Unusual & mysterious kitchen gadgets

[KennethT]

27 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

What's southern Argentina to do with it?

Maybe they love boba tea there?

[Duvel]

9 minutes ago, KennethT said:

Maybe they love boba tea there?

 
Nope. Because the utensil in question is a traditional straw used to prepare Yerba Mate. 

[liuzhou]

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, Duvel said:

 
Nope. Because the utensil in question is a traditional straw used to prepare Yerba Mate. 

Think I've seen those made of materials other than metal (of course I'm old).

[Duvel]

4 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Think I've seen those made of materials other than metal (of course I'm old).

I think it might be tricky to fabricate a bombilla without using metals (c.f. here), but I wouldn’t exclude it. Maybe @BonVivant has some insights from his visits to Latin America.

 

 

[AlaMoi]

the coriolis effect is opposite in southern Agentina - so a slightly modified design may be needed.

[Tropicalsenior]

22 minutes ago, AlaMoi said:

coriolis effect is opposite in southern Agentina -

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I always thought that Northern Argentina was in the same hemisphere  as Southern Argentina. So why should the straw be any different in Southern Argentina than Northern Argentina?

Edited July 17 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[AlaMoi]

would you settle for

"coriolis effect is opposite in northern and southern Agentina - "

seeing how as most of the crowd here is north of the equator . . .

Edited July 17 by AlaMoi (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

1 hour ago, AlaMoi said:

would you settle for

"coriolis effect is opposite in northern and southern Agentina

Not quite. I've had yerba mate in Argentina and in Costa Rica and I didn't see much difference in the method of making it. In fact, since one of the fine points of making it is to just moisten the leaves and not stir them, I can't see that it should make any difference.

[haresfur]

9 hours ago, Duvel said:

I think it might be tricky to fabricate a bombilla without using metals (c.f. here), but I wouldn’t exclude it. Maybe @BonVivant has some insights from his visits to Latin America.

 

 

 

I love that they have crazy-straw variants. (Obligatory xkcd, which incidentally applies to eGullet, too)

[liuzhou]

Whether my bubble tea spoon is based on a yerba maté spoon or was invented independently is really irrelevant. Tools have been reinvented over and over by different cultures, often for different purposes. I have a number of teaspoons but rarely drink tea and never use a teaspoon when I do. I could use the thing for many purposes including stirring my breakfast G&T!

 

Given the massive culture of boba tea drinking all over China, it is fair to say that more of these spoons are used in tea drinking than in yerba maté production. Even if only 10% of Chinese tea drinkers use them that is three times more than the entire population of Argentina. And that’s not taking into account the boba tea drinkers elsewhere in Asia and beyond.

 

All that matters here is that the spoons are sold here as being for milk and boba tea and I see people using them every day.

 

[Laurentius]

5 hours ago, liuzhou said:

All that matters here is that the spoons are sold here as being for milk and boba tea

I think they'd be great for milkshakes and smoothies, too.

[Duvel]

28 minutes ago, Laurentius said:

I think they'd be great for milkshakes and smoothies, too.

They are not: they are essntially tiny filtration devices designed to separate solids from a low viscosity liquid (yerba mate / tea laves, and in its non-sanctioned rogue usage for bubble tea / tapioca pearls). If you like to drink a smooth, high viscosity liquid you'll be looking for a large diameter straw that doesn't add addtional pressure loss to your slurping process by an additional filter. 

Edited July 18 by Duvel (log)

[liuzhou]

11 minutes ago, Duvel said:

its non-sanctioned rogue usage

 

Now you are just being ridiculous. Who is this hitherto unknown sanctioning authority that decrees what kitchen tools can be used for?

 

You?

 

Edited July 18 by liuzhou (log)

[blue_dolphin]

11 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

Who is this hitherto unknown sanctioning authority that decrees what kitchen tools can be used for?

 

All these years, I've always thought it was YOU who is the authority of all things! 🙃

[haresfur]

1 hour ago, Duvel said:

They are not: they are essntially tiny filtration devices designed to separate solids from a low viscosity liquid (yerba mate / tea laves, and in its non-sanctioned rogue usage for bubble tea / tapioca pearls). If you like to drink a smooth, high viscosity liquid you'll be looking for a large diameter straw that doesn't add addtional pressure loss to your slurping process by an additional filter. 

 

You could even use that large diameter straw to suck up boba pearls 😎

[Tropicalsenior]

I've only had it once in Chinatown in Flushing, New York. And now I am confused. Is it used for making the tea or drinking the tea? All we were given was a big fat straw. It was a takeout situation so it would be impossible to give everybody one of these large spoons.

Edited July 18 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[blue_dolphin]

1 minute ago, Tropicalsenior said:

I've only had it once in Chinatown in Flushing, New York. And now I am confused. Is it used for making the tea or drinking the tea? All we were given was a big fat straw. It was a takeout situation so it would be impossible to give everybody one of these large spoons.

 

In the US, boba tea is most commonly served with a big fat straw, as you experienced.  

[liuzhou]

The straw is used to drink the liquid element and the spoon to pick out the tapioca balls. Yes it is also often served with "fat straws" for those  who choose to suck up bubbles.

 

[liuzhou]

14 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

now I am confused. Is it used for making the tea or drinking the tea? 

 

Drinking.

 

Fat straw are available to go, but it's more of an in-store activity here.

[Duvel]

50 minutes ago, haresfur said:

 

You could even use that large diameter straw to suck up boba pearls 😎

Heresy. Please consider that your suggestion might hurt literally more than a billion peoples* feelings, whose bombilla become useless overnight … 
 

 

—-

* or their only true mouthpieces …

[Kerry Beal]

I've seen fat straws with a little 'paddle' on the end - I assume to pick up the pearls.

 

Here

[haresfur]

Bonus thought. Scoop shaped bombilla would be great for drinking/eating your posset.

[Laurentius]

8 hours ago, Duvel said:

they are essntially tiny filtration devices

Not to my eye.  But the straw diameter might not be ideal.  IME, when the suckage becomes too great, the spoonage comes to the fore.  That's what I meant: one tool for both.

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

Not mentioned however wouldn't this be a simple tool to eat congee with. Suck up the rice gruel and fish out the additions. 

Who knows? Maybe that's a use that hasn't been accounted for 😇 and may account for the popularity of the tool.

Sometimes it's fun to take the piss out of the pompous.

 

 

Edited July 19 by Senior Sea Kayaker (log)