FORAGING FRIDAY: BUBBLE TEA

Foraging Friday documents Kitchen Toro's exploration of New York's diverse restaurants, neighborhoods, stores and their ingredients and flavors.

It seems I've been talking about tapioca since I started this blog and yet I've never had a very popular drink which uses tapioca. Bubble Tea has ridden a wave of popularity over the past 5 years to the point that it can now be found anywhere around Chinatown.

That said, I only finally got around to having Bubble Tea (or Pearl Milk Tea or Boba as I've also seen it referred to as)...

According to what I've read, Bubble Tea was created in the early 1980's in Taiwan. Well, I've been trying unsuccessfully to get over to Mott Street to visit a place called Ten Ren's Tea Time which I've heard has more than 50 types of bubble tea. It's still my mission to get over there but I couldn't wait any longer and right around the corner from school I stumbled across a little Chinese cafe that had about 10 different kinds.

For $2.75 I chose the coconut milk with black tapioca pearls, not a true tea I suppose, but most of the options here were fruit drinks and it was such a hot day that I wasn't looking for anything too sweet.

First off, the straw is about three times the size of a regular one. The balls swirl around the cup and when you suck through the straw they bounce around the bottom of the container and come ricocheting up quickly so you have to be ready for them! You're left chewing on the tapioca, a little meal between sips.

I enjoyed the drink but it only made me more curious about making it at home, drinking it with coffee and wondering how I might incorporate it in my Thai desert plan (thai iced tea ice cream with sticky coconut rice and tapioca dumpling).

Among a lot of other website out there selling Bubble Tea "supplies," is Bubbleteasupply.com. I'm not sold on having to do anything but visit the local supermarket for ingredients needed to make bubble tea at home but I like this site because it has a step by step process of making the tea as well as other recipes and offers lots of ideas and different flavors you can make (although I'm not quite sure about this thing).

If you're interested in making bubble tea for yourself at home, follow the step by step process at the link above. Just make yourself a simple syrup, a cup of water and a cup of sugar dissolved over heat and cooled. When the tapioca pearls are done, soak them in the syrup, steep some tea (at left, I did a light Thai Iced Tea), add some very cold milk (or even better crush some milk and ice in a blender) add the "bubbles" and presto. The biggest problem you'll have is finding a straw big enough to get the true "Bubble Tea" effect.