Food Friday: Homemade Bubble Tea!

I will post soon about our celebration of Meera’s 4th birthday! In the meantime, let me just tell you: we had a Tea & Bubbles Party! (Or, as Owen came to call it: “a Tea Party slash Bubble Party” — he became very fond of his newfound correct usage of the word ‘slash’ and has since been using it often… i.e., “it was a great slash awesome party!”; “the end of the school year is happy slash sad”; “when I get ready to pitch in baseball games I feel nervous slash excited”… etc. You can hear him use “slash” in this video {click}).

Anyway…. back to Meera’s party. She couldn’t decide between a tea party (like last year) and a bubble party (a party where we all blew tons of bubbles). So, we decided she wouldn’t have to choose, and we’d throw her a Tea & Bubbles Party. It was so much fun to plan it — and I went a little crazy (what else is new?!) with the ‘tea and bubbles’ theme — and somewhere in the whole planning process, Braydon (who normally has absolutely zero role in any part of party planning), came up with the greatest idea: “I was thinking,” he casually said to me one day, “we should have bubble tea! Get it? Bubbles. Tea Party. Bubble tea!” I looked at my darling husband and fell in love with him all over again: “Oh yeah, I get it! YES!!!!!! YES! BUBBLE TEA!!!!!!!!” It was the perfect idea, and it was all his idea (which made it more perfect because I sometimes get a little… ummm… how shall I say this?…. a wee little tiny tad bit frustrated that I am doing what feels like just about everything for everyone all the time).

Anyway… back to the bubble tea. It was Braydon’s idea, and it was a fabulous idea, and we love bubble tea, and we knew that most people at the party wouldn’t drink it, but we went for it anyway, and we’re so glad we did! Because through the process we mastered the art of making homemade bubble tea! Braydon and I love love love bubble tea. We have a ritual of getting it every time we’re in Chinatown. The bambinos sort of dabble in liking it too, but it is kind of an acquired taste, and we like to think they are still in the process of acquiring it (even though we’ve been trying to get them to acquire the taste basically since they were infants).

Anyway… back to the art of making homemade bubble tea. In preparation for Meera’s party we spent some time researching how to make bubble tea at home, buying the supplies, and then practicing making it. Bubble tea turns out to be very easy to make. And today I want to share with you the very simple art of making this very special drink!

You’ll need:

• Tapioca Balls (We bought these both online and at our local Asian market. We prefer black, but we also tried out “rainbow” and liked those too.)
• Bubble Tea Straws (Again, you can buy these online, or at your local Asian market.)
• Black Tea
• Evaporated Milk
• Sweetened Condensed Milk
• Ice

To Make:

1. Brew some tea. Make it super, super, super strong. Let it steep for a long, long time until it is very, very dark. Store in fridge until cool and ready to be used.
2. Meanwhile, constitute and sweeten the tapioca balls. You can follow the directions on the bag, but here is what we found to work best– Put a couple inches of water into a small pan; heat over high heat; add about 1/3 cup sugar; stir until sugar is totally dissolved and the mixture is boiling; add a couple of handfuls of tapioca balls; let boil until the balls start floating on the surface; remove the balls with a strainer; set balls aside in a glass cup or jar; add about 4-5 tablespoons of the sugar-water mixture; let sit just a few minutes until the liquid is fully absorbed by the tapioca balls (no longer than 20 minutes or they get too mushy — you want them to be a firm texture and rubbery to chew).

3. In a cocktail shaker combine ice, tea, evaporated milk, and condensed milk. Add evaporated milk and condensed milk to taste (as sweet and creamy as you like — traditionally, bubble tea is very sweet and very creamy). Shake it up, baby! Place some tapioca balls in the bottom of a glass (or a plastic cup if you’re throwing a Tea & Bubbles Party!). Layer some ice on top. Pour iced tea mixture in.

Now, take a sip through that great big bubble straw to suck up some of those tapioca balls. Yuuuummmmy!