Too Many Choices

I traveled Taipei, Taiwan in last weekend. And, I got a lot of tasty food and drinks there. Bubble teas are one of the famous drinks from Taiwan, I think. Of course I had them during the visit, but I had some difficulty when ordering them. See below!

As shown in the picture, so many choices there are!! In mind, "How can I choose?" Even I thought I'd like someone to choose a great one! However, the staff seemed busy and even I can't speak in Taiwanese. As a result, I needed to choose by myself... What would you choose when you are facing such a situation?

Recently what I learned is that when facing too many choices we tend not to buy the item, according to a jam experiment by Sheena Iyengar. But, in my case, I really wanted to drink a bubble tea, so I chose one. That is, I didn't have the choice of not buying it. So, the problem is how I picked it. I think that we would follow two patterns under this circumstance; cautious or risky choice (I can't find any research of this related topic, so to describe the phenomena I borrow these terms usually used in the group think). The cautious choice means a tendency we choose ordinary, familiar, and safe one which we have already had or seen. On the other hand, I use risky choice to describe that we are likely to pick one which we have never had or even heard and seen. When I chose one, I was considering apricot kernel (cautious) or 養楽多 (risky) flavor (*養楽多 is Yakult, although I didn't know at that time. In fact, Yakult is a drink made by a famous Japanese company).

Well, eventually, I got the apricot kernel bubble tea. It's not provocative but tasted good! Although maybe it could be good, at that moment the Yakult one seemed to me mysterious and strange. Anyway, Taipei is a good place to visit. If you have time, go there. And, if you have an opportunity to visit Taipei, try to buy Bubble teas!