To Boba Or Not To Boba

So, I have a weakness for pearl tea. I wish I didn't. I have too many other things to take up my time and money. I suppose in the long run it isn't quite as bad as gourmet coffee, vintage wines, and heroin - none of which I'm particularly interested in. However, I really need to find something healthful to enjoy, not just sweet and caffeinated.

There are several places in town that make pearl tea drinks, and considering that I don't really have an excuse to visit them on a regular basis, pearl tea becomes something more of a special event than a habitual practice. Unfortunately, I have made a terrible discovery.

One of my favorite restaurants is discontinuing pearl tea. (No, that isn't the terrible discovery, though the restaurant has gone downhill tremendously since I was last in there, and no, that isn't the terrible discovery either, although that is pretty terrible - more on the restaurant biz later.) I noticed that they still had boxes of those oversized straws you use to suck the boba (the little tapioca pearls) out of your drink with. I pointed this out to my friend and said that he should make an offer to take all those straws off their hands. He asked why he would want to do that. I started to think of all the things you could do with a fat, pointed straw, when he added that they already had lots of them at home. He informed me that one of our friends that he shares a house with (technically, I guess she's his landlady, though now that I hear that word, I keep thinking of Yuen Qiu from Kung Fu Hustle, which just isn't right) makes her own pearl tea at home and has bought all the fixins herself.

Now, for some of you, this comes as no surprise, but it blew my mind. For some reason, I had always assumed that pearl tea was exclusively the bailiwick of the specialty restaurant. I don't know. I guess I thought that there was a special machine that you needed, like you need a cappuccino machine to make, well, cappuccino. Sure, I guess you could buy one for home, but I don't have a lot of space in my apartment and owning such a thing would be pure madness. Now, at this point, I had a mental image of brewing tea, steaming milk, adding flavor syrups, etc., and finally either making or cooking the boba. The next time I was at the Asian market, I did find boba on the shelves (appropriately located near the tapioca starch.) I looked up the boba recipe online to discover that you need to boil them for around an hour to get them soft enough for the drink. Ah-HAH!

Talking with our friend about how to prepare the tea (specifically, I was interested in taro milk tea, but the process should be pretty general) I learned that the tea is prepared from a powder containing instant tea and non-dairy creamer. Just add water? Why nothing could be easier. I also learned that these pearl tea shops have pre-mixed powders for many flavors and add syrups as needed, all of which are pretty much readily available. She did mention that she had had difficulty getting the boba right, and that for home use, she dispenses with the boba.

So it was back to the Asian market. I found the powder mix (they didn't have a big selection, but there are places on the Internet that carry a wider variety) and the boba. The boba were marked as "Ready in 5 minutes". This was promising, so for $4 and change (only a few cents more than buying a prepared drink at the pearl tea place across the street) I went home armed with the items I needed to satiate my pearl tea craving.

I will say that everything came out pretty much okay. The standard milk tea packet was pretty tasty, if plain, though I could really taste the non-dairy creamer. I wonder if they make a powdered milk version. The boba came out aces. I pretty much just followed the directions on the back and they came out much as I remembered from my last professionally-prepared drink. One problem, though, is I neglected to buy any of those oversized straws, so I had to fish the boba out of the drink with a spoon. (I suppose I should make that restaurant an offer for their bulk straws.)

So now we come down to the dilemma. Are the boba worth making? At the store, I just can't see buying a milk tea without the pearls. They're just too much fun. But even at 5 minutes to prepare, are boba at home too much trouble? With my electric kettle, I can have a cup of tea ready in about a minute, which means that the boba have added 400% to the preparation time. Also, they go bad really quickly, so you kind of have to use them once you've made them. I have no idea how long the uncooked ones stay good in a ziptop bag in the fridge. Plus, I don't have any of those fun cups and straws you get at the pearl tea shop. All of this gives the at home boba a sense of obligation, rather than the spontineity I'm looking for when satisfying my pearl tea craving.

I made another cup without pearl and enjoyed it just fine. I'll probably use up the boba I have on hand and call it good. I'm looking forward to trying out different flavor packets and syrups for my milk tea. And when I'm out at the pearl tea shop, I'll definitely get the pearls. But at home, pearls, at least for now, are not to be.