We have all been there before. After buying our favourite bubble tea and taking our time to enjoy the refreshing drink, we realised we’d finished the pearls and sadly, there’s too much tea left. First world problem weh!
Fret not. Now there’s a scientific way to drink your bubble tea without having insufficient boba towards the end!
Data researcher Krist Wongsuphasawat calculated and shared his findings via simulation on how to achieve the optimum way to drink bubble tea.
To achieve the optimised sips, the simulation first assumes that all the pearls are stacked nicely on top of each other. Another assumption is that the straw is poked straight down the cup, which would collect an n number of pearls.
Source: Medium
Wongsuphasawat elaborated that three factors influence the ability to finish the pearls before the tea.
Source: Medium
The shape of the cup
The bigger the cup, the wider the spread of the pearls which means you will get fewer pearls per sip.
Source: Medium
The contents of the cup
The tea to pearl ratio determines the chance of success. More tea with fewer pearls means that there’s a higher chance you’ll finish the drink first. Less tea means it’s easier to have pearls at the end of your last sip. However, ice is also an essential element to consider as it may take up space, but it will melt and gradually increase the tea volume.
Source: Medium
The way you drink it
Each one of us will have our way of drinking bubble tea. Some like to drink slowly while others want to suck aggressively. All these can affect the result of achieving optimised sips.
Wongsuphasawat also gave a few recommendations to achieve optimised sips.
- Use a slim cup instead of a wide one because this will create a taller layer of pearls and less area to score for the remaining pearls.
- Choose to add less ice in your bubble tea to minimise the increase of liquid in the drink.
- Sip on it strongly because powerful sips will ensure you will get the pearls but don’t go in too strong as you might end up choking on pearls.
It is up to us on how to enjoy our bubble tea. Some of us might just want to savour it without having to overthink the process.
But now with the power of data science, you can optimise your drinking style however you want.
Also read: Viral Video Showing “Most Extra Way Of Drinking Bubble Tea” Has Got Netizens Amused
