How to Boil Tapioca Pearls for Bubble Tea?
How to boil tapioca pearls for bubble tea? You need to add uncooked tapioca pearls to boiling water for roughly 10 minutes (medium heat), stir, and then turn off the heat and keep them in the saucepan for the next 10-15 minutes. It also depends on the brand of tapioca pearls used. If you’re looking for advice on how to cook the best boba for bubble tea, check out this article – we will give you a few tips here!
What Are Tapioca Pearls?
Tapioca pearls are the most popular boba tea topping, made out of tapioca starch, brown sugar, and boiled water. They are a fan favorite due to their unique, chewy texture, which has become the definition trait of bubble tea.
Achieving this texture is most tricky when boiling tapioca pearls. It all goes down to timing and is the make or break between great and average boba pearls. Thus, you need to know how to cook boba for bubble tea properly.
How to Boil Tapioca Pearls for Bubble Tea?
The way you should cook your boba depends on the types of tapioca pearls that you prepare. In general, you have two options: prepare your own pearls from scratch (or, rather, from starch) or buy a pack of pre-prepared pearls that just need boiling. Let’s take a look at the differences:
Your own pearls – If you’re preparing your boba pearls from scratch, make sure to cook them in hot water for about 10 minutes with heat and 10-15 minutes without it.
Packed pearls – If you’re opting for some pre-prepared pearls, just follow the instructions on the package.
Additional Tips on How to Cook Boba for Bubble Tea
While you now know the timings, you probably realize that they are not universal and that your pearls might require slightly more or less time, depending on your kitchen stove or even on the particular pearl batch. Plus, by making small mistakes, you can easily fail when boiling them. So, we’ve got a few general tips that will help you cook the perfect tapioca pearls:
Make sure the water's hot – if you put tapioca pearls into cold water, during the cooking process, the starch will break down resulting in undesired pearls.
There’s a simple way to check whether tapioca is cooked – if the pearls become translucent and double in size, this means that your boba is ready.
Remember about stirring – otherwise, you might end up with half of the tapioca pearls getting fully cooked and the other half not at all or even sticking together. Stirring will help you boil all the pearls evenly.
The Takeaway
So, how to cook boba for bubble tea? You need to heat up the water first and make sure that it’s boiling. Then add the pearls, and wait some time. Afterward, you need to turn the heating off but still keep the pearls in the saucepan. The exact timings and ways might differ depending on what kind of pearls you’re cooking. Also, remember about stirring – otherwise, your pearls won’t boil evenly!
You may also read: Boba Tea and Boba Pearls: The Science Behind the Perfect Chew