You've probably seen the blindfold perfume challenge, where someone sniffs a mystery bottle and tries to name the fragrance. We gave it a bubble tea twist: Duff sits blindfolded while bowls of bubble tea ingredients are held under his nose, and he has to name them by smell alone.
In this video:
- A bubble tea version of the blindfold perfume trend
- Round 1: a bowl of loose tea leaves
- Round 2: a bowl of purple toppings
- Duff's guesses, and the twist at the end
What is the Boba CEO Blindfold Smell Challenge?
The clip opens with the perfume version of the trend, where the guesses are designer fragrances like YSL Homme and Dior Sauvage. Then it cuts to Duff with a thick black blindfold wrapped around his head, waiting to find out what's under his nose. The on-screen caption explains that his daughter's friend covered the toppings, so Duff has no idea what's coming.
What did Duff guess?
Round 1: loose tea leaves
The first bowl holds a small pile of dry tea leaves. Duff takes a sniff, asks for another go ("Again?"), admits "I don't know," and eventually lands on a guess: jasmine green tea.
Round 2: purple toppings
The second round starts badly. "I can't smell anything. Where is it?" Once the bowl of purple toppings is in the right spot, there's a lot of thinking out loud before Duff commits: "Honeydew popping pearls, is it?" He follows it up straight away with "I think so, I don't know."
Did Duff get them right?
That's the twist. The final caption reads "we had no idea what we gave him tbh," so the answers stayed a mystery for everyone involved, including the people holding the bowls.
What we can tell you is that honeydew isn't one of our popping pearl flavours. The current range covers mango, strawberry, lychee, passion fruit, green apple, blueberry, peach, pomegranate, kiwi, watermelon, sour lemon, grape and creaming soda, so whatever was in that second bowl, it wasn't honeydew popping pearls from our shelves.
Can I try the smell challenge at home?
Yes, and it works best with ingredients that have a clear aroma. Jasmine green tea, for example, is known for its floral scent, which makes it a fair test for round 1. Pick a few options from our loose tea leaves and popping pearls, have someone else choose what goes in each bowl, and see how many you can name.
There's no minimum order, so you can grab a single pack of each to test before stocking up. The full range is on the site, and if tasting is more your thing than smelling, our Guess the Flavour Challenge puts four teas to a blind taste test.
