Ahlusion

[RPadTV]

I knew you were cool. How about some Mingus? Yeah, Mingus!

When I used to work at PC Magazine Labs, my friend and I would use Mingus Ah Um to test speakers. One week, we put it on all the test PCs (20+), blasted the first track on loop, locked all the computers, and left for lunch. We considered it educating our coworkers.

 

[Mr.Mann]

When I used to work at PC Magazine Labs, my friend and I would use Mingus Ah Um to test speakers. One week, we put it on all the test PCs (20+), blasted the first track on loop, locked all the computers, and left for lunch. We considered it educating our coworkers.

Either that or community/public service! LOL

 

[newbie2ec]

Guys - you dont have to go to IE - you can go Firefox..... Im not having a problem with that one

Just a thought!

 

[wonderland]

I love it. Is that the cactus or the forest green?

I couldn't do without mine as I can carry it to work every night and never worry avout smudging up the white mini. My custom alien sleeve and phiniac tank:

Disregard the big black thing in the background. That's a telescope, not a circus cannon for my rat terrier.

It's the forest green (but I almost bought the cactus. Next time!). Your custom aliens are great!

As far as the boba tea goes, as much as I love the tapioca pudding from my childhood, those giant brown balls are just about the grossest thing I can think of (sorry to the boba tea lovers out there). I used to teach at an all Chinese middle/high school and the staff would "treat" the teachers to boba tea often (as well as authentic Chinese food which is about as far from American Chinese food as anything). I never wanted to be rude, so I always accepted it with thanks and then dolled it out to my students. It made me a very popular teacher

 

[Moueix]

I'm gonna pretend I did not just read that.

It's OK. He feels pretty much the same about Five Finger Death Punch.

I've moved through musical "phases" all my life. Jazz, R&B, even classical. When my girls were listening to Boy Bands, I was heavy into Alternative and Grunge, which they hated. By the time I moved to Rap, they had come to love Alternative & Grunge, and SCORNED me for listening to Rap. Now they're listening to Rap, and think Shady is very talented (he is), and I'm back in more of a metal phase. I was listening to Etta James long before Beyonce made "At Last" popular again. I can stomach old Hank Williams, Charlie Pride, and Patsy Cline, but otherwise, I'm allergic to C&W. Big Band, never to my liking, but someday,who knows? I'm fickle like that.

 

[Tezcatlipoca]

Hi Tez,

Most of the tapioca balls were very tender, but a few seemed perhaps undercooked, and tough. The tea girl seemed a little surprised when she made it without, and I asked for them. Is that not the "usual" method? And what is the difference between Boba tea and Pearl tea?

Hmmm, that's odd... I always thought that it was standard to have the tapioca balls in it, but then I've only had Boba tea a handful of times. I've never ordered Pearl tea (at a Boba tea house), although I've seen it on the menu. Maybe our resident Boba expert Ax can shed some light on the issue for us.

 

[XfooYen]

... And what is the difference between Boba tea and Pearl tea?

Same thing in the U.S.
The history from WikiBlahblahblah.

History

Bubble tea came into existence in Taiwan, when the beverage was created during the 1980s.[6] Although it is not known which exact Taiwanese shop is the creator of Bubble tea, several shops are speculated to be the origin.

One possible origin is Chun Shui Tang teahouse in Taichung, where Ms. Lin Hsiu Hui (product development manager) poured sweetened tapioca balls into the tea during a meeting in 1988.[2] The beverage was well received by the people at the meeting, leading to its inclusion on the menu, ultimately becoming the franchise's top-selling product.[2] An alternative origin is the Hanlin teahouse in Tainan, Taiwan, owned by Tu Tsong-he. He made tea using traditional white tapioca, which has the appearance of pearls, supposedly resulting in the so-called "pearl tea". Shortly after, Hanlin changed the white tapioca balls to the black version that is seen most today. The drink became popular in most parts of East and Southeast Asia during the 1990s.[3]

In June 2012, McDonald's McCafé locations in Germany and Austria began offering bubble tea. They offer black, green, or white tea, available with or without milk. Fruit syrups are also available, bringing the total number of possible flavor combinations to 250.[7]
Types

泡沫紅茶 (pinyin: pàomò hóngchá): "foam red tea", by direct translation, is the drink that is more appropriate for the more literal name of "bubble tea"; however, the English name, foam tea, is not used much throughout Asia. Consequently, in non-Chinese-speaking Asian countries, "bubble tea" is commonly used to refer to this drink.[8] There is no tapioca in this particular drink. To create this, vendors mix hot or warm tea (in this case, black tea) with syrup or sugar and ice cubes into a cocktail shaker. Then they would shake the shaker either by hand or by machine before it is served. The resulting tea would be covered by a layer of foam or froth and the tea would have a light foamy feel to the taste.[9][10]
泡沫奶茶 (pinyin: pàomò nǎichá): "foam milk tea". One of the many variants that is prepared the same way as the "foam red tea", well-shaken before serving.
珍珠奶茶 or 珍奶 for short) (pinyin: zhēnzhū nǎichá): "pearl milk tea", or more commonly referred to as bubble tea by most English speakers and overseas Chinese speakers. The "pearl" name originally referred to the small 1/12" tapioca pearls added to the drink. Though most modern vendors serve only the bigger 1/4" pearls, they still use "pearl tea" as the name.[3]
波霸奶茶 (pinyin: bōbà nǎichá): "bubble milk tea" and also commonly referred to as boba tea by English speakers and Asian Americans. The name refers to the variant with the bigger, 1/4" tapioca pearls.[3]
黑珍珠奶茶 (pinyin: hēi zhēnzhū nǎichá): "black pearl milk tea". Since the bigger 1/4" tapioca pearls are separately sold as "black pearls" (黑珍珠) in markets, this name was the logical first choice and is more popular with the consumers of the drink. "Boba" (波霸) is an alternative name that is less commonly used these days.
(奶)茶珍珠 (pinyin: (nǎi) chá zhēnzhū): "(milk) tea pearl" (less common).
泡泡茶 (pinyin: pào pào chá): used interchangeably with 珍珠奶茶 to refer to "bubble tea" in Singapore.

 

[RPadTV]

Definitely an Asian thing I guess

For sure. The first time I had boba was 2000 or 2001 in UCLA. The boba cafe was always full of Asian students, mostly from Taiwan.

 

[Nick Fantastic]

Dang, I missed all the Jazz talk!! No mention of Bird?!? Here we go. My all-time fav jazz pic right here. Notice Monk and Mingus are there too. Great calls from wonderland and Mann!!



Hope you all are enjoying your weekend!

 

[Moueix]

WOO HOO! I just noticed, 100 days without a cig. I think I'll load up a little BGB in celebration.

 

[Nick Fantastic]

Great job Mo! Congrats!

 

[scarf-ace]

Hi Tez,

Most of the tapioca balls were very tender, but a few seemed perhaps undercooked, and tough. The tea girl seemed a little surprised when she made it without, and I asked for them. Is that not the "usual" method? And what is the difference between Boba tea and Pearl tea?

As far as I know, the terms "boba tea", "bubble tea", and "pearl tea" are interchangeable.

Very cool set-ups, Wonderland and Cho! They look great!



Hey Mo, too bad the timing is a little off -- I'll be passing through Vegas in a couple of weeks (emphasis on the "through" part). I hope you have a lovely stay at either rate. I really like Boba tea, but I can't get used to those globules. That's why I love Ahlusion's Boba Tea so much -- the great flavor of the original, but I don't feel like I'm going to choke to death!

We have a bubble tea stand just downstairs from my shop: Easyway. Sometimes on hot days I will treat my employees to tea to keep morale high. I will admit to getting mine with neither milk nor bubbles. Call me weird, but I like my drinks to be liquid and my foods to be solid, and I really don't like the bubbles interfering with the "flow" of my drink. I usually get green tea with either lemon, plum, lychee, or mango.

In bigger cities with gigantic Asian populations like Sydney or Melbourne, there are other chains of tea shops, and there is one about every 20 steps.

 

[Moueix]

Dang, I missed all the Jazz talk!! No mention of Bird?!? Here we go. My all-time fav jazz pic right here. Notice Monk and Mingus are there too. Great calls from wonderland and Mann!!

View attachment 156119

Hope you all are enjoying your weekend!

All this Jazz talk, I'm thinking it's high time to put some Chick Corea on my Ipod. Been a long time.
I'd be having a BETTER weekend if I could find a table where people aren't passing on their 14 against a dealers 10 Nice Mo just stays silent, but Rude Mo wants to jump up and yell "REALLY?!?"

 

[Moueix]

As far as I know, the terms "boba tea", "bubble tea", and "pearl tea" are interchangeable.

That's what I would have thought, too, but they had BOTH on the menu?!

 

[scarf-ace]

That's what I would have thought, too, but they had BOTH on the menu?!

In that case I will cheerfully admit to not having a clue

 

[Moueix]

In that case I will cheerfully admit to not having a clue

Sounds like further research may be in order! I ordered Plain (Ax was whispering in my ear!) And they had Lychee on the menu too...

 

[XfooYen]

That's what I would have thought, too, but they had BOTH on the menu?!

To differentiate, some places serve milk tea with white tapioca called pearl tea. Afaik, "bubble" tea does not have tapioca in it. It is chilled, shaken milk tea which gets foamy thus the bubble moniker.

EDIT: Some of the people here seem to have the skinny on boba tea. Read it and find out the TW slang for bo ba. Funny.

 

[Moueix]

Well, I definitely asked for Boba Plain. I think she might have thought I wouldn't like the little balls, some kind of cultural divide? When she asked me if I liked it, I smiled and said "Yes, but maybe needs more Cowbell". Her look confirmed there indeed was.

 

[Tralfaz]

Wow. Right out of the box, Bananas Foster is quite literally the best banana I have ever tasted. It is so real, just like a not overly ripe fresh banana. Simply amazing. In addition to that, Blue Fairy, Car-Mal Mambo, Vecchio and Sleighride are on the steep. Seriously excited, here.

 

[Tezcatlipoca]

WOO HOO! I just noticed, 100 days without a cig. I think I'll load up a little BGB in celebration.

Congrats Mo! I can't think of a better way to celebrate!

It's OK. He feels pretty much the same about Five Finger Death Punch.

I've moved through musical "phases" all my life. Jazz, R&B, even classical. When my girls were listening to Boy Bands, I was heavy into Alternative and Grunge, which they hated. By the time I moved to Rap, they had come to love Alternative & Grunge, and SCORNED me for listening to Rap. Now they're listening to Rap, and think Shady is very talented (he is), and I'm back in more of a metal phase. I was listening to Etta James long before Beyonce made "At Last" popular again. I can stomach old Hank Williams, Charlie Pride, and Patsy Cline, but otherwise, I'm allergic to C&W. Big Band, never to my liking, but someday,who knows? I'm fickle like that.

You're clearly a man of eclectic taste, and I can both appreciate that and relate. But no mention of Johnny Cash on your short list of C&W faves?? I know he has become a little cliche, but damn, that guy's amazing! The stuff he recorded in the '90s and early '00s with American is incredible. I don't care for most Country, but my favorite C&W musician from days of yore is Johnny Paycheck. He made some terrible music in the 70s when he got picked up by a major record label, but his late '60s recordings are unreal. I think you'd appreciate his dark sense of humor and clever turns of phrase evident in songs like "Pardon Me, I've Got Someone to Kill," "If I'm Gonna Sink (I Might As Well Go to the Bottom)," and "He's in a Hurry (To Get Home to my Wife)." He even did a sort of post-nuclear apocalypse country song. His best music can be found on a compilation called "The Real Mr. Heartache: The Little Darlin' Years."