Pearl Milk Tea

Pearl Milk Tea or Boba Milk Tea originates from Taiwan. Traditionally it is a beverage containing tea with creamer/milk plus tapioca balls. It is actually one of my all time favourite beverages. My first time trying a glass of pearl milk tea was in a Chinese restaurant in Sydney. I eyed somebody having an interesting purple-coloured drink with black balls swimming at the bottom of the glass. It looked somehow charming and appealing. I asked the waiter what drink it was and then decided to order the drink. The drink was fantastic - I got addicted afterwards. At that time pearl milk tea was still not that popular in Sydney, you normally could only grab it from a few Chinese or Taiwanese restaurants available around. A few years later, pearl milk tea started to get more attention in Australia because there were more and more milk tea franchise outlets appearing - the most successful one is I guess Easy Way.

There are many varieties of milk tea, the most popular ones are the normal black milk tea, Jasmine milk tea and taro milk tea (the purple drink that I tried in the restaurant). My favourite milk tea is black milk tea with pearls, I also like Jasmine and Taro milk tea - but Jasmine and Taro can be overpowering sometimes in fragance (for jasmine) and taste (taro). It really depends on which milk tea outlets you go to though, because different outlets have their own different 'milk tea taste'. It's nevertheless also just my personal point of view. I find the Taro milk tea in Easy Way way too sweet and thick, but I know many many people who love it to death.

As far as I know there are no pearl milk tea outlets in Germany - which is a pity... There are so many delicious things missing here...! I even cannot find uncooked pearls (tapioca balls) in Asian supermarkets, the only types of pearls I can find are the ones from Thailand, which are white, instead of greyish black. I had to ask my mum to send a packet of pearls from Australia, that I can finally satisfy my craving for a glass of milk tea. Some people might wonder, why I need to wait for my mum to send a packet of pearls if I really crave to drink a glass of milk tea, anyway it's just tea with milk, you can always have it all the time, even in Germany...But, hell, no, the highlight of this drink is not really the milk tea, but it's the tapioca balls. Yes, some people might think: "What are those ugly, slippery and disgusting looking black balls?". But for me tapioca balls are just superb. They taste chewy and just so addictive... But of course it's important to cook the pearls well, and pearls cannot be stored for a long time, because they will get hard. So after you cook and cool them, eat them all, or you can throw them away the next day.

I guess, after 3 days of blogging I finally get the feeling of being a blogger - I just noticed it from the amount of blabbings I have written today...;-)

Pictures

Uncooked pearls

First boil the pearls, add sugar and wait till pearls caramelise

Yummy, luscious pearls

Yum, yum, yummy, pearl milk tea

This is a perfect drink for summer. Add lots of ice cubes to your milk tea plus sugar and put this mixture in a blender. Serve it with pearls in a glass.

I personally think that milk tea tastes better when you use creamer than milk. With creamer, the tea just mixes so well together.

Update (5th August 2010) - I have recently found two online German bubble tea shops: Chooba Bubble Tea and (20th February 2011) Botschafter Fairer Köstlichkeiten :). There is also a bubble tea shop in Frankfurt called Chakka Peanut Butter Sandwiches and Bubble Tea...!! Double Yay!! Finally :). I will try it for sure in the next few days:). Thanks to Token, because of her informative blog regarding Japanese/Asian foods, I was able to find out that there IS a bubble tea shop nearby, here in Germany:)!