My obsession with boba

I am a food freak. I admit it. I love food.

Wait... if we are so addicted to food that we need it in order to survive, shouldn't that be an addiction? Like an addiction to caffeine or coke/crack or meth or something?

geez. I guess it all boils down to what the definition of the word "addiction" is.

Anyways. This post is going to be solely about food.

Lately, I've been really tired of buying boba. At my university, various clubs sell boba drinks basically every day of the week during lunch. However, most of the time they only sell milk or cream-flavored teas. As a person who is lactose intolerant, how am I supposed to deal with that? And also, it costs $3.50 to $4 a pop. That's a lot of money. Seriously.

My solution? Make my own boba.

Recipe:
Ingredients:
1. dried boba from the supermarket (get from Chinatown)

http://img.chinaqualitycrafts.com/photo/ps32225/tapioca_pearls.jpg

2. Lots of sugar

http://www.consumerqueen.com/consumerqueenwp/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Imperial-Pure-Cane-Sugar-4lbs.jpg

3. Green tea bags

http://www.iplanretirement.com/retirementblog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/green_tea_bags_lipton.jpg

4. Ice cubes

http://www.chinatraderonline.com/Files/Gifts-and-Crafts/Electrical-Gift/Ice-Cube-Misting-Lamps-21100254588.jpg

that's really just about it.

Instructions:
1. Boil a pot of water with the ratio of water volume to the amount of boba you want to put in as 10:1. You can just eyeball it.
2. Once the water boils, put in the boba you want to cook.
3. Meanwhile, make a pot of tea (depending on how much tea you want) with an ordinary tea kettle or coffee pot or whatever other device you have.
4. When the boba floats to the top of the water, that means it's been cooked. It usually is about 5-10 min, depending on the power of your stove.
5. Drain the boba using a colander, and then immerse it immediately into sugar water. Ratio of sugar to water should be 1:1. I know this is a lot of sugar but trust me it's less than what tea shops put into your boba drinks when they make them. The water should be twice the amount of boba and sugar (by volume) together.
6. Let the boba sit in the sugar water for about 10 min. Stir occasionally.
7. When step 6 is done, you are ready to make your boba drink. Take a tall glass (maybe 2 cups in volume) and fill it 1/2-way with ice chips. Put in as much boba as you want. Then fill it up with green tea.
Note: Add as much ice and tea depending on how cold you want your drink to be.
8. Swirl it around and drink!

Cost-wise, this is MUCH more effective than buying boba from the tea shop.
One bag of boba cost me $4, and it made enough boba for ~30 drinks. The tea cost me less than $10. The ice was free (I got it from the fridge).
Thus, this was $14 for 30 drinks. so $14/30 = 46 cents per drink!!!

In contrast, each drink at the tea house costs at least $3.50. The homemade drink is about 7 times cheaper. And it didn't have milk in it, which allowed me to actually be able to drink it!!!

Homemade boba drinks are lovely =D