Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

11 July 2021

Emma Skid­more: es­kid­more@post-gazette.com

Jack Myer/Post-Gazette pho­tos

A sign at the Fuku Tea House in Oak­land tells cus­tomers that they can have only one top­ping in their drink due to the boba short­age. Boba is the jelly-like pearls of tapi­oca that sit at the bot­tom of bub­ble tea. [Photo at top of inset]

A con­tainer ship moves into New York Har­bor on April 2 in New York City. A lack of work­ers as a re­sult of COVID-19 has slowed the un­load­ing and load­ing pro­cesses of large port groups like Los An­ge­les and New York, cre­at­ing sup­ply is­sues in in­dus­tries such as tea. [Photo at bottom of inset.]

“A typ­i­cal 40-foot con­tainer out of China, which would have cost about $3,000 a few months back, is now up to $13,000.”
— Peter Goggi, pres­i­dent of the Tea As­so­ci­a­tion of the U.S.A