What a lovely gift we received this past Canadian Thanksgiving weekend: a cultural appropriation controversy. It’s almost like it was 2015 again! Ah, I remember first seeing those “My Culture is Not Your Costume” posters, urging Halloween partygoers not to dress up as Pocahontas or a geisha. There’s nothing like autumnal nostalgia.
A new episode of the business pitch show Dragon’s Den aired on October 10, featuring Chinese-born actor Simu Liu as a celebrity guest investor. Enter Quebec City’s Sebastien Fiset and Jess Frenette, the owners of ready-to-drink bubble tea company Bobba, seeking $1 million in exchange for 18% of their company. The company was a success since its inception, profiting $300,000 in their first year and $600,000 last year.
Liu was adversarial from the outset: among his concerns was that the drink’s can didn’t mention Taiwan, where bubble (boba) tea comes from.
“What respect is being paid to this very Asian drink that has blown up around the world and is it in your teas? Is it in your product development?” he asked. Fiset replied that the tea is formulated in Taiwan, and that he travels to Taiwan to meet with his supplier.
Fiset said that his boba was a “healthier” experience, and that he is “disturbing this $4 billion dollar market.” He claimed his product had three simple ingredients: tea, juice, and popping boba (pearls).
“I’m concerned about this idea of disrupting or disturbing bubble tea,” Liu said.
“Why? There can be new takes on things. Not everything has to be traditional,” replied investor Manjit Minhas, the CEO of a beer brands manufacturer.
You would think that Minhas would be the voice of reason here. Just because a food item originates in Asia, that doesn’t make it untouchable. People are allowed to discover culinary products from countries that aren’t their own and reformulate recipes to suit the tastes and preferences of another region. In any case, bubble tea originated in the 1980s in Taiwan – are milk tea boba makers paying homage to the early pastoral farmers of Western Europe who first milked cows for human consumption? Are the makers of sugary boba tea paying homage to the New Guineans of 8000 BC, who first started chewing on sugarcane?
Minhas made a deal with Bobba – $1 million in exchange for 18% of the company. “I believed in you from moment one,” Minhas said to Fiset and Frenette after the couple accepted her offer. Dragons Arlene Dickinson and Michele Romanow had also made a joint offer for the same amount.
Meanwhile, Liu lamented, “It makes me sad how successful this business is.”
Alas, Tiktok and Instagram commenters were starved for an opportunity to complain about cultural appropriation, and leapt to mock and criticize Bobba. Many made fun of Fiset’s remark that bubble tea “is not an ethnical product anymore.”
On Sunday, Minhas released a video on Instagram where she said, “After more reflection, due diligence and listening to many of your opinions, I will not be investing in Bobba tea.”
Next up: an Instagram apology from Bobba. “We want to deeply apologize for the harm we have caused by our words and actions on the show… we welcome this learning opportunity.”
Cue the stories about the “important conversation” that Liu sparked.
Predictability can be so comforting.
Admittedly, the scandal had me intrigued, and I was about to grab my coat and walk over to the grocery store in search of Bobba. I used to drink bubble tea frequently in high school (15 years ago), but the tapioca pearls always had my stomach feeling heavy so I never again sought it out. But if Bobba was offering lighter, popping pearls, perhaps it would be quite tasty.
I quickly checked Bobba’s ingredients on their website, and sighed in disappointment. Artificial flavour and food colouring. I hung up my jacket, as I don’t wittingly consume artificial flavour.
Bobba stated in their October 13 Instagram post that while on Dragon’s Den they were introducing a new formula with no artificial colour, flavor, or preservatives, as well as a lower sugar content. If true, this is promising.
But the founders of Bobba may never get to launch the natural version of their tea, as they’ve been marked as “cultural appropriators.” Cultural appropriation outrage probably doesn’t mean much in the francophone Quebec market, but Simu Liu’s mob has tainted Bobba’s name in the English-speaking world – and Liu sees himself as a hero because of it.
