A First Attempt at Bubble Tea

Chocolate bubble tea

A few weeks ago, I found some tapioca pearls in the Asian food section of Weis. These aren't the large pearls you typically find in bubble tea but I figured for a few dollars, I may as we'll give it a try.

Bubble tea comes made a variety of ways, if you aren't familiar. It can be made with either tapioca pearls or boba and can be made with regular sweetened or unsweetened tea, milk tea or even blended. My favorite is milk tea with tapioca. 

Today is really supposed to be a cleaning day. My bf is coming back from his month-long trip on Friday, and there's some cleaning I've been slacking on. Luckily, today is a beautifully sunny (yet still freezing) day and I woke up semi-early (for someone who doesn't have kids, that's 8 a.m.). 

I shoveled the driveway and walkway, took the dog for a quick walk, started laundry, and made a quick breakfast of apple sage vegan sausage and eggs. I'm not vegan or vegetarian, but I mostly find sausage iffy at best. Hotdogs are same if not more iffy-ness. There's something gross to me about liquified meat being shoved into casing and served as something anyone should eat.

After finally sitting down for a few minutes, I decided this was the bubble tea experiment day. I used a recipe I found on Pinterest for the milk/sugar/tea guideline. The recipe called for coconut milk (like from a can), but I chose to use something less rich, the almond/coconut milk blend from the refrigerator section.

Tapioca pearls and chocolate tea

To prep, I boiled 1/2 cup of tapioca pearls in a medium pot of water for 10 minutes. I removed from the stove and let set for another 5 minutes. I think scooped the pearls out and let them cool in a bowl. 

Cooked pearls

I brewed and sweetened my tea (loose leaf) and chilled it in the freezer for a few minutes while the pearls were setting. When the pearls were ready, I scooped them into the tea and added milk.

All in all, not difficult. I'll be interested to try different favors of tea. I think next time, I will made my tea further in advance so it is cold instead if cool. Maybe I'll try adding some coconut milk creamer to try a richer flavor, although just the milk was good, too.