady and she told me she opened the
Lollicup Tea Zone in Denver since 2003. “My brother in vacation of California
with his family. And they saw many boba places surround Asian influenced area.
They tried few places and brought the idea back. Denver is a good place.” She
told me the reason why she opened this boba place in Denver. Indeed, boba is a
kind of Asian twist on thing. Moreover, boba is so ethnic and unique that
people could not buy it from somewhere else.
Menu
is presented with colored chalk on a menu board that is popular in Asian boba milk
tea stores. To be honest, there are many kinds of drinks guests could choose. To
be specific, non- dairy milk tea, flavored ice tea, snow bubble, slush, juice
and other hot drinks. Milk tea always served with boba. And 17 flavors (royal,
coconut, ice tea, taro, honey dew, coffee, jasmine, chocolate, cappuccino, black,
barley, sesame, almond, thai, lavender, four pudding, pumpkin and ginger) you
could choose when you order your milk tea. Guests would be attracted easily
because each flavor has its own color. Flavored ice tea is made based on black
tea or jasmine tea. Snow bubble and slush are always popular in summer.
However, snow bubble is creamy while slush is made by blended ice. As for other
hot drinks, hot chocolate, cappuccino and black coffee are available too. The
Lollicup Tea Zone as an Asian boba zone in America, hot chocolate, cappuccino
and black coffee are necessary drinks in American tea place except typical
Asian boba milk tea. Not only drinks, some nibbles are popular too. Similarly,
nibbles are combined with Asian style steamed buns that called Baozi and
American style bread. Most of tea drinks were served by plastic cups and sealed
by plastic tops with an automatic bubble tea boba cup sealer sealing machine. There are different
colors and sizes of straws that guests could choose from.
I
went to Lollicup several times and I love the atmosphere and décor of this tea
place. The whole room was painted with warm colors, such as red, orange and
yellow. Besides, dark lights created a relaxing and comfortable atmosphere. I
noticed that there were couples of charming oil painting and creative Asian
cartoon paintings on the wall. Adorable stuffed toys were used to decorate the bookcase.
A Fashion black sofa in a quiet corner was available for guests if they want to
sit down and reading some fashion magazines or manga. However, people who want
to play board games or chat preferred circular tables with wooden chairs that
they could gossip around. Not only drinking boba, guests come here for social
activities too. There are many thing people could do in Lollicup Tea Zona. A
large collection of Chinese, Japanese and Korean manga, as well as American and
Asian fashion magazines were provided in the bookcase. Guests also could play
board games, chess or foosball in the back room. Further more, staffs told me
that guests could stay as long as they like.
Boba
was originated from Taiwan. Within around two years, Boba was diffused to
nearby countries, such as mainland of China, Singapore, Philippines, Canada and
west coast of America. (U.S. TimeMagzine 2001) Boba as a kind of Asian food
culture, being diffused and strongly influenced by foreign culture, presents to
peoples from other ethnic groups a fresh Asian food idea and affect those
peoples. Mixing of culture is the biggest product of globalization. Culture
diffusion causes many effects to both the originated area and being influenced
area. In the Lollicup tea zone, both Asian and American cultures are reflected.
For example, boba and hot chocolate, steamed bun and bread, Asian manga and
American fashion magazines, oil painting and Japanese cartoon are exists at the
same time in Lollicup. Similarly, young folks are the major customers in Asian
too, as well as most of boba drinks are packaged by automatic bubble tea boba cup Sealer sealing machine.
Boba in America has exactly the same flavor in Asian. Nevertheless, boba
places in America are a little bit different from Aisan boba places. Generally
speaking, boba is called pearl milk tea in Asian. Moreover, there is no
foosball table in a boba place in Chinese boba place. Asians make their boba
place be cute, colorful and comfortable. Fashion black sofa is randomly
appeared in a boba place in China. When I ordered a cup of boba in Denver
Lollicup, I felt that everything here was what I was familiar with. Suddenly, I
felt that I was lost because everything here was strange. Boba in America, as a
result of culture diffusion, is somehow changed.
Work Cited
Ressner,
Jeffrey. “Boba Drinks.” Time Magazine. Feb.
2001. Web. Apr. 17. 2012.
Lollicup.
“About Us.” Lollicup, 2003. Web. 17 Apr. 2012.
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