Bubble Tea

Every summer I have a favorite drink and this year it is "bubble tea." I'll bet many on this board have tried it (and if you have I would love to hear what you think). I can't recall where I first heard about bubble tea but I do know it was described as a drink gaining rapidly in popularity. It's been around for a few years. Here is an excerpt from a NY Times article about it:

The multiflavored drinks (mango, peanut, blackberry chocolate) -- also called pearl tea and boba tea -- hit the street in Taipei some 15 years ago and spread like a fad. But the drinks didn't fade, becoming a crucial part of the island's social fabric, particularly for the young.

Then came the great bubble tea migration. "In Hong Kong you find it everywhere, like Starbucks," said Andrew Lam, 23, an engineer at Lucent Technology. After Hong Kong, bubble tea emerged in Canada, reached the West Coast about five years ago, then spread to Houston, Washington and New York. After securing its Manhattan niche, bubble tea flowed to the Chinatowns beyond Manhattan, to places like the Bubble Cafe in Flushing, Queens, and Saint's Alp Teahouse in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

"The traditional teahouse is like killing time for the older generation," said Dai-Yi Ou, 30, a Taiwan native sipping at Ten Ren's Tea Time on Mott Street. "This is younger-generation social activity."



Here's how I make my bubble tea:

Brewed tea (I used decaf black tea but you can use any kind--lychee, green tea, etc.) I brew my tea in a crockpot with a quart or more of mint leaves from my garden (peppermint, apple mint, ginger mint or chocolate mint).

Milk

Cooked tapioca pearls (these take about 30" to cook)

Syrup (boil 1 part brown sugar, 2 parts white sugar and 3 parts water)

Mix the cooled syrup and tapioca pearls (also cooled) together and put in a storage container so you can store it in the frig.

Mix half tea and half milk. Stir in crushed ice. Add a few tablespoons of pearls and syrup to taste to your level of sweetness.

I love slurping up the pearls! They are chewy and cool and when they are in the glass, they swirl around, just like bubbles.

Where do you get your bubble tea? What flavors have you tried?


Cher

can you mix alcohol with this??? have you tried???

like gelatinous boogers.

My uncle and cousin are opening up a bubble tea bar as a matter a fact, and Im thinking of working there once it opens. Ill be glad to test the bubble tea quality for every customer that wants me to... :evilgrin:

My favorite is the normal Royal Milk Tea. Other good ones are lychee...honeydew....Thai iced tea....

I LOVE it! They serve it at my school once a week and the line is always really long. It's a big thing here in S. Cali, at least with younger folks. There's a bunch of places around here where you can get it. I always pass by this one place in Alhambra when I go to the movies, but I've never tried theirs. I have to put that on my to-do list :)

"STOP PUTTING THAT BLOODY CRAP IN MY TEA!!!" in Chinese....

Don't know how you can drink / eat it.....yuck!

P.

Bubble tea shops are everywhere. It's really good and can be quite nice when you're hungry but don't have time for a snack.

I like many different flavours, but the fruit flavours are the best.

Sounds pretty weird, to be honest...

here in southern CA they call it Boba ice tea.
Thai ice tea is my favorite and it is the first flavor I tried. The starch balls and the tea are very filling. I can't get enough of that stuff.

It took me a while to try it although I kept seeing a lot of people walking around drinking it where I work. I finally got up the nerve to ask someone what it was and she very enthusiastically told me I should treat myself to some, so I did. It does look pretty too.

I usually get mine from an oriental food vendor outside the hospital where I work. She has about ten different flavors although I've only tried two. Thx for the recipe. Now I can make it myself. I'm also going to try the crock pot for brewing.

Monica, the crockpot tea thing is so easy. I decided to do it that way after reading there could be a danger with suntea and mixing organic material, such as my mint leaves. I have to have tons of cold drinks around in the summer because I have a pool and you know how popular you become when you have a pool, LOL. Anyway, when I have the time to do it, I also freeze tea in large gallon containers and pull them out when I'm too busy to make any.

Too bad for the poster who had a bad experience with bubble tea; my guess is that the tapioca pearls were overcooked. As a rule I hate slithery things but I would not classify tapioca pearls as such. In fact they can be quite filling, as I learned. Good drink for when you're in a pinch for time.

Here's a pic of flavored bubble tea made with black tapioca pearls. The ones I use are white. I like the appearance of the white better, I think.



BTW, I had to shop around a bit for the pearls--not too hard, the second grocery store I went to had them.

Bleedingheart, I think this would be an excellent drink for mixing in some type of alcoholic drink.

The one thing I need to do if I continue with my passion for bubble tea is get myself a better icecrusher. The one I have with my blender is too much trouble.


Cher

Our local Vietnamese restaurant serves many different flavors. My favorite is Mango, with an honorable mention for Coconut. The tapioca pearls freaked me out at first, but now I love them. Chewy, tasty, great addition to a great drink. Hooray for Bubble Tea! :beer: