The Final Straw: Local Boba Drinkers Unsatisfied With Straw Alternatives

Iris Kwok
6 min readAug 12, 2019

1:58 p.m. August 12, 2019

Updated 1:14 p.m. August 13, 2019

The exterior of Yi Fang Taiwan Fruit Tea in Berkeley, Calif., August 12, 2019. (Iris Kwok/J100)

BERKELEY, Calif. — “Order number 52,” the barista at Yi Fang Taiwan Fruit Tea calls out.

Alex makes his way through the crowded boba shop, uncrumpling his receipt. He picks up his order: Yi Fang’s signature brown sugar pearl milk tea with 50% ice. Grabbing a large pointed plastic straw from the counter, he swiftly punctures the lid of the cup. He’s obviously done this before.

Alex, a student at the University of California, Berkeley, said the plastic straw is what makes his boba drinking experience so good.

“Paper straws are terrible. They make drinks taste like cardboard, and they dissolve before I can finish (the drink),” said Alex, who asked that his last name not be used.

He said that he has never tried aluminum straws because they are, according to him, “impractical and too much of a hassle to carry around.”

Alex is among many other boba drinkers who prefer plastic straws to alternatives. Lucky for Alex and other fans of boba, Berkeley has not followed suit in San Francisco’s decision to ban all plastic straws.

Daniel Yamada, a sophomore at Cal, said he “would be less inclined to get boba” if local shops changed their straws.

“I would be forced to drink it really fast, which doesn’t seem very appealing,” said Yamada.

Even so, many people wonder if Berkeley will pass a full straw ban.

Berkeley has already taken steps to reduce the usage and disposal of single-use food ware, including straws; in March 2019, the Berkeley Single-Use Foodware and Litter Reduction Ordinance went into effect, requiring that disposable food ware be provided only by request or at self-serve stations.

Both plastic straws (left) and bamboo fiber straws (right) are available at a self-serve station next to the register at Sheng Kee Bakery in Berkeley, Calif., August 12, 2019. (Iris Kwok/J100)

Critics of plastic straws say that enough is enough.

“Plastic straws, have been in the top ten collected items globally for all 33 years of the International Coastal Cleanup,said Sarah Kollar, project and outreach manager of the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup.

The Ocean Conservancy’s “Skip the Straw” campaign asks people and establishments to pledge to either skip the straw or use an alternative.

“It’s an item that is very prevalent on beaches worldwide and we felt… that it was an item most of us can do without in our daily lives,” said Kollar. She is actually a fan of sipping through straws and carries a reusable metal straw.

Kollar works at the Ocean Conservancy’s offices in Washington, D.C., where the Sustainable Straws and Stirrers Amendment Act went into effect in January.

She said that she hopes to see the number of plastic straws the International Coastal Cleanup finds in the area decrease. Kollar is confident that the bans will be effective, citing data that showed a significant decrease in the number of plastic grocery bags in California following the statewide ban on single-use plastic bags that took effect on January 1, 2016.

Data: Ocean Conservancy (International Coastal Cleanup Reports) Graphic: Iris Kwok

It may come as a surprise to some that this is not Washington’s first time banning straws.

In 2014, Washington passed the Sustainable D.C. Omnibus Amendment Act, banning all “disposable food service ware” including single-use straws and styrofoam containers.

The 2014 ban was not strictly enforced. In 2018, Councilmember Evans Ward and Councilmember Mary Cheh introduced another bill to ban plastic straws in the district.

“We have not seen any enforcement against disposable plastic straws (which are technically already banned in the District),” Cheh tweeted on July 10, 2018.

Perry Wheeler, a senior communications specialist at Greenpeace USA, said he believes that bans on plastic straws are only starting points to further tackle plastic pollution and challenge a “throwaway culture.”

“It’s not enough… to ban straws, replace them with another throwaway material, and walk away from the issue,” he said. “Straw bans will never solve the plastic pollution crisis on their own.”

Wheeler said that he hopes companies will “innovate and find a suitable, environmentally-friendly alternative.”

“Straw bans will never solve the plastic pollution crisis on their own,” said Perry Wheeler.

There are already various environmentally-friendly straw alternatives on the market.

One company, HAY! Straws, sells biodegradable straws made from wheat stalks. Ben Martin, a sales representative from HAY! Straws, claimed in a phone interview that “functionality-wise, they are basically the same as a plastic straw.”

The texture, however, could not be more different.

“When you first receive them, they’re dry,” said Martin, “and once it absorbs the liquid, it becomes flexible.” He described the texture as “similar to wheat.”

Bamboo fiber straws are another environmentally-friendly plastic alternative. These straws have been introduced at various boba shops in San Francisco after the straw ban went into effect on July 1, 2019. Sheng Kee Bakery now offers these straws at its Berkeley location.

Bamboo fiber straw sits in a cup of milk tea at Sheng Kee Bakery in Berkeley, Calif., on August 12, 2019. (Iris Kwok/J100)

Anna Fang, an 18-year-old boba enthusiast, recently tried the bamboo fiber straws that Boba Guys recently introduced to its San Francisco locations.

“It feels like you’ll get splinters from using it, but it is quite the interesting invention,” Fang said in an interview. She prefers the texture of plastic straws.

Boba Guys, a boba company with locations in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, and Los Angeles, released a blog post explaining why they made the switch to bamboo fiber straws.

The company noted in its post that bamboo fiber “performs better in our drinks than any other material we tested.” They explained: “ It holds-up against all temperatures for an extended amount of time, and they don’t melt/swell/break like other alternatives do.”

Another option: the classic paper straw. However, many local customers seem to despise them.

“Paper straws are really inconvenient when I’m trying to enjoy my drink for more than 20 minutes because it starts to get soggy and bend,” said Yamada.

Roy Lam, the owner of the Northern California franchise of Yi Fang Taiwan Fruit Tea, said in a phone interview that his San Francisco shops are temporarily using paper straws in compliance with the city-wide plastic straw ban.

“We wanted to be good citizens… so we’re going to use the bamboo straws at all of our stores,” said Lam. He stated that he has already ordered bamboo fiber straws and that the company is currently in the process of distributing them to his four shops.

Lam said that making the costly switch to bamboo fiber straws is worth it “for the good of the earth” and for “saving the turtles.”

Although Lam acknowledges that the bamboo fiber straws have a different texture than the plastic straws boba drinkers are accustomed to, he is confident that they will get used to the bamboo straws.

“It’s not like they are changing the way they drink the boba. It’s just a different material,” Lam said.

While it will be difficult for a society wired to throw away almost everything, some devoted boba fans say they can adjust. Fang now carries a metal boba straw with her at all times.

“I love that there are so many options,” Fang said, “for people to use if they don’t want to carry around a metal straw or if they forget theirs at home.”

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