Boba shortage in Dallas: Smaller tea shops feeling the sting

Boba is booming in Texas and demand is high, so customers are frustrated, shop owners say.

By Amanda Albee

7:31 AM on Apr 19, 2021

(Excerpt from the full article)

Some good news is that the CEO of Fat Straws Bubble Tea Co., Terry Pham, says all four Dallas-area locations have enough boba to get through a couple of months. He has been buying directly from an overseas manufacturing company for the past 19 years since Fat Straws began.

He explains the problem isn’t due to a shortage of product but rather logistical problems like the backup at the ports, commonly reported labor issues and reopening after lockdown measures. Even local suppliers selling other food and beverage products have faced this issue, he explains. “When bars reopened, [food and beverage distributor] Ben E. Keith was like, ‘Bear with us. All the bars are open now.’”

Pham isn’t planning to preserve supply by offering substitutes, he says, “but we are definitely watching waste.”

 

Fat Straws is named for its oversized straws, used to slurp up tapioca bubbles or jellies in its drinks.(Kathy Tran)