Bubble Tea

Bubble tea or boba tea can vary in it's recipe, but I will be making milk tea. The common factor is the tapioca balls that sit at the bottom of the drink! These are fun to chew...or choke on. Please be careful and use the buddy system when drinking your bubble tea. Right after high school, this tea became somewhat of an addiction while I worked near a little shop that made it, and I had to try it for myself. I'm lucky enough to live next to an Asian market, so the ingredients weren't hard to find. If you can't find the tapioca or straws, they can also be ordered online.

Ingredients:
1 cup large tapioca balls (the 5 minute kind)
Tea flavor of your choosing
Sugar
Honey
Ice
Coconut milk (you can use any type of milk)
Bubble tea straws

Directions:
Brew tea. I made up a pitcher of peach tea for mine on the stove. Sweeten the tea with sugar while hot. I use approximately 1/2 cup of sugar to on pitcher of tea.

Follow the directions on the bag to cook the tapioca. Strain when finished. I had only seen tapioca in black, but I found these fun rainbow ones at my store:

Put some of the tapioca balls at the bottom of a tall glass, add ice, tea, honey (aprox. 2 T....you want it to be sweet since the tapioca and milk are not sweetened) and top with milk. Mix Well. That's all there is to it!

You can experiment with different flavors of tea, types of milk or flavored syrups. I served mine with mochi ice cream, which can also be found at an Asian supermarket or Whole Foods. Mochi ice cream is ice cream wrapped in a rice dough. Just be sure that whichever brand you pick up is gluten free.