Bubble Tea

When I first saw it, my eyes lit up. This was way too cool. My own personal make-it-at-home bubble tea supplies. They had the tapioca balls, in rainbow colours; they had the assorted flavours and they had the straws, made wide to allow you to suck up the tapioca balls. In short, you could make bubble tea, just like in the stores.

I don't remember liking bubble tea. But I am a sucker for a complete package and pretty packaging. The ability to get strawberry flavoured mix, with red and white straws and pink and green tapioca balls seemed an opportunity not to be wasted. I would be the only one of my friends who could offer bubble tea to her guests. My friend, who also doesn't remember liking bubble tea, was also enamoured with the idea. However, his conviction that it was a good idea extended as far as me having it and him trying it.

The bubble tea was worse than I remembered it. It tasted like flavoured water, which in fact was what it was. Despite now having a capital investment in bubble tea, I was not perturbed. For now I could experiment. I discovered that tapioca can be used as a thickener. I experimented with the idea of boiling the tapioca in milk, and adding the flavour so that everything took on the flavour. I didn't like the consistency of the water and I didn't like the blandness of the tapioca. Perhaps boiling the tapioca in milk would fix this. I resolved to experiment with this at some point in the future.

Now my friend does everything in moderation, especially moderation. He does moderation when he remembers it exists, which isn't too often. So the next thing I know, from being skeptical about the idea of home-made bubble tea, although willing to try it, he's now a fanatic. Except his conviction that its a good idea for me to have still hasn't changed. Therefore, one day I had no bubble tea, a week later, I've amassed the whole set.

I've learned that tapioca is more trouble than its worth and I still think that bubble tea has a funny consistency. But I've got the complete set, I've got the matching straws, and I can make bubble tea. The coolness factor totally trumps the hassle factor - just.