If you have ever had bubble tea, you know how the little jello bubbles are essential to achieve the right feel of the drink.
If you have never had bubble tea before, it is time to try it out.
The traditional bubble tea basically consists of cold tea or milk tea (usually black tea) and a scoop of jello-like bubbles that you can suck up with a thick straw.
When we were in Taiwan we bought a few bags of “bubbles”. So of course we had to make our own bubble tea.
The instructions for cooking the bubbles were written in Mandarin on the back of the bag, luckily there was also an english translation. However I am not sure how well it was translated 🙂
The instructions, directly translated from Mandarin, said:
Add boiling water to mix a little pink round
(10 to 15 times of water), boil again, turn
down heat and simmer, etc. 10 to 15
minutes later, off the heat cover and boring
20 minutes, stirring a little and then opened
fire, boiling press powder round (To be
through the heart), can be picked up red
cold (ice) water cooled, mix syrup you can
eat.
You can see it on the picture here.
I have to admit I was a little confused after reading that, so I had to ask Bob for a more clear translation.
So here is how we cooked the bubbles:
In a pot we heated 10-15 measuring cups of water compared to the amount of uncooked bubbles. When the water was boiling we added the bubbles and let them simmer for 10-15 minutes while stirring a few times.
Then we turned off the heat and covered the pot with a lid and let it sit for 20 minutes.
Then we brought it back to a boil at low temperature for about an hour until the bubbles were soft all the way through (the heart).
Then we ran cold water over the bubbles and they were ready to serve with the tea.
We chose to make a jasmin tea with elderflower concentrate, ice cubes and of course the bubbles.
We made the tea and let it cool completely.
In a glass we added 2 tablespoon elderflower concentrate, a handful of ice cubes, poured over the cold tea and a large spoon full of freshly made bubbles.
It tasted so great, and now knowing that the whole process of making the bubbles is a lot longer than previously anticipated both of us really appreciate the drink a lot more than before.
Here is our finished bubble tea.
If you want to make your own bubble tea, you can probably buy the dry bubbles in Asian speciality stores. If not you might need to take a trip to the continent and buy a bag or two to take home for your own bubble making production.
-Enjoy!
Ayoe