How Can I Make Bubble Tea (Boba) at Home? Good Questions

Q: How can I make bubble tea at home?

I love the large, black tapioca pearls, and I have never seen anything like that at my grocery store.

Sent by Lindsey

Editor: Lindsey, it is extremely easy to make bubble tea (boba) at home. The pearls can be found in Asian markets — look at your local Asian grocery, or at a Japanese grocery. You can also find them at Amazon. Once you have them, here's how to make the tea:

• DIY Recipe: Boba (a.k.a. Bubble, or Pearl) Tea

Readers, any tips on finding tapioca pearls, or on making good bubble tea?

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Related: Recipe: DIY Thai Iced Tea

(Image: Kathryn Hill)

Comments (13)

Wegmans (at least the one near me) has bags of tapioca pearls in the Asian section of the World Market.

I have had mixed success with tapioca pearls. Sometimes I soaked them and they came up all nice and chewy and other times they were duds.

Personally, I'm not so interested in boba as I am in making milk tea. I can't get it to taste right yet. :(

I try to plan ahead of time and simmer the tapioca pearls for 10-20 minutes in a mixture of two parts water and one part sugar. You can even vary the ingredients (i.e. honey, juice, spices) to suit whatever drinks you're planning on adding them to. Then let them cool and store them in a tupperware filled with sugar-water in the 'fridge for later use.

Beyond that flavor-enhancing trick and finding the right drinking straws, there isn't much to good boba drinks. Our local boba café puts them in everything from tea to frozen smoothies. (My recommendation: While you're at your local asian market, pick up a can of sweetened red bean paste, add a few spoonfuls to your next vanilla milkshake with boba, and experience some legume magic.)

anyone know of a good online source to buy safe gluten free tapioca pearls?

they should naturally be gluten free, but you never know what people sneak in foods now-a-days...

ick- I used to work at a tea shop where we made these and the summers were FULL of sticky tacky tapioca goo EVERYWHERE. It's ruined them for me forever.

My friend recently made bubble tea at home and it was delicious. She made and cooled some green tea then whirred it in a blender with some mango nectar and coconut milk. She then added fruity multicoloured tapioca balls she bought from the asian market.

It was the best bubble tea i've ever had!

saer
http://cravenmaven.com

pick up the chubby straws for boba tea at the asian market as well! it isn't the same without it!

Some tea shops have them! I get mine at Realitea.

Those are IKEA glasses! My all time faves.

i've purchased huge bags of Taro and green tea powders at bobateadirect dot com. the taro is super yummy, and you just need to tweak a recipe to your liking- combo of powder, milk (any kind you like!), sugar syrup, balls or no balls.

@shipwrecks

The trick to milk tea that tastes like the ones you get at a tea shop (at least all the SF bay area shops I've been to) is sweetened condensed milk, and a lot of it.

Now if only I could find a source for passion fruit jelly that wasn't sold by the 5L jug.