I love me some boba, but there are few places near here that serve it. The closest place isn't that far, but its more of a slushie kind. Theres a Thai place that apparently has it, but I haven't been there yet and I don't know if you can get it to go. The others are quite a drive to get to. So I've decided to try make it myself.
Looking online for guides gives good info. I bought the 5 minute pearls at the asian market and they cook up real easy, as advertised. The rest is just tea and milk for the most basic drink. Whats been throwing me is the fruit flavors. All the sites online have you buy flavored powders. Being the cheapskate that I am, I figured there had to be another way to do it, and with more readily available stuff.
The obvious solution is to make your own fruit syrup buy cooking it over the stove with some sugar and water. I'm also lazy, so I wanted something I could try quick. I had some frozen strawberries but didnt want to bother trying to cook them down. The other night I had some ice cream and I had a great idea.
My grandma had gotten a few bottles of the Hersheys strawberry syrup and given them to us. I thought...why not? It was sweet, it had the flavor, and it couldn't be much different from the powdered stuff...just in liquid form. So I thawed my strawberries and mixed it up in the blender with milk and some of that Hershey syrup. I mixed that with some earl grey tea I had made earlier and was chilling in the fridge. Unfortunately the ice maker is broken so I didn't have any ice to put in, which would make a big difference.
Even so, I think I came damn close to recreating the strawberry boba taste I'm used to. A few changes I will do for next time:
-More milk, less tea. I didn't have it balanced too well. I made a second cup with more milk and it was better than the first.
-Ice. And I need to find my cocktail shaker. This stuff needs to be colder than what I made.
-Make the pearls earlier. It was late so I was just throwing the stuff together. But they recommend making a simple sugar syrup and putting the pearls in that so they gain a sweet flavor. I agree, the pearls were the right consistency but they kind of "stuck out" with their very plain flavor compared to the drink itself.
So I'm pretty happy! Once I work those out and like...actually measure stuff when I mix it I can make myself some boba any time I want!
