#and without thinking I just said ‘oh it’s the tie guan yin’

[ladyqueth]

When husband told me his boba tea order yesterday was “TGY with 3Q” (pretty regular order of ours), I had the stray thought that this is just as much alphabet soup as my danmei abbreviations. Like, yes I’d like a LWJ with WY, please. 😉

TGY = tie guan yin, trans. “iron Buddha”, a type of oolong tea

#old guard boba places that are more ‘americanized’ just call it iron buddha #but the newer boba places tend to be… uh less friendly to non-native speakers #I’ve gotten so used to it there was a time I got tgy from boba guys #and someone saw my drink and asked which one it was #and without thinking I just said ‘oh it’s the tie guan yin’ #and only then did I realize she was white and now staring at me blankly #so I had to continue ‘uh… I mean the oolong’ and point it out on the menu 😬 #anyway yeah now that I think about it plenty of the other teas still get translated #like high mountain (my favorite oolong) or sun moon lake (nice complex black tea) #it’s just tgy that seemingly everyone leaves in pinyin now #except tea era <- one of the og boba places #ok I’m done with my study of bay area boba tea and language now