Tea Time Tuesday: Bubble Tea

This is a new series of blog posts to share my love of tea and some discoveries I am making as I dive more into that love. (And honestly, what goes better with books than a nice cup of tea?)

 

 

So while I have been doing some research on new ways to enjoy tea and some iced tea recipes, I kept coming across something called Bubble Tea. It was intriguing and something I had never seen before and wanted to try it.  I searched and searched for someplace around me that had it to no avail. But through my research I did find out how to make it on my own.  This youtube video was so helpful in learning to make it since the boba/bubble package was not in English.

 



 

So anyway, I tried it several months ago using a lavender earl grey tea and it wasn't so great but I did some more research and came up with the traditional way of making it was with milk tea. So I decided to give it another shot and order some milk tea.

 

It takes nearly an hour to prepare the boba (or bubbles).

The boba that I used and the instant Royal Milk Tea and the end result!

I totally get it now! It was so sweet and a wonderful treat for the summer.  The boba (bubbles) are slightly chewy but not overly so, added a weird but enjoyable texture. Like I said it did take an hour to make the boba, and I tried to have them again the next morning and they were definitely more chewy (not crunchy but not as pleasant as the night before) so you really need to make them fresh for each time you drink it.

 

Now over an hour seems like a lot of work for one drink so I also found online that people were using Bursting Boba for their bubble tea. I have had these at ice cream and frozen yogurt shops as a topping and love their flavor and sweetness. So I ordered some of them too and from what I have read they can last in the fridge up to a month and work great for a  quick bubble tea. 

So I used some iced tea I had already made from Tea Pigs Super Fruit Herbal tea and some Strawberry flavored Bursting Boba.  This had a much different texture and taste, the boba/bubbles are not chewy at all, they are just a thin casing around a burst of sweet juice. I also tried to put milk in the tea and didn't like that much, but the sweetness of the fruit tea was great with the boba. 

 

 

So while the traditional milk tea bubble tea is rather time consuming to make, it is a delicious treat and one I will indulge in once in a while. The Bursting Boba bubble tea is also a tasty treat for when you don't want to wait so long to make the boba, but it might get overly sweet if you drink too many!