How to make bubble tea x3 (with home-made Tapioca pearl) 〜タピオカ〜 | easy Japanese home cooking recipe

Welcome to Taj's Kitchen. Today I'm going to show you three variations of bubble tea. So this bubble tea, or also called bubble tea, has become very popular in Japan, but also in the western countries in the last three, four years or so. And there are a lot of small cafes that serve this, and I think even Starbucks starts to serve this. And often big cities, when you go there on the weekends, you have to wait in a very long line, but a lot of people don't know that you can make this yourself quite very easily. So today I'm going to show you three variations of making the tapioca pearls. First I'm going to make it from very scratch, where you use the tapioca starch, or you can also make it with other regular starch, and two other dry tapioca, which in a larger Asian supermarket you'll find this, and you can definitely find these online. And today I'm also going to show you three variations of drinks. So the first is a very standard sweet milk tea, second is a cold matcha latte, third is a coconut milk drink. And today I'm not showing this, but also you can put this in a cold cafe latte. It's also very good. So I hope this gives you an idea how you can make it, and hopefully you get to make it yourself. And it's also just a great drink for this hot summer. So in the summer, when you have time, hope you give this a shot yourself. Then let's get started. Here are the ingredients for three types of bubble tea. First I'm going to show you how to make those boba pearls using tapioca starch. You can also make these using regular corn starch or potato starch, but somehow with tapioca starch it's a little bit more chewier. Then here I have two types of boba pearls, or tapioca pearls, what they call it. As you can see, they look quite different. These are kind of more the old style tapioca pearls. These are more the modern tapioca pearls. A lot of the bubble tea that you know are made with these, but these are maybe easier to find. So I'm going to explain later what the exact difference are. But here are the two different types. And here I also have brown sugar for the homemade tapioca pearls, but also for the syrup. And like I said, I'm also going to make three types of drinks. One is the milk tea using earl grey or whatever tea bag you have, and a little bit of sugar, and also some cream. Second is matcha latte using this matcha powder, and also one with coconut milk and just regular milk. Before I start with the cooking, I'm going to explain two different types of tapioca pearls. So as you can see, they look distinctly different. So like I said, these are kind of more the old style tapioca pearls. They're very solid and all dry. This takes much longer time to cook. You have to cook these at least half an hour to an hour or so to really make it to a chewy state. But these ones are kind of more the modern style. And like this says, ready in five minutes. So these are much easier and these are more chewier. So if you can't find these, that's great. I personally recommend these, but if not, you can also enjoy with tapioca pearls with these as well. And also if you feel it, this is fully dried and solid. I don't know if you can see it. You can squish it just a tiny bit. It kind of feels like a hard rubber. It's a little bit squishier. So that's the difference of the two types of tapioca pearls. As the first thing, I'm going to make the brown sugar syrup for the tapioca pearls. So in a pot, I'm going to put in about 100 grams of brown sugar. So if you have a scale, it's about 10 tablespoons. Then here, I'm also going to put in about 40 milliliter or 40 grams of water. And if you don't have a scale, it's about two and a half tablespoons. I'm going to heat it up with medium heat. Make sure you keep mixing. Otherwise, this is going to burn. So once all the sugar is dissolved, this is finished. I'm going to turn the heat off, and I'm going to put it on a separate container. Then we have the brown sugar syrup ready. Now let's make the homemade tapioca pearls. If you don't have a scale, it's about four teaspoons. And this, I'm going to put in about half amount of that brown sugar. About 10 grams or one teaspoon if you don't have a scale. Just about is fine. Now I'm also going to measure out about 30 grams of tapioca starch. If you have a scale, it's about three tablespoons. So just about that much is fine. Now let's cook this. I'm going to turn the heat to medium and dissolve the sugar in the water. So once this comes to a boil, I'm going to turn the heat off. And before this cools off, I'm going to put half of the starch. Now I'm going to mix this in. And this is good. This is partially kind of gooey like this. And then in this, I'm going to put in the rest of the starch. I'm going to mix it like this. Then I'm going to put this on a working surface like this. Be careful that this is still hot. And I'm going to knead it like you would knead any bread dough or something. I'm going to try to bring everything together. So after kneading this for about two minutes or so, and it has reached about the consistency of kind of like a playdough like this, and it's not sticky, then this is good. If it feels a little too sticky, then add a little more tapioca starch. Or if it feels too hard, then add a little bit more water. Given the temperature and the humidity, you might have to add a little less or more starch. So you just have to give it a try and see how it feels on that day. So now, once it has turned into a dough like this, I'm going to kind of roll it out like this. Roll it out like this. Try to make it as even as possible. I'm going to cut this in half, just about. Then I'm going to roll it out longer. And also the other one. Then once it's got to like a pencil size, then I'm also going to cut it again in half. Then I'm going to cover this with extra starch a little bit so they don't stick to each other. And then I'm going to cut it into small pieces, kind of like this. I'm going to coat everything with the starch. So then with each piece, I'm going to kind of roll it out like this and then try to make a ball like this. So this may look a little too small, but they're going to grow. So make it about like a centimeter diameter or so. So we're going to keep doing this for the whole thing. And once you get the hang of it, you can roll out two at the same time. So finally finished. So this is quite a tedious process. It took me about 50 minutes now to make all these balls. Now these tapioca pearls are finished. It just needs to be boiled. If you want to make a big batch and then you want to save it for later, you can freeze it like this in this form before boiling. Then you can just boil it when you want to eat them. So we're going to boil this in a boiling water. Then we're going to put the lid on and turn the heat to low and cook like this in low heat for about 15-20 minutes. So 15 minutes has passed. Let's see how it looks. So this may not look like it's been cooked through, but if you put it in cold water, then somehow the color would change like this and this is finished. So you can put in the milk tea like this as it is, but I'm going to let it soak in the syrup for a little bit so that it'll have a little more extra sweetness to it. And also with the osmosis, it'll be a little bit more chewier. So I'm going to put it in some kind of container like this and put in here the syrup that we made earlier. Just like this and this is ready to be served. Now let's prepare the second type of tapioca pearls. So with this type, as this instruction says, I need to cook this for 10-15 minutes and let it rest and then cook for 10-15 minutes and then let it rest. And we need to repeat that several times. So I have here boiling water and I'm going to put in here. Put the lid on and turn the heat to low and cook like this in low heat for about 15 minutes. So it's been about 15 minutes now. So as you can see, this is partially cooked. I'm going to put the lid back on, turn the heat off, then let it sit like this for 15 more minutes. So another 15 minutes has passed. So this gets cooked also like this. As the instruction says, I'm going to add in some water and turn the heat to high and bring this to boil. So as this comes to a boil, I'm going to turn heat to low and cook like this in low heat for 15 more minutes. So it's been about 15 minutes again. So as you can see, it's got cooked a lot more. I'm going to turn the heat off and put the lid back on and let it sit like this for 15 more minutes. So another 15 minutes has passed. So as you can see, this is pretty well cooked. I'm just going to cook one more time. So here I'm going to add some water. I'm going to turn the heat to high and bring this to boil one last time. So once it gets to boil, I'm going to turn the heat to low, cook like this for 10 more minutes or so. So 10 minutes has passed. So I think this is cooked through. So I'm going to turn the heat off. So I think this is totally cooked through. So I'm going to take it in the cold water. So these are finished. So as you can see, these don't have that much flavor. So for these especially, it's quite important to let it soak in the brown sugar syrup. So we're going to let it soak like this for at least 10 minutes or so and let the brown sugar soak in. And this second type of tapioca pearls, this is finished. So the last type of tapioca pearls is very easy. I just need to cook this for five minutes. In boiling water, I'm going to put this in and put the lid on and cook this for five minutes. So it's been about five minutes. I'm going to turn the heat off. So this is finished. I'm going to put this in cold water. So as you can see, this is clearly a different color. This actually has food coloring in it. Then this, I'm also going to put it in with the brown sugar syrup. So then this is also finished. Oh, that was so much easier. Then with that, I have three types of tapioca pearls, the homemade variation with the starch, the old style dry version, and the modern half dry version. Now let's make the three different types of drinks. So as the first thing, let's make the sweet milk tea. So in a pot, I'm going to put a half cup of water. And then I'm going to turn the heat to medium and bring this to boil. Today I'm going to be using earl grey, but whatever tea you have is fine. And here I'm going to put the tea bag in. And once this comes to boil, I'm going to turn the heat to low. And then here I'm going to put in one to two teaspoons of sugar, depending on how sweet you like it. I'm going to put one and a half. So once the sugar has dissolved, I'm going to turn the heat off and put this in a separate container. This I'm going to put in half cup of cream. I personally like to use cream for this recipe because I like it really creamy. But if you don't want it fatty, you can of course use just regular milk or also like soy milk if you're vegetarian. Then this is finished for the sweet milk tea. I'm going to put this to the side and let it cool off. And once this is cool off, I'm going to put it in the fridge and let it really cool off. So as the next thing, let's make the matcha mixture for the matcha latte. So I have here boiling water. In some kind of small container, I'm going to put in one teaspoon of matcha powder. So for those who doesn't know what matcha powder is, this is a powder form of matcha leaves. So it's pretty much you're eating the matcha leaves. Just about one teaspoon. So this I'm going to put in about two tablespoons of hot water. To mix this, ideally you want to use something called chasen. Looking like this, made of bamboo. But I don't have it, so I'm going to use just a regular mixer like this. And just mix it thoroughly. So as you don't see any powder left, I'm also going to put in one to two teaspoons of sugar. So as the sugar is dissolved, then this is finished for the matcha mixture. So as the last thing, let's make the coconut milk drink. So in a pot, I'm going to put in half a cup of coconut milk. Then also in here, half a cup of milk. Then there's about one to two teaspoons of sugar, depending on how much you like. I'm going to turn the heat to medium and bring this to boil. So you keep mixing this, and you actually don't want to bring this to boil. As soon as you kind of see a little bit of steam, then this is good. I'm going to turn the heat off. And as it's warm, then I'm sure the sugar has dissolved. I'm going to put it in a separate container and let it cool off. I'm going to let this sit and cool off. And once it's cooled off, put it in the fridge for an hour or so and let it cool. So finally, let's make the drinks. So in here, I'm going to put in the homemade tapioca pearls. Put everything in here. And this, I'm going to put some ice. And this, I'm going to put in the sweet milk tea. Then I'm going to put these kind of thick straw. Go mix. Oh yeah, it looks perfect. And here, I'm going to put in the old style tapioca pearls. And as long as there's ice cubes. And here, just regular milk. And this, I'm going to put in the matcha mix. Also mix it up a little bit. Oh yeah, that looks good. And the last, the modern style tapioca pearls. And here, I'm going to put in some ice cubes. And here, a coconut milk mixture. You also mix a little bit like this. They all look so perfect. Then let's eat. Well, in this case, actually, let's drink. Oh, this looks so great. Let's drink. Itadakimasu. Now, let's start with the homemade tapioca with the sweet milk tea. Itadakimasu. Oh, this chewy texture is so perfect. If nobody told me, I would have believed that this was a store-made bubble tea. The chewiness and the flavor of the brown sugar is really good. It also matches this milk tea so well. Oh, this is very chewy and so delicious. Oh, definitely so good. Now, with the matcha latte. So this is the one with the old style tapioca pearls. Somehow, it is less chewy and doesn't have that strong flavor of the brown sugar. But nonetheless, this is very good. And also, it matches this matcha flavor very well as well. The slight bitterness of the matcha flavor matches also well with the tapioca pearls. And lastly, with the coconut milk. Itadakimasu. New style tapioca pearls are definitely the best. And actually, this coconut milk is also a very good match with the tapioca pearls. Definitely, these tapioca pearls are the chewiest and also has the strongest brown sugar flavor. This is quite good enough for a handmade one. It's less chewy, but honestly, it's good enough. Definitely, the last variation, the modern type tapioca pearls, definitely the best. Nonetheless, they're all very delicious. Oh, that was definitely delicious. And this cold drink is just so perfect this hot summer. Making this homemade tapioca pearls is a little bit tedious process. Nonetheless, if you can buy these kind of modern style semi-dried tapioca pearls, then this is definitely a good substitute for that. And also, all these three different kinds of drinks is definitely a perfect match for the tapioca pearls with whatever tapioca pearls you have. So in this hot summer, I hope you give this a try. If you enjoyed what you saw, I'd love it if you could hit me the like button so this video can be spread out to many people. And I'm always, always so happy to read your comments. So please feel free to write anything in the comments below. Otherwise, I look forward to see you in the next video. Bye.