Taro Coconut Bubble Tea

I had vaguely heard of bubble tea before but it was not something I had ever got around to trying…I’m not sure if this Taiwanese trend has really hit the streets of Northern Ireland yet. And for the rest you who may not be in the know bubble tea is a Taiwanese beverage that contains little chewy tapioca pearls. For someone who has a real fear of rice pudding and isn’t all that keen on its milky pudding cousins of semolina and tapioca I must admit that the thought of enjoying tapioca in a drink wasn’t all that appealing! But ages and ages ago thanks to a foodie pen pal I received all the kit I needed to make myself some bubble tea at home. And so I thought it was about time that I bit the bullet and embarked on a tapioca tea journey. Natalie who sent me the pen pal parcel directed me over to her friend Lyndsay’s blog for directions on making bubble tea so I adapted these to use the tarococonut milk tea powder that I had been sent to make my drink.

And if you want to have a go here’s how…

INGREDIENTS

35g tapioca pearls

70ml water

1 teaspoon honey

1 sachettaro coconut milk tea

100ml hot water

40ml almond milk

Put the tapioca and water into a small saucepan, set over a medium heat and bring the water to the boil. The tapioca should double in size, this should take about 5 minutes. Once cooked remove from the heat, drain the pearls and rinse under cold water. At this point you can stir in a little honey to sweeten your tea. Then set the tapioca to one side.

Bubble tea can be made with any tea or fruit juices that you enjoy but I was given taro coconut tea to use so followed the instructions on the packet on how to prepare this (which basically involved dissolving the tea powder in 100ml of hot water). I then mixed this with the almond milk and transferred the mixture to the fridge to cool.

Once my milky mixture was cooled I mixed in with the tapioca pearls and sip away. This is best enjoyed with a big chunky straw so that you can slurp up and then chew on the gooey tapioca balls at the bottom of the glass.

So go on and give it a try….even for a rice pudding-phobe I rather enjoyed this tea!!