New Post has been published on UC After Cruz
New Post has been published on http://ucaftercruz.com/2015/06/4-confessions-boba-shop-employee/
4 Confessions of a Boba Shop Employee
In case you don’t know, boba is a delicious blend of tapioca pearls and teas invented by my people (the Taiwanese) back before the 1990s. I really don’t know what it is about this drink but everyone is somehow obsessed with it now-a-days.
But let’s face it; each industry has something to confess about, whether it is teaching or retail, there’s always some behind the scenes action that customers don’t usually see. For me, it’s boba shop. I already did a ”confession” style post about how to survive being the new guy at the office so give that a look if you have time!
Disclaimer: these confessions are based on my own experience. As a customer or worker, you may not experience the same things at your local boba shop.
You Have to Learn to Move Fast
Boba shops aren’t restaurants, when you’re hired as the outside crew member, you literally work the outside. It ranges from taking orders, making drinks, cleaning, and everything in between. Unless you work at a high-end boba shop, there won’t be any busser, hosts, waiters, or anything. One person does everything so you HAVE to move fast.
Another reason for moving fast is that most boba shops are understaffed. I’ve never been inside a tapioca making place where there is actually enough people. So if you don’t move fast and get the customers what they want, you get hated and complained on. The line of tea drinking patrons doesn’t clear itself, you know!
Bussing Tables is a True Art
Unfortunately, unlike restaurants, we don’t have a cart to roll around or a tub to bring when we collect dishes. The only thing we got is our hands, so we have to use them well. If you are delivering 2 different orders or collecting four different dirty dishes at once, you have to somehow figure out a way to make it work.
I can honestly say that I really envy workers who have the luxury of just dumping everything into one tub/cart and then go on their marry way to their next table. Just like what I said in my previous topic, we need to collect dishes, deliver checks, and then go back to making boba all within 5 minutes.
Boba Making is Easy and Hard at the Same Time
The recipe is pretty straight forward, a little bit of this and a little bit of that. However what makes it hard is the modifications. The crazier the drink, the longer it is to make because of the changes we have to do.
It truly is one of those, it’s SO easy that it is difficult and it’s SO difficult that it is easy. My favorite customers would definitely have to be those straight forward milk/fruit tea with some sort of add-ons (like jellies or pearls) because they make the process so much easier and faster. So next time you wonder why your drink order is taking so long, think about the modifications that you made before complaining!
By the way, for all those boba lovers that love to ”customize” their drinks’ sweetness, I got bad news for you; there is no such thing as ¼, ¾, or 1/5 anything; it’s just more or less. The most we can do is 1/2.
Think about it: when the boba worker is busy trying to pump out 20 drink orders in 5 minutes, do they really have the time to measure out exactly what the customer wants? All they do is put less than the normal amount and call it whatever the customer wants it. It’s the nasty truth about boba making. The same goes for the jellies or pearls too; just one scoop more or one scoop less.
Talking Smack about People behind the Tea Bar is the Best Part of the Job
This should be a given if you are a wait staff. How else do you think we manage to squeeze out service with a smile at such a fast pasting job? It’s the smack talking while making teas that keeps us sane.
Anyone that annoys us the slightest bit will earn a place in our conversation behind the counter as we blend up tasty concoctions of teas, powder, and tapioca. Talk over us? Talking on top of each other? Give us attitude? They all get a place in our topic. After all, we are only human.
At the end of the day, even though it doesn’t pay much, I actually still enjoy working at a boba shop. It is VERY tiring and requires A LOT of hard work but the opportunity to talk to different people and see different things is what keeps me going back (besides the pay of course!). The service industry is a place where we learn a lot about the world and ourselves since we are constantly on the move. Essentially, it is character building.
By the way, one of us spotted this sign during Alumni Weekend 2015:
(Excuse the blurriness!)
