At the same time, the popularity of boba is growing worldwide. According to Joe Garber at Datassential, a food-business consultancy that tracks menu trends, the term “boba” has grown more than 200% on menus over the last four years; “bubble” tea has jumped more than 150% in the same time. And when it comes to Taiwanese food as a whole, this cuisine has been broadly pegged as “one to watch” by the American media in recent years. In other words, whoever solves the straw problem stands to become an incredibly important part of the boba economy. It’s a topic that everyone’s passionate about right now.