Introduction: How to Make Chinese/Japanese Bubble Tea - Tea + Tapioca = Party Recipe
Tetranitrate, trebuchet03, T3h_Muffinator and me, lamedust, are the frugalest of frogs, so we decided to make our own Bubble tea complete with "that's what she said" and all. You'll be pleased to know that the final product costs less than a dollar a cup and is delicious. Are you ready? Doesn't matter, you're about to experience the Bubble Bonanza!
That's what she said.
Video of the making and drinking in action:
Oh, I'd also like to thank my Chinese friend Rosanna for helping me along the way.
Step 1: Ingredients
Here's what you'll be needing:
- 1) Large Tapioca Pearls. Try to find some that aren't ALL white, they should have a spot of light brown on them, these work better.
- 2) Sugar
- 3) Coffee Syrups (if you don't want to make your own, or want to try different flavors)
- 4) Green and/or Black tea.
Step 2: Prepare the Bubbles
Start the flaming coils, and boil 1 liter of water for every 1 cup of tapioca bubbles in a large pot.
If the tapioca balls wont talk you should loosen them up by pouring them into the boiling water and then set the temperature to medium. It's important to keep moving the bubbles around otherwise they will buddy up with the pan and each other ,and it'll be hard to pry them apart. This takes a few hours so we decided to shizzle over to the lounge area with the hot plate and set it up on top of a cooler.
Keep mixing and checking on the color as it cooks - the exterior should turn clear while the innards should retain a brownish tint. Continue stirring until you have finished watching the first two episodes of Battle Star Galactica.
Step 3: Rinse Your Balls.
Now that you've finished those 2 episodes of Battlestar, your bubbles should be fairly clearish brown and still have a little bit of a bite to them in the center. You're now ready to continue on your journey to sweet tastiness.
Yyou'll need to pour your hot balls into a sieve while rinsing them off with cold tap water. This should solidify the bubbles a bit and keep them from sticking to each other. Once they're cold, pour them into bowls - one bowl per syrup flavor.
Step 4: Sweeten the Pot
Here's what are syrups we tried:
- Strawberry syrup made from real strawberries
- Fake Hershey's strawberry syrup
- Banana syrup
- Sugar water
- Eggs
As an aside, the tapioca ball omelet wasn't that bad.
Step 5: Make Tea
We have a industrial coffee maker at work so we make tea a bit differently. Just fill the metal filter, add a carafe of water to the machine and flip a switch. And magically five minuets later fresh tea is delivered.
You may have to do it with a tea bag and a tea kettle. Boil some water, put it in a cup and then add a tea bag. If that's too hard, here's an tea instructables if you need some help visualizing this: Southern-style Sweet Tea for Summertime is a good instructable.
Step 6: Make Your Mixed Drink
Black milk strawberry bubble tea recipe:
- Add 1/4 cup milk, some tea leaving enough room for the syrup & balls.
I hope you had fun learning how to make some bubble tea! I really hope that you grab some balls the next time you're out in Chinatown an' give this a shot!
-The Interns
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