Bubble Tea Chez Nous

V and I recently discovered we can make one of my favorite drinks at home (fortunate because there seems to be only one store in Paris that sells it). Tapioca pearls, however, are difficult to cook right, and we've found very little good advice online about it.

That said, through trial, error, and "painstaking" research, we've found a method that seems to work well:

1. Bring lots of water (anywhere from 4 to 8 times the volume of tapioca pearls you wish to cook) to a boil in a saucepan.


2. Pour in tapioca pearls. Cover and turn heat to low.


3. Simmer for 1.5 hours, adding hot or boiling water periodically to keep the tapioca well-saturated.


4. Check tapioca pearls: they should be full and round, and if you used uncolored pearls, they should have turned clear and there should be next to no white powder visible at the center. A few pearls with white centers are okay. More than a few and you should continue cooking a bit.


5. Turn off the heat but leave the tapioca pearls covered and on the stove. Let them sit in the warm water for another half hour.


6. Drain liquid from the pearls and rinse them in cold water. Serve, or for short-term storage, cover them in a sugar syrup made of 1 part each brown and white sugars and 2 parts water brought to a boil and then cooled. (This is also used to sweeten the tea for the drink.) I hear also that tapioca pearls freewe well, but we haven't tried it.