My family loves fruit shake. We usually do it at home whenever we have “shake-able” fruits. We blend avocado, strawberry, mango, watermelon, melon, papaya…well you get the drift. We recently added a new ingredient to our fruit shakes – Tapioca pearls! Tapioca drinks are very popular in the Philippines. Zagu and Quickly are the main stalls that sell tapioca drinks. Here in the US/Bay Area, I only find few stores serving drinks with tapioca and I usually find that it’s an Asian-owned business. I’ve discovered a Quickly store in Millbrae though.

Ok I digress. If you want to have your own fruit shake with tapioca, here is a way we did it:

  1. Find a preserved packed of Tapioca in an oriental store. This is usually vacuum-packed and the tapioca look like black/grey marbles. The pack may have a label of “BOBA” which is another name for tapioca.
  2. Cook the Boba as instructed. If you want a sweet boba, you can add brown sugar into the boiling water. If there’s no instruction or the instruction is in a foreign language, here’s how: Boil water in a pot. When water is boiling, add desired amount of boba into the pot and stir occasionally. Cook boba with the lid on for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and let mixture simmer for another 5-10 minutes. Remove the pot from heat. Serve.
  3. Preserved packed boba last within a week. If you can’t finish a pack in one eating, place the pack in a ziploc bag and seal well. Put it in the refrigerator. If you can’t finish the cooked boba, you can put it in the ref and heat it into boiling water the next day. I advise not removing the boba from the water to prevent it from drying and hardening. But to enjoy the best boba, eat it immediately after cooking.
  4. Set aside the cooked boba and make your fruit shake. Put the boba into the glass before pouring the shake.

Tapioca pearls are not limited to fruit shake. You can put it in milk teas or sweet dessert soup. And be careful serving boba to children as this may cause choking. Anyway, I hope you enjoy your home-made tapioca pearl shake!

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