I went to a pho joint for lunch yesterday, and they gave me a free milk tea with boba in it. First, I had never had milk tea before, and second, there were little orange “boba” or pearls in the bottom of the glass. I had had tapioca boba before, which I like, but I had never seen orange ones.
I sucked up a strawful and started to chew, and they popped in my mouth. They looked exactly like salmon roe, translucent and tender, and their texture was exactly like salmon roe. But the insides were filled with tart, tangy passion fruit juice!
It was a major eye-opener. The waiter didn’t speak enough English to fill me in, so I Googled it when I returned to the office. Someone invented a method of making little pearl-sized balls of juice encased inside a thin skin - very clever. They’ve been around for a couple of years and are getting very popular.
They’re damned addicting. The combination of mellow milky tea with tart fruity popping pearls is indescribable. I’m going out tomorrow for lunch near a milk tea/boba joint and get a big glass of jasmine milk tea with mango popping boba.
I think it’s been popular longer than a few years. It’s also known as bubble tea, and I know I’ve had it and I haven’t really gone anywhere that might have had such a thing in at least 5 years.
It sounds like it’s just calcium alginate spheres. You can make it with just about any sort of flavor. I don’t really like the taste of calcium at that concentration, but YMMV.
