I was so excited to get a package of syrups from my friends over at Nature’s Flavors last week, and I immediately pictured the syrup bottles used at our favorite bubble tea shop. It has been too long since we had some chewy, sweet and slippery pearl tapioca bubble tea in this house.
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Donuts, dumplings, blueberry bumplings, chocolate mush-mush, super sweet.
Clam stew, ham stew, watermelon wush wush, Oh, the stuff that I could eat!
From The Cat in the Hat Songbook
Start your day the Dr. Seuss way! All you little ducklings, have some blueberry bumplings, for breakfast or snack, to give you that perfect quack. I checked out the Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook from the library and we had a great time testing out some of the recipes. If you haven’t heard of this cookbook, its a perfect one for cooking with kids and all the recipes are based on a Dr. Seuss excerpt.
Blueberry Bumplings is probably our favorite recipe in the book, its become a staple in our home. We like to make them for our weekend breakfast. They taste similar to scones and are very airy and they are the best when the blueberries are still warm and gooey. One change I made, and would recommend: triple the amount of blueberries. The original calls for only 1/2 cup. We use 1 1/2 cups because the blueberries are the best part and we want at least one in every bite.
Summary: Adapted from the Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook by Georgeanne Brennan
Preparation time: 15 minute(s)
Cooking time: 10 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 12
Fruit meets floral with this mango jasmine bobalicious beverage. This was a cool and creamy treat, and since lately we are enjoying ice cream with basically everything (morning coffee!), we threw a scoop right into this too which made it more like dessert.
If you read my past post on Thai Bubble Tea, you read how bubble tea got its name from when the Chinese street tea vendors would shake up some fruit with tea to create a bubbly beverage. They did this to entice the school children over to their tea carts. They were right, the fruity smoothie was quite bubbly.
Although I enjoyed this drink, it doesn’t feel like you are drinking tea. I find it on the same level as all the sweet additions to some of the fancy coffee drinks available at Starbucks. While delicious, they kind of take away from the original coffee. Ultimately, I could have this drink with or without the tea, it just adds a little Jasmine flavor. I would call it more of a Mango smoothie than a tea.
Next time I might add a little more milk or more tea to lighten the drink. I noticed that the tapioca kind of float around the bottom rather than just stay at the bottom. It didn’t bother me, but its something to remember if you are going for a nice presentation.
The fun does not stop here, check out cake student again because I will be trying out some new flavors soon. My package of pearl tapioca is still half full!
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Bubble Tea was invented in Taiwan in the 1980’s when a tea vendor started to add blended fruit to the tea to gain popularity with the school children, and when the tea and fruit were shaken it formed bubbles (hence the name). Not too long after, tapioca pearls were introduced and added to the drink which, once again, resembled bubbles. The drink is also known as “boba tea” because the texture is said to be similar to a female breast!
In California Bubble Tea is everywhere and, from what I have seen, you either love or hate it. I happen to love this refreshing and chewy beverage and decided to see if I could make it at home. We have a local Chinese grocery store that sells all sorts of tea products, so not knowing where to start… I had the grocer help me pick out the ingredients. I ended up with black bubble tea tapioca pearls, sweetened condensed milk, bubble tea straws, loose leaf Jasmine tea, and loose leaf Thai tea (which produced a very orange drink even with the milk in it).
The process wasn’t difficult and left me with the desire to try different recipes. Next time I’m going to try adding fresh blended fruit (so expect more posts on this topic). I thought the tapioca pearls had an awful smell and taste, so I really rinsed the pearls well when they finished cooking. After adding the honey and sugar they were much better.
Using different types of brewed tea can change the color of your tea. The Thai tea was a bright orange, and the Jasmine was white (after adding the milk). For both types, I needed to strain the leaves with a sieve several times.
Preparation time: 10 minute(s)
Cooking time: 30 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 4
