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Everyone was the drink is warm, not too hot nor too cold.
Though recent milk tea drinks are mostly made of
unemployed and fresh milk, she still uses milk powder to make fresh base
layoffs became a with a flavor that Shanghainese love but is not that popu-
lar in the market. Old-school shaved ice hardly found
reality. We had to elsewhere is also available here. Though the mungbean ice

face it and find a previously put in beer glasses is now placed in one-liter
plastic cup, and the price of fresh milk tea increased from 1
way out. yuan to 11 yuan, something here remains unchanged: the
generosity of Auntie Bian when she ladles out plentiful in-
gredients, the action of shaking the drink after she seals it, and
the warm reminder from her before you savor the delicacy.
Auntie Bian Milk Tea once ‘disappeared’ for half
a year as her store was taken back by the landlord, and
reopened after the Spring Festival in 2019. She shared
with us that, when they were out of business, she re-
ceived phone calls saying “Where are you, auntie?” and
“How are you, auntie?” from many young people who
grow up with her milk tea. “I was visited by many people
who like me. I missed them too, so I found another store
and carried on until today.”
As she spends most of her time in the store, Auntie
Bian almost knows all of the frequent customers and what
they normally order. She can recognize the customer before
he gets close, and when he arrives, she may ask something
like “Mungbean ice with glutinous rice as usual?”, while
managers from state-owned companies bean soup and made it her top-selling product. pouring mungbean soup in a new cup.
joined the army of unemployed. In 1992, Bian She recalled, “I remember we could buy Auntie Bian keeps every afternoon free and rides on
Genqin came back from a farming productive mungbean soup near the Sixth Hospital her red motorbike with bags of milk tea, driving past office
term in Chongming and failed to get a job. when we were little, and I was only allowed buildings nearby to deliver the drink to those young peo-
“Everyone was unemployed and layoffs to have one when I was ill. It tasted great with ple who enjoyed the unchanged flavor from school to
became a reality. We had to face it and find a glutinous rice. As all stores on this street workplace. They can just get fresh and warm milk tea with
way out.” As she helped her mum with cooking sold mungbean soup with coix seed, I decid- a phone call or a WeChat message requiring specific flavor
when she was a little girl and learnt some good cook- ed to sell mungbean soup with glutinous rice to and delivering time. “Many girls and boys are very consid-
ing skills, her family advised her to set up a small soup stall. make mine different.” erate. They asked me not to go upstairs, and waited for me
Though she felt quite timid, the 30-year-old Bian Genqin still After 2000, ‘Old Uncle and His Children’, a comic TV in advance downstairs”.
carried on the tough business to earn a living, and became what series, made Taiwan bubble tea known to the general pub- With nearly 30 years gone by, a newborn grows up to
everyone called “Auntie Bian”. lic. Following the trend, Auntie Bian put bubble tea in her start working, and those young girls and boys who used to
Back then, she set up her stall almost every day, come menu and mulled over how to make a different version. visit the store while carrying schoolbags have been mar-
rain or shine. On drizzling days, she ladled out soup while She decided to combine bubble tea with red glutinous rice, ried, and some even have given birth to the next generation.
holding an umbrella. But on pouring wet days, she couldn’t her trademark ingredient. She washed, dried and steamed Those who can’t forget the flavor visit the store with their
yet didn’t have to go out, as those little gluttons would selected high-quality black rice to make red glutinous rice children. “Did you say hello to this nice lady? Auntie, two
knock her door after school, asking for sweet soup. and let them cool down, making them taste like having a cups of red glutinous rice milk tea, takeaway.”
“I wanted to make something different and special.” mouthful of water. Every time Auntie Bian serves a new Another old lady waiting for the order on a scooter
said Bian. She changed the recipe for the traditional mung- customer with red glutinous rice milk tea, she makes sure shared with us how happy she was that her granddaughter

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