2013 Bucket List: Homemade Boba Tea

This post is a part of the 2013 Bucket List series, in which I tell the whole world my goals so I have to complete them. You can read the original post here. Here is an update on one of my 2013 goals:

Try out monthly meal-planning

Cooking is hard. I love the result but never think to plan any meals. I have encountered a bunch of meal-planning pins on Pinterest, so I'm going to try them out and document the journey.

Update: 

If you follow this blog, you've probably heard me talk about Boba Tea before. California is pretty culturally diverse, and I always heard people talking about Boba but never understood what it was...until I moved to whiteywhitesvilley, Utah. 

Life....

Boba Tea is an asian drink (usually tea + fruit juice + milk) with tapioca pearls (boba) at the bottom. If you get it at a shop it'll come in a fun drink with a plastic lid fused to the cup and a huge straw to suck the boba up. It's srsly delicious. 

Anyway, I found this great place in Orem and got addicted for a minute. Like all of my obsessions, it came in while a burning fire and left pretty quickly. Well, the fire came back with a vengeance one night at the book store. Luckily, the book store was by my all time favorite Boba place. I drove by, hoping to get a quick fix, and it was closed. Not night night closed. Like, closed closed. 

Like all things in Utah Valley, the store had started much like my obsessions (eager, excited to please), then burned out quickly when the owners realized it takes more than a wish and a dream to make a business stick in Utah Valley. The store was gone. 

(BTW, if I'm ever crazy enough to start a business in Provo, I will do everything I can to get the hipsters into it. The hipsters are the key to success. Without them, you're doomed.)

I was pretty sad for a minute until I realized there was an asian market down the street from my house. Lately I'm all about trying out new things. Perfect! I found a recipe on Pinterest and decided to make my own. "If the entire continent of Asia* can do it, so can I!" Firey obsession, check.

*gross exaggeration

I followed the recipe on this blog to get boba that would last a couple days in the fridge. It took 5 times as long as regular boba, and the next day the pearls were ruined. Just do the quick version. 

Here's a quick recipe for boba:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup boba (tapioca pearls)

1/2 cup sugar

6 cups water

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup fruit juice (I used peach juice from a can of peaches)

Boil 4 cups of water on the stove. Put boba in water and boil for 5-10 minutes (until boba is soft to the core).

While boba is boiling, steep two bags of your favorite tea in water. I used herbal citrus tea. Let it cool in the fridge or freezer.

Pour boba into a strainer. Rinse with cold water until the boba is lukewarm. In a container, mix 2 cups warm water with sugar. Pour boba into the simple syrup mixture. If you want, you can leave the boba in the syrup for a few minutes to soak up the sugar.

In a glass, mix cooled tea with milk and fruit juice (you can use any kind of juice).

Use a spoon to transfer boba to your tea cup. Make sure you get some of the simple syrup to sweeten the tea. 

Enjoy! 

PS: The tea above was citrus herbal tea + peach juice from a can + simple syrup + milk + boba.