Adding Boba To A Smoothie
Boba tea, also known as bubble tea is a popular Asian dessert drink. The main feature of this drink are the tapioca balls found at the bottom of the glass, which are usually drank with the tea through extra wide straws.
Nutritionally, boba tea is not very healthy
. But it is popular and delicious and you might be interested in adding the tapioca balls to one of your smoothies. By doing so you can turn a regular smoothie into a boba smoothie.
To make a boba tea smoothie, just make a regular smoothie, and add tapioca balls to it. There are some caveats that you should consider before making your first boba smoothie.
The Smoothie Shouldn’t Be Too Thick
Some people like extra thick smoothies. When I make smoothies that use a lot of frozen bananas, I end up with a drink that has a consistency of soft-serve ice cream. I end up eating it with a spoon.
If you are making a smoothie to drink with boba bubbles, do not make the smoothie too thick. You want the tapioca balls to move around fairly easily in the drink. If the smoothie is too thick the tapioca will not float to the bottom of your cup and will just sit on top of the smoothie. One of the funnest aspects of boba is catching them with a straw. A thick smoothie is harder to drink with a straw, even a strong metal straw.
To thin out a smoothie use more liquid. Also, avoid thick ingredients like frozen fruit.
Smoothies Shouldn’t Be Too Cold
Trying to drink frozen boba pearls is going to ruin the experience. The pleasure of the pearls is their soft chewy nature. Do not make a smoothie that is too cold, or your pearls will start to freeze. It is unlikely that they will freeze all the way through just from being in a cold smoothie, but this is something you should be aware of.
At the same time, most boba tea is served cold, like ice tea. So you certainly do not need to drink your smoothie warm or even at room temperature.
Where To Buy Boba Pearls
The tapioca balls at the bottom of boba tea are not something you normally see in an American grocery store. If you are lucky enough to live near an Asian food market such as Ranch 99 you can buy tapioca balls that you can then cook and add to your boba tea or smoothies.
For those of you who do not have a specialty Asian grocery store, you can buy your tapioca straight from Amazon for under ten dollars.
How To Cook tapioca For Bubble Tea
You need to cook the tapioca balls before adding them to a tea or smoothie. That is why you often get warm boba pearls at the bottom of an ice tea drink. That means the pearls are freshly cooked.
To cook the pearls, fill a pot with water and bring to a boil. Slowly add in the tapioca pearls. Stir gently so that the pearls do not stick to each other. Let the water boil on high for a minute, then cover the pot with a lid and reduce the heat to medium. Cook the tapioca pearls for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the tapioca pearls covered for a few minutes. Drain the hot water and rinse the tapioca pearls in cold water for about 10 seconds. Add the pearls to your smoothie or tea.
The longer you cook the chewier the boba will be. Different brands have slightly different cooking instructions, but the trick is to boil them for around 5 minutes.
Good Boba Smoothie Flavors
You can add boba pearls to many different kinds of smoothie flavors. The best way to get some ideas is to go to a boba tea shop, or look at a boba tea store’s website and see what flavors they use. The obvious is tea flavor, but mango, strawberry, rose, ice coffee, or coconut are all great ideas.
