Tapioca Drinks (Boba and others)

[eatingwitheddie]

It's finally summer (in the Northern Hemisphere) and this may be the year where tapioca drinks get really big and go mainstream.

What do you like? Almond milk, flavored teas, or watermelon juice. Do you prefer black balls (sago) or traditional tapioca?

Any favorite venues?

[torakris]

I like it with teas, mostly chai type drinks, as to the color of the balls, I like the color of the black ones in the chai.

[megc]

It's finally summer (in the Northern Hemisphere) and this may be the year where tapioca drinks get really big and go mainstream.

I'd like to see more people enjoy these drinks.

I love tapioca milk tea! I try to drink some whenever I'm in Chinatown (NY). I was first introduced to it in 2000 in Berkeley CA, where it had been popular for some time at a number of places near the southside of the UC campus. My favorite place in Berkeley is Quickely, which uses real tea and not the powdered tea mix.

I've had the taro flavor (tasty) and green tea flavor (which was nice and perfumey) but I'm really happy drinking regular black tea tapioca milk tea. Love the black balls. And I prefer it when there's chunks of ice (like in iced tea) instead of all whirred up, like I've found it here in NY.

I used to drink it 3-4 times a week! I was an addict, I guess. But it's so good!

Meg

[goyatofu]

passionfruit with green tea (no milk! no tapioca!) is divine!!! The green tea balances out the sweetness of the passionfruit. Green tea (cold) with milk is also nice.

In Toronto, Canada, this little drink has sprouted enterprises like "Tea Shop 168" with too many franchises to count (I would say they're challenging Timmy's )

Too bad I don't live in Toronto any more...I miss my passionfruit and green....and my Hong Kong style milk tea (if you have not tried it, you really should! you won't miss coffee)

cheers,

goyatofu

[tissue]

Green milk tea with the big boba.

My grandfather told me they were frog's eggs when I was little and I believed him.

[tsquare]

I wasn't thrilled with my first try last year - but it was a place that used powdered fruit flavors and big dark tapioca "pearls". Fun for the first few, then just sickening. Since then, I've heard rumors that each of those pearls has some enormous calorie count. Anyone got the 411 on this?

[MsRamsey]

Here's some nutritional info on bubble tea, but not the pearls by themselves. They're made from cassava, and I don't think they have much in the way of fat, but do have a lot of carbohydrates.

http://www.nutrition.com.sg/do/hbeverage.asp

[confusion]

The best I've had was also in Toronto's Pacific Mall. Instead of big brown tapioca balls, it was small (< 1 cm) white balls in a fresh fruit slushie. I'm not sure if it was the balls or the sweet/fresh fruit but the drink was great.

[tsquare]

Thanks MsRamsey. One more urban legend debunked. How the heck did you come up with a nutrition link sponsored by Singapore!

[hzrt8w]

I have heard about them for years. I never really have the desire to try them. Today, I finally wanted to satisfy my curiosity. I ordered one and tried:

Boba Milk Tea (iced)

From Tapioca Express.

I chewed on the 1/4 inch boba (tapioca balls). It is bland, tasteless, and chewy. The taste of milk tea is interesting. And they added some fruit flavor to it (mine was peach but they sell mango, lychee and many other flavors too). That's nice. But tapioca in the tea... I don't get it.

How did this fad spread over Taiwan in the last decade (and the rest of Asia and now obviously the USA too). Why chewing on something that doesn't have any taste? (BTW you have to pay extra for these purple-color tapioca balls...) I like small tapioca in red bean dessert soup. But big ones in iced tea is a different story.

Have you tried it? Do you like it? Am I just being a generation too old for this?

[SuzySushi]

Tapioca iced tea/aka boba tea/aka bubble tea reportedly was begun in Taiwan by a vendor across the street from a middle school or high school. She wanted to sell the hungry kids rushing out at the end of the day a snack that was different and more substantial than the usual soft drinks they could get from other vendors. Why tapioca in particular? I don't know... maybe she had it on hand. Anyway, the idea caught on across Taiwan, then with young people in areas of the USA with Taiwanese immigrants... and so a fad is born!

I think the novelty is what sells it, slurping up something chewy through a gigantic straw. It's like those gummy candies. That, and all the different flavors available. But if you told most kids it's the same stuff that's in tapioca pudding, they'd go 'eeeeuw!!"

[hzrt8w]

I think the novelty is what sells it, slurping up something chewy through a gigantic straw. It's like those gummy candies. That, and all the different flavors available. But if you told most kids it's the same stuff that's in tapioca pudding, they'd go 'eeeeuw!!"

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I was really expecting to taste some kind of flavor in the tapioca balls (like fruit flavor, grape, cherry, sweet, something...). Afterall, they went out of their way to make the tapioca balls purple. Why not add in some flavor? But no... it's plainer than eating white rice.

[origamicrane]

the balls are meant to be flavoured or at least sweetened.

Just most of the vendors don't bother doing it no more.

If you make it yourself you can flavour and sweeten them

makes it much more rewarding drink

[Dejah]

I LOVE boba tea!

The tapioca is not for taste...it's for texture. That's the same as in tapioca pudding. The flavour is in the "milk/cream", cinnamon, cardamon, rose water, raisins, etc., not the tapioca.

You are right in that it is the novelty. I still have 235 of the 250 giant straws my Taiwaness student sent me 1.5 years ago! Plus, about 2 lbs of the black tapioca balls my sister brought from Vancouver.

[Tepee]

If you ever make a 2-tier cake, you can use the straws for support instead of wooden dowels. 3 tiers would be pushing it, though. Any wedding bells in the Hillman household soon?

The balls are for fun. I feel as if I've scored (yay!) when I manage to suck one up.

C'm on, old man*, loosen up.

* duh...I think I may be more advanced in years than you, hz.

Edited July 21, 2005 by Tepee (log)

[Dejah]

Or I can give them to my grandson to make log cabins in his craft class.

May have a wedding next summer. Cousin's son is getting married. Or I could make a 2 tier for Mom's 96th in 2 weeks...or...

Now that we're on the topic, I just might have to boil up some tapioca for boba tea!

[Laksa]

hzrt8w:

Dude, I'm with you on this one. Those tapioca pearls are fairly tasteless...and don't forget they come with calories.

And unlike Teepee, my suction skills are so poor that I often end up staring in dismay at a glass half-filled with tapioca pearls but no tea because I've drunk it all. Nothing's worse than having to eat leftover pearls without any tea.

On the other hand, I quite like those Asian canned drinks with "solids" like grass jelly, water chestnut and the fake bird's nest drink.

[hzrt8w]

The balls are for fun. I feel as if I've scored (yay!) when I manage to suck one up. 

C'm on, old man*, loosen up.

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Who are you calling "old man"???? This term is reserved for me to call myself!

LOL... can you imagine me, a 40some year old guy, biting on a 1/2 inch diameter straw chasing after the "pearl balls" in the tea, sucking them up one by one - to score.... Seeeeeeppp... Arrrrrrr...

[head shaking... i don't understand this...]

[Pan]

I'm 40, and I like bubble tea. (We've had at least one other thread about it, too, though I'm not looking for it right now.) At first, I didn't like the tapioca balls, either. There's one place in Flushing, Queens, that makes white, sweetened tapioca balls that are excellent, but I came to terms with the non-sweet black ones that are sort of starchy and slippery in a funny kind of way. I just figure, when else does someone my age get to play with their food or drink?

[Tepee]

I just figure, when else does someone my age get to play with their food or drink?

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Exactly!

Who are you calling "old man"???? This term is reserved for me to call myself!

LOL... can you imagine me, a 40some year old guy, biting on a 1/2 inch diameter straw chasing after the "pearl balls" in the tea, sucking them up one by one - to score.... Seeeeeeppp... Arrrrrrr...

Alright, I won't call you an old man if you don't talk like one.

Hmmm, I don't call myself an old woman, just a dinosaur. Don't you play with food, hz? How do you eat your food...do you eat the good stuff first, or leave it to savor at the end? That's sorta like playing with food, no? OK, OK, I admit I'm as much a kid as my kids - sometimes.

Hurray, it's Saturday tomorrow...will go look for some Bubble Tea and 'score'!

[trillium]

But why isn't anyone saying what "boba" originally means? Too polite? I think that makes it even more funny and fun.

regards,

trillium

[Dejah]

But why isn't anyone saying what "boba" originally means?  Too polite?  I think that makes it even more funny and fun.

regards,

trillium

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I think I heard my Taiwanese students say"mother's milk" or something to that effect?

[prasantrin]

I think I heard my Taiwanese students say"mother's milk" or something to that effect?

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I thought it was the part where the mother's milk came out of (very specifically) . Looks like...

Dejah, next time you're in Winnipeg, if you haven't already had the bubble tea at Asia City (Sargent and Young), you really should! But only get one of the fresh fruit varieties. The young coconut is almost like a dessert. I used to get either mango or lychee, but now I find them too sweet. They even have avocado, durian, pandan...all those interesting flavours!

[Dejah]

Yup, prasantrin. You are specific.

I will add Asia City to my "Rona's list of places to eat in Wpg"!

[hzrt8w]

I think I heard my Taiwanese students say"mother's milk" or something to that effect?

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I thought it was the part where the mother's milk came out of (very specifically) . Looks like...

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Even more specially, what you described is only the "Bo" part in Boba. The "Ba" part means "top-ranking"...