How to make boba or tapioca balls? It is very easy to make homemade boba or tapioca balls. These little chewy and transparent balls are added to various drinks and in some desserts to give a specific texture. Bobas are made of many colors and flavors.
1. What Are These Bobas or Tapioca Balls?
Boba or tapioca pearls are cooked using tapioca starch. These tapioca pearls are boiled in sugar or caramel syrup to incorporate a sweet flavor and gelatinous texture. Tapioca pearls or tapioca balls are cooked in boiled water to make them gummier. These tapioca pearls do not have any taste.
Cassava root contains carbohydrates that are free from gluten, and in certain ways, they are considered a healthy choice of carbohydrate. But they may lack all the other essential nutritional ingredients that are really necessary for the long run.
The chewy texture of boba pearls comes from cassava flour, with a high content of starch in the cassava roots. Tapioca pearl or boba are found in many Asian grocery stores, and there are also several online retailers where you can find these chewy and gummy sweet balls.
1.1. How Were the Boba Pearls Discovered?
Boba pearls actually originated in South Asian countries, especially in Taichung during the 1980s, and are excessively used in several types of desserts and summer drinks, such as boba or bubble milk tea and some Thai milk tea.
Taiwanese people first started using little black boba pearls made from tapioca starch in cold milk tea, popularly known as bubble tea or boba milk tea. These little gummy balls were first added to the drinks by Liu Han-Chieh in 1983, and the glass became very popular quickly.
Boba tea and bubble tea are both essentially the same drink. Boba tea is a cold milk tea served with ice and topped with tapioca pearls.
2. Homemade Boba Tea
Bobas are very simple to make and require a few household ingredients. If you are thinking about how to make boba or tapioca pearls at your home, make sure to have the following ingredients at your home: tapioca flour or tapioca starch- 1 cup or 135 grams, brown sugar- 60 grams, and some more for coating, brown sugar slab- 2; brown sugar- 200 grams for syrup, and water-6 tablespoons or 90 ml and 100 ml for syrup.
2.1. Instructions To Make Boba
These are some simple steps on how to make boba at home: 1. making the sugar syrup; 2. preparing the boba balls; and 3. cooking the pearls in a sweet sugary syrup.
2.1.1. Making The Sugar Syrup
Sugar syrup is prepared by dissolving brown sugar (250 grams of sugar or jaggery powder and two slabs of sugar) in some boiling water (100 ml) in a gas oven or microwave.
Keep stirring with a spoon or spatula until the brown sugar melts, and you get a sticky syrup. You need to keep stirring until the brown sugar syrup is ready. Before proceeding, keep the brown sugar syrup ready.
2.1.2. Making The Boba Pearls
How to make boba balls from tapioca starch then? You need to make the dough from tapioca flour or starch first. Heat a pan and add water (90 ml) and brown sugar (60 grams). Keep cooking on a slow flame until the sugar melts. Boil the melted brown sugar and water, then keep the gas flame low.
Use half of the tapioca flour or tapioca starch and mix it with the liquid very quickly with the help of a spatula. Now, switch off the gas flame and mix the tapioca flour with the liquid. At this stage, quickly add the remaining half of the tapioca flour into the mix until you get a smooth paste.
Remove the smooth paste from the pan, place it on a clean, flat surface in the kitchen, and make dough out of the smooth paste. Use more flour to dust the kitchen surface and massage the dough with your hands. Make four to five equal portions of the dough.
Please take any one part of the tapioca dough and roll the dough portion. Cut some small, equal-sized cubes from the log using a knife. Roll each of these small cubes into small tapioca pearls. Coat these tapioca pearls with some flour and place them on a plate with some more flour to avoid sticking these tapioca pearls to each other.
Use the other dough portions to make the tapioca pearls in the same process. Keep the tapioca pearls in an airtight bag until use.
2.1.3. Preparing The Boba
To prepare the tapioca balls, add them to a container and boil them using an oven or microwave. You must add the uncooked bobas to the boiling water to prepare them for your favorite drink. Cooking for twenty to thirty minutes will transform the pearls into transparent little globules. You may need to transfer these pearls into cold water to avoid sticking them together.
Strain the water and place the boba pearls in a container. Then use some sweet syrup to make these bobas sweet in taste. Stir them gently with the warm syrup using a spoon or a spatula.
You can keep them immersed in the brown sugar syrup or remove them from the syrup and use it immediately. The pearls are now cooked, and you can add them to your perfect cup of boba tea or use them as a dessert item in your sweet dishes.
2.2. How To Make Boba Pearls with Mango?
2.2.1. Ingredients Required for Making Mango Boba Pearls
Want to know how to make boba with mango or mango boba pearls? You will need the following ingredients: Tapioca flour or starch- 2 cups and more for sprinkling; ripe mango- 1 medium-sized; water- 1/2 cup; and brown sugar- 1 tablespoon.
2.2.2. Preparing The Mango Pulp
Remove the outer layer of the fruit and crush the flesh with your hands to extract the mango pulp from a freshly brought ripe mango. You can also collect the mango flesh by using a knife. Add these mango pieces to a mixer grinder and make a fine paste. A smooth mango pulp is required for making the mango boba pearls. Check the sweetness of the mango pulp. If there are lumps, remove them by straining the liquid pulp. Add some brown sugar if required. Pour a tablespoon of hot water and one tablespoon of tapioca flour into the mango paste. Mix them together.
2.2.3. Preparing The Dough and The Mango Boba Pearls
So, how to make boba from this mango and tapioca flour then? First, we need to make dough from mango paste and tapioca starch. To make the dough with tapioca flour, you need to heat the pulp with the tapioca flour. Prepare a large cooking pot on a gas burner. The flame on the burner should be medium. Count the remaining tapioca flour and mango pulp into the pan. Heat the mixture and stir it using a spatula until the tapioca flour is thoroughly mixed with the mango pulp, forming a paste.
Remove the paste or the dough from the pan and place it on a kitchen counter sprinkled with tapioca flour. Prepare the dough from the tapioca flour while it is still hot.
Slice the dough in half and flatten each part of the tapioca dough using a rolling pin. Start making boba pearls from these portions. You can keep the dough portions wrapped in a plastic bag or cloth.
2.2.4. Cooking The Mango Boba Pearls
Check the texture of the mango boba pearls. Prepare some boiling water in a large pot, add these mango boba pearls, and cook them on a low flame for about 20 to 25 minutes or until they are cooked. After the bobas are properly cooked, switch off the heat and strain the boba using a strainer. You can keep the mango boba pearls in a refrigerator until needed.
You can also preserve the mango boba pearls by adding some sugar syrup and keeping them cool for 3 to 7 days. If you want to preserve the boba pearls for a longer period of time (up to 6 months), you can keep them uncooked in an airtight container and then refrigerate them.
2.3. How To Make Boba Pearls with Cocoa Powder?
Do you know how to make boba with black coloring or some black tapioca balls? Black boba pearls are nothing but black-colored tapioca pearls. The black color can be added to the tapioca pearls using caramel or cocoa powder. These boba balls are very easy to make, and you can cook them using ingredients easily available in your home kitchen.
2.3.1. Ingredients To Make Black Boba Pearls
The recipe requires the following ingredients: tapioca flour or tapioca starch- 95 grams; cocoa powder- 5 grams; water- 60 ml; dark brown sugar- 50 grams; water for brown sugar syrup- 240 ml; dark brown sugar for sugar syrup- 3/4 cup.
2.3.2. Preparing the Dough for Tapioca Pearls
Prepare the sugar syrup by boiling water and black and brown sugar together in a pan. Melt the sugar by continuously stirring the mixture using a spatula. Add the cocoa powder to the sugar syrup at this stage and keep stirring continuously. Assemble tapioca flour and syrup.
Ensure the consistency of the syrup and tapioca flour mixture is right. Switch off the heat once the mix starts to form a smooth paste. Make the tapioca pearls from the dough after putting it on a clean kitchen surface and rolling it while it is still warm. Sprinkle or dust with tapioca flour if required to make the kitchen surface non-sticky.
2.3.3. Cooking the Black Tapioca Pearls
Boil the black tapioca pearls in the water in a large container over medium heat and stir them continuously to avoid the pearls sticking to each other. The minimum cooking time is 20 to 30 minutes.
After cooking, remove the black boba pearls from the heat, keep them in a cool place after straining, or add them to the brown sugar syrup and cook them again for about 4 to 5 minutes. You can use these black boba pearls in any dessert or drink of your choice right away.
2.4. How To Make Boba Pearls That are White?
Want to know how to make boba that is transparent or white bobas? These bobas are popular for their white appearance and sweet taste. You can prepare these bobas in addition to other colored bobas.
2.4.1. Ingredients Required for making Crystal Boba Pearls
Very few ingredients are required for this method: Water- 2.5 Litres; Uncooked tapioca pearls or raw tapioca pearls-150 grams or 1/2 cup; White powdered sugar- 50 grams.
2.4.2. Cooking Method Crystal Boba Pearls
Place the water in a large container and boil the water to cook the uncooked boba. Drop these bobas tapioca pearls and cook them. To keep the boba from sticking together, keep stirring it constantly.
Immerse these crystal boba pearls in some cold water until needed. At this step, you can use sugar if you want your tapioca pearls to be sweet. Cook the boba pearls for 30 minutes and then keep them at rest for another 30 minutes. Check the consistency of the boba or tapioca pearls, and strain the water.
2.5. Cooking Measures During Boba Pearl Making
Tapioca starch is very sticky to handle, and hot water is added to ensure the dough for tapioca pearls remains in the proper shape. You must act very swiftly while making the dough and use gloves to protect your hands from the hot mixture of tapioca flour and water.
Tapioca starch comes in many different varieties, and each one may require a different amount of hot water and brown sugar mixture to form a dough. Modify the water or tapioca flour content to get proper dough-like consistency. If the dough is too dry, you may need to add some more hot sugar water mixture; if the dough is too runny, you may need to add some more tapioca flour.
The texture of the brown sugar syrup should be properly checked before adding the boba pearls to the sugar syrup. The brown sugar syrup should be runny and thick in texture. If the syrup is ready, it should cover the spoon’s surface completely and make a string when touched with your fingers.
You can adjust the timing of boba or tapioca pearls boiling to achieve the desired consistency. If you want the boba pearls soft on the outside and a little bit solid inside, you need to cook the boba pearls on medium-high heat until the outer layer is properly cooked, then reduce the heat to a minimum to cook the inside of the boba pearls.
3. How To Make Boba Tea or Bubble Tea?
Boba tea or bubble tea is an extremely popular drink worldwide; you can make them in your home with your homemade boba pearls.
3.1. How To Make Simple Boba Tea?
This recipe is only for making a simple boba tea. Simple boba tea is made of boba and excellent milk tea. The ingredients that are required for this recipe are boba pearls or tapioca pearls- 150 grams; black tea leaf- 3 tablespoons or tea bags- 8 bags; milk- 25 ml; water- 4 1/2 cups; white sugar- 100 grams; and ice- 1/4 cup.
3.1.1. Making The Tea
Boil 4 cups of water in a pan and brew the tea leaves, or leave the tea bags in the water for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the brewing is complete. Pick out and discard the tea bags. Leave the tea to cool down.
3.1.2. Making The Syrup
Add 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of sugar powder to a pan and boil them on medium heat. Make sure to boil it until it reaches the consistency of syrup. Switch off the heat and transfer the whole mixture into a bowl. Cool the syrup and then use it to make a boba drink.
3.1.3. Preparing the Tapioca Pearls
You can use homemade, cooked bobas to make one or two glasses of this drink. If they are not cooked, you need to cook them in boiling water for twenty to thirty minutes, or until they are properly cooked. You can also place them in sugar syrup and boil them. Allow cooling after straining.
3.1.4. The Boba or Bubble Tea Recipe
How to make boba tea now? Prepare 3 to 4 glasses with some ice cubes in them. Next, divide the cooked boba pearls among all the glasses and pour the cooled tea into them. Combine the milk and syrup with a spoon before transferring them to the glasses.
Prepare the glasses with ice cubes and boba pearls, pour the milk tea into these glasses, and enjoy. If you need more milk and syrup, add them to the glasses and mix them properly. You can also blend the milk, syrup, and tea in a blender with some ice.
3.2. How To Make Boba Tea with Strawberry Flavor?
This strawberry milk boba tea is made using fresh strawberries and milk tea. It is a refreshing summer drink and very easy to make.
3.2.1. Ingredients for Making Strawberry Boba Tea
The recipe serves for 2 cups of boba milk and requires the following ingredients: homemade tapioca pearls- 1/2 cup; water- 1 cup; strawberry- 3 to 4; strawberry milk- 2 cups; green tea bags- 2; some strawberry color, some ice cubes, and simple syrup- 2 tablespoons.
3.2.2. Recipe for Making Strawberry Milk Boba Tea
If the boba pearls are uncooked, cook them in some boiling water for 20 to 30 minutes, then place them in cool water before using. Check the boba pearls. If they are properly cooked, switch off the gas and strain the boba pearls. You can also cook them in sugar syrup and strawberry color to make them sweeter and incorporate the strawberry flavor.
Prepare the tea by using the tea bags. You can also use some tea leaves to make the tea. Check the brewing time on the back of the tea bag packet and follow the instructions to brew it. You can use different flavors. Please check the timing to adjust the bitterness according to your taste. Use some sugar syrup or make it with 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of sugar in a pan. Cool the syrup before using it. You can add some strawberry flavor and color to the sugar syrup.
Prepare two glasses with some ice cubes, boba pearls, and some pieces of strawberries. Pour the strawberry tea into the glasses. Blend together the cool tea, strawberry milk, sugar syrup, and some crushed ice. Decorate the glasses with more strawberry pieces and serve chilled with a boba straw.
3.3. How To Make Boba Tea with Mango and Matcha Powder?
This is a very famous boba tea made using some matcha powder and some fresh ripe mango. The ingredients you will need for this are mango- 1 medium-sized; sugar syrup- 2 tablespoons; boba pearls- 150 grams; matcha green tea powder- 1 teaspoon; milk-2 cups; sugar and water for making the syrup.
To know how to make boba by using these ingredients, we need to follow these steps: Boil the raw bobas to cook them. The bobas must rise to the surface after being cooked in the water. Strain the water and place the boba pearls in a bowl with cold water. Prepare the matcha tea with match powder and cool it down. You can use store-bought or homemade mango pulp. Just make sure the pulp is smooth and without any lumps.
Prepare two glasses with boba pearls, sugar syrup, and mango slices. Pour the tea and milk and stir the mixture using a spoon. Use more mango slices to decorate the glasses, and serve the mango matcha boba tea after properly mixing it.
4. Conclusion
Nowadays, you will find these bobas in many drinks, mostly at shopping malls, Chinese corners, or restaurants. But your version of boba will still stand out as you can try new and unique flavors, colors, shapes, and whatnot. Boba pearls have become very popular in a very short amount of time.
They are a perfect substitute for your refreshment drinks. Bobas are made of tapioca starch, which is good for your health. Bobas with different fruit flavors add more nutritional value to your boba drink. In addition, they are very popular among teenagers and students for their chewy texture and many interesting flavors.
You can use this article to learn how to make boba at home. Try making them today with your favorite drink, dessert, or even some savory items. So, make your bobas and start your journey into this boba world today!
Last Updated on by ritukhare
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