Boba is the BEST!

I was introduced to Boba a couple years ago by my lovely friend Melissa. We went to an asian tea bar in Clairemont and I got a bobalicious tea drink. It was love at first sip. What's there not to love? Tea....Any flavor addition you want....Chewy things in your drink...milk to make a latte if that's your forte....Mmmm. And you drink it all through a big fat straw so you can suck up the tapioca pearls.

Well, lattes and teas are just as expensive at a boba bar as they are at Starbucks, so I started making them myself! I get tapioca pearls at Ranch 99...a whole bag for $1.29! Then I just add them to my hot tea for a nice chewy morning and afternoon snack. I even got fat straws...I think it was like 99 cents for a whole bag of them. I don't add the flavoring, just honey and some almond milk. I'm really just in it for the chewy treats at the bottom. For those of you who have not experienced the world of boba, you may be wondering what the heck I'm talking about! Let me enlighten you...

Bubble tea (or boba tea) is a special tea beverage that originated in Asia in the 1980s. It is a mixture of of iced or hot sweetened tea, milk, and a flavoring - often fruits such as mango, traditional flavors like red bean and taro, or others.

The bubbles in the tea are chewy tapioca pearls that sit at the bottom of the cup. You drink the tea through a super fat straw which allows you to suck up the tapioca balls and chew on them as a treat.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say...

Bubble tea, also called "Boba" tea, is a tea beverage containing gelatinous tapioca pearls. It originated in Taiwan in the 1980s, spread to nearby East Asian countries, and migrated to Canada before spreading to Chinatown in New York, then to various spots throughout the West Coast of the United States. The literal translation from Chinese is pearl milk tea (traditional Chinese: 珍珠奶茶; Tongyong Pinyin: jhenjhu nǎichá; Hanyu Pinyin: zhēnzhū nǎichá). The word "bubble" refers to "bubbling", the process by which certain types of bubble tea are made, and not the actual tapioca balls. The balls are often called "pearls." Drinks with large pearls are consumed along with the beverage through wide straws; while drinks with small pearls are consumed through normal straws. Bubble tea is especially popular in many East Asian and Southeast Asian regions, and more recently popularized in the United States.

Happy boba drinking!