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My silly question of the day.

GoCubsGo

GoCubsGo

macrumors Nehalem
Original poster
Feb 19, 2005
35,743
155
So I went asking around about this and no one seems to know.
I love Thai Iced Tea and every day I pay $4.00 for a glass of it with Boba. Someone went to the Asian Market and bought me 12 packets of Thai Tea Mix with the cream and sugar already in it. All I need to do is add hot or cold water. They also bought me a package of Boba. I didn't know Boba comes dry and you boil it. This is news to me. I went home and made it up and YUM! But...I have some questions.

I want to make some boba and thai tea and mix it all up and put it into a bottle and have it for work the next day. Will the boba keep in the tea or will it go hard again? Also, when boiling boba can I just use water or would I want to add some sugar to the water to make the boba sweeter?

I am aware it is odd to ask this question here, but the community is very diverse and I figure someone has to know. ;)
 
I think the boba would get all gross and slimy!

Boba comes from the starch of the yucca plant (IIRC) and would just dissolve more and more until you're drinking slime...

Have you ever had boba, left it alone for a few hours, and then go back to drink it? I have and it's a little beyond gross. :eek:

and I'd just boil the boba by itself. but that's just me. :)
 
Yea I think you gotta do it seperately. I had a kit and tried to make it but it tasted like crap. Adding sugar to the tapioca helps sweeten it and it tastes better. I'd say prepare it the day before and freeze the tapioca and the throw it in the tea when you leave to work. It will melt by the time you want to drink it. :D
 
SamIchi said:
Yea I think you gotta do it seperately. I had a kit and tried to make it but it tasted like crap. Adding sugar to the tapioca helps sweeten it and it tastes better. I'd say prepare it the day before and freeze the tapioca and the throw it in the tea when you leave to work. It will melt by the time you want to drink it. :D
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yeah, but freezing the tapioca makes water crystals that are going to be sharp and puncture the structure of the starch. It'll make holes for it to absorb more water and just get incredibly gross and slimey.

My dad explained it to me in the context of why cryogenic freezing won't work until the paradigm of freezing is shifted.

But boba is not people, so I could be wrong. :)
I know that the tapioca places near me keep boba in a tupperware thing in a little bit of syrup in the fridge and it stays nice. could you make the boba once a week and keep it like that?

I'm gonna have to grab some boba now... :)
 
I think since I spend $4.00 a day on the darn drink I should have developed enough of a relationship with these people that I might be able to ask. ;) It seems as though there is a way to keep it like they do. They do not boil new boba each time, I presume i'd never go there because I always go whilst on a 15 minute break and I wouldn't have time to wait.

I'm going to try and figure this one out. ;) Now I want another tea!
 
Katie's right, bobas do NOT keep well. Period.

They're also very tricky to get the right consistency (assuming you're picky and all that).

After making them, it's a good idea to cool them in a sugar water solution if you like them a little bit sweet. Yum. But I only know this in concept (and from tasting lotsa pearls), there's no way in heck I'd ever try to make them myself. :p My mom has tried-- unsuccessfully.
 
Abstract said:
I don't get it. Is Boba the same thing as those tapioca pearl things you find in those Taiwanese tea drinks?
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Yup.

Typical American-English names: boba, pearl, tapioca... Technically, there are two different kinds most commonly used in the drinks, in Mandarin they're called, "zin zoo" (pearl) or "bwoh bah" (boba) and the pearls are smaller than the bobas. But most places seem to only serve the larger variety and interchange the different names for them. :eek:
 
Usually the tapioca "pearls" are the same size, but I have noticed that sometimes, 'the balls are bigger than I could swallow.'™

And I prefer the jelly they add now (eg: coconut and lychee.......mmmmm). My favourites are the lychee milk tea if it's hot and I just want something sweet, and almond milk tea because it just tastes better. With lychee jelly, it's fantastic, although I realise that it isn't "authentic Taiwanese", as you probably know.

And when you say "bwoh bah", does "bwoh" mean "ball"? Sorry. I don't speak or read Mandarin, and I definitely don't do well with phonetic romanized Chinese of any sort. :eek:
 
katie ta achoo said:
...My dad explained it to me in the context of why cryogenic freezing won't work until the paradigm of freezing is shifted.

But boba is not people, so I could be wrong. :)...
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No, Soylent Green is people:D

But you're right anyway - and so's your dad. Same idea.

Would you ask your father what he meant by "[shifting] the paradigm of freezing?"

I'm interested and curious.
 
No, Soylent Green is people:D

But you're right anyway - and so's your dad. Same idea.

Would you ask your father what he meant by "[shifting] the paradigm of freezing?"

I'm interested and curious.
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I think he means that we must find a new way of freezing stuff because the liquid in the body will become crystal and... MAybe replacing the bodily fluids with vegetable oil or some other non-freezing substance so that no crystals form and stuff.
 
mmmmm, See, I didn't know what 'Boba' was... Gotta love Wikipedia

The brazilian portuguese female adjective “boba” (“bobo” for males) means literally “stupid” or “confused”.
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I'd like me some confused brazilian portuguese female at the bottom of my cup, however, they also don't keep well in a cup for use later in school.
 
Jasonbot said:
I think he means that we must find a new way of freezing stuff because the liquid in the body will become crystal and... MAybe replacing the bodily fluids with vegetable oil or some other non-freezing substance so that no crystals form and stuff.
Click to expand...

Ahhhh. I was kinda wondering how one could actually change the paradigm of freezing as it is one of those things that we pretty much have nailed down the whole concept of "freezing."

So I guess the answer won't be as interesting as I had hoped.
 
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