Our daughter loves bubble tea. If you’ve not had bubble tea, it doesn’t sound appetizing no matter how I describe it, but I’ll try anyway. Bubble tea, or at least the bubble tea we order at our local Ninja Café — Large Classic Kung Fu Milk Tea with Boba — reminds me of Thai iced tea, which is a milky sweet tea. The difference with iced bubble tea is that the bottom of the cup is filled with tapioca pearls (boba) that are chewy like gummy bears (though they don’t taste like gummy bears). You drink the tea with a fat straw, as big around as those fat pencils kids use in Kindergarten, to accommodate the boba, which you suck up the straw along with the sweet milky tea.
At least once a week, on our way home from swim practice, or if we’re just out and about, or even if we’re sitting at home and nobody is going anywhere or making any move to go anywhere, our daughter will ask if we can go get bubble tea. She frequently requests iced coffee as well, and the garbage can in our garage is filled with her discarded clear plastic cups from Starbucks, Panera, and Ninja Café.
Like most kids of her generation, she is rightfully alarmed about environmental destruction and climate change. She’s learning the connection between her actions and how they impact the world around her, and she’s trying to think beyond herself. She opted for a smaller car that gets better gas mileage once she considered that aspect of the SUV she first thought she wanted. And when she sees the plastic cups in the garbage (along with the dent in her checking account from all those $5 drinks), she feels bad for contributing to the devastating pile of plastic garbage that already exists in the world.
She’s been thinking for a while that she’d like to make her own bubble tea to take those plastic cups down a notch. But she needed two key components that don’t exist at our regular supermarket: boba and big fat straws.
There’s a world market across town that is not convenient to anywhere we ever go, but we’d heard they had boba. So last weekend, as part of her driving lesson, she drove us to Oasis, and lo, they had both boba and fat straws.
The package of tapioca pearls contained enough for five drinks. She was out of boba by the end of the week.
For her driving lesson this week, we drove from our house to the aquatic center, then on the way back home, we made a pit stop at Oasis. She practiced getting on and off the highway, lane changes, traffic, parking, and plenty of left turns. I got myself some marzipan at the market (without having to drive myself there!), she got practice driving to and from the pool, plus some extra exits on and off the highway, and we got her more boba so she can make bubble tea at home. This time, we bought two packages.
I will be tempted to try that drink if I ever see it offered (and am allowed on the premises). I remember making tapioca pudding. Isn’t tapioca found in supermarkets?
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Yes! Tapioca can be found in supermarkets. The tapioca balls used in bubble tea are bigger, like the size of fresh peas. Maybe even slightly larger than that.
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She should come to Asia for holidays (after Covid’s done and dusted) if she’s a bubble tea fan. Taiwan is like bubble tea Mecca. Even in Singapore, the youngsters are addicted. However, the sugar level can be crazy though, so if she can adjust the sugar level, that would be somewhat healthier. I’m a generation X-er, so I take mine sugarless and without milk. It’s the fun of sucking on the pearls!
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This dude has had to have unhealthy food multiple times all in the name of research 😁
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Oh no, I can’t show her that 😂
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The link doesn’t show for some reason, but basically drinking bubble tea regularly is bad for health
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I don’t like boba tea that much, because I don’t like the pearls 😛 I prefer nata de coco (not sure whether that’s common over there?); I find the taste more pleasant.
In any case, I’m curious about the big fat straws that you found…are they disposable straws? (since you mentioned that you are making boba tea at home to reduce the usage of disposable cups…) I think you should be able to find reusable straws that include a fat straw. I’m in Malaysia where boba tea is common, so when reusable straws became popular, most straw sets come with a thin and a fat one.
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