If you’ve heard the term “bubble tea” but imagined it to be tea blended with bubble gum flavours, this topic is for you. Bubble Tea has been around for a long time, it was invented in Taichung and Tainan in the 1980s, and has grown in popularity in recent years. Tea connoisseurs and even casual drinkers enjoy sipping on the delectable tastes and inhaling the pleasant scent of the numerous ingredients used in Boba. These bubble tea pearls are created from Konjac, a Taiwanese herb. Those who already enjoy boba, this guide will cover numerous methods of trying boba tea, the differences between boba and crystal boba, and how to make it at home instead of buying it from a store.
What is Crystal Boba?
Crystal Boba or white agar pearls is a gelatin-like chewy pearl that is ready to eat immediately out of the bag and comes in a variety of pre-sweetened flavours, named because of its translucent appearance. Tea Zone now produces original and brown sugar tastes that go well with milk teas and flavoured ice teas.
What is Crystal Boba Made of?
Crystal boba is made from the konjac plant, which is an edible form. Although this root doesn’t taste particularly good, it has a lot of nutritional value and was highly regarded in traditional Asian medicine.
What Does Crystal Boba Taste Like
Crystal boba has a mild sweetness and citrus means an acidic flavour due to the Konjac plant.
Agar boba, commonly known as crystal boba, is a form of bubble tea pearl. Crystal boba is a meta trend in Taiwanese tea. Taiwan is famous for its teas, particularly its high mountain teas. Many tea connoisseurs believe that “Taiwan is to tea, France is to wine.”
When contrasted to conventional boba, it is white and slightly gelatinous.
They are naturally white and will become transparent when cooked. “crystal” refers to the boba pearls’ entirely white, translucent, and slightly reflecting shell. These balls can take on any colour you add to them, which offers many possibilities for experimenting with different types of teas and even juices. It is also available in a variety of flavours in supermarkets, and it is also possible to prepare it at home with standard household components.
Crystal Boba Calories
100 grams of crystal boba contain 71 calories and 17g of carbs while Tapioca pearls contain 358 calories and white pearls contain 70 calories.
Source: mynetdiary
Difference Between Crystal Boba Vs Bursting Boba Vs Tapioca Boba
Crystal boba comes from the Konjac plant and has a clear appearance, bean-shaped while Boba is from tapioca root starch. It is mainly black in colour due to brown sugar.
Crystal Boba has a clear appearance and is rarely found in Tea shops. As previously stated, this boba is created using white agar powder and other gelling chemicals, giving it a soft, gelatin-like feel.
A regular boba, also known as tapioca pearls, is black in colour since the pearl is made with brown sugar. It is derived from the cassava root plant, which is a native South American plant that was introduced to Taiwan. The texture of this Regular Boba is chewy, thick, and spongy, however, the one used in bubble tea is smaller and slightly softer.
Introduction to boba pearls used in bubble tea, from the most traditional kinds to freshly invented styles:
What distinguishes bubble tea is the variety of toppings that are added to it. Varieties of jellies, such as fruit, grass, agar, and pudding can be used as toppings. But crystal boba, popping pearls, and tapioca balls are the true shining stars of toppings utilized in this delectable beverage. They offer a new depth to the beverage, making it truly intriguing. Boba is the epitome of bubble tea. These delicious balls come in various flavours, sizes, colours, and textures. Depending on the kind of boba that was put in your drink.
We’ll throw some light on the most common boba pearls used in bubble tea, from the most traditional kinds to freshly invented styles.
Bursting Boba:
Bursting boba is made up of flavorful liquid encapsulated within a clear bubble. That bubble is made of a seaweed extract, which has a very subtle flavour that is almost unnoticeable against the liquid. Bursting boba, as the name implies, provides a taste burst that will certainly please your palette.
Tapioca Balls:
Tapioca balls are produced from dried cassava root. This plant is a woody shrub indigenous to South America. When the plant’s leaves are removed, they degrade into starch, which is then formed into little balls and used to make tapioca balls. Other names for this boba topping include pearls, orbeez, zhen zhu, BB, QQ, and momi. Tapioca balls or tapioca boba are what they’re called no matter what.
Crystal Boba:
Crystal boba is the last – but certainly not least – of the dazzling toppings that may be used to enhance your bubble tea. It’s classified as a speciality boba since it’s truly one-of-a-kind, even more so than the boba pearl selections previously discussed. Because of its whitish-clear colour, it is also known as agar boba or white pearl tapioca.
Appearance: Crystal Boba is translucent and gel-like, Bursting Boba has a thin, edible membrane encapsulating liquid, while Tapioca Boba is dark and opaque.
Texture: Crystal Boba has a gel-like texture that bursts with liquid, Bursting Boba has a slightly thicker skin that bursts with juice, and Tapioca Boba has a chewy texture.
Flavour: Crystal Boba and Bursting Boba offer fruity flavors that correspond to the fruit juice or syrup used, while Tapioca Boba has a mild sweetness without a distinct flavor.
These three fantastic boba options will thrill you whether you prefer sipping bubble tea at your favourite café, or restaurant, or want to create this pleasantly refreshing beverage at home. Whether you choose bursting boba, tapioca balls, or crystal boba, you’ll be in for an oh-so-satisfying sensory experience! Your taste receptors will be flooded with an unbelievable blast of flavour every time you bite into one of these pearls.
How to Make a Crystal Boba at Home
Ingredients:
There are numerous ways to prepare, but the main ingredients are as follows:
- Agar powder
- Gelatin powder
- White sugar
- Oil and cold water
This is the basic ingredient list to make traditional crystal boba pearls.
However, there are other variants you may utilize to make them unique.
Let’s look at the ingredients accomplished.
Process:
- Boil 1 litre of water in a pan for 10 minutes, or until it bubbles.
- Add ½ cup sugar to the mixture and whisk well until all of the sugar is dissolved.
- Stir in the agar powder or other gelling ingredients until wholly integrated.
- Cook for 5 minutes before turning off the heat.
- Fill another bowl halfway with room temperature water. Now add enough ice cubes to bring the temperature down and cool the water. This is also the time to add 2 tablespoons of any neutral oil to the ice bath.
- Fill an empty condiment bottle or a dropper halfway with the heated mix.
- Drip the hot boba mix over the cold water bath, being sure to drop it at different areas throughout the bowl. The boba mixture will clump and float to the surface of the water bath before sinking and producing pearls.
- Clean the crystal pearls by running them under water to remove any oil or residue. You can keep the pearls eternally by freezing them, or you can use them right away.
There are also a few extra steps you may take to vary the colour and texture of the boba pearls. Adding various gelling powders to the hot mixture, for example, will result in chewier crystal pearls that are also noticeably more gelatinous.
Conclusion:
Crystal boba pearls are particularly popular because they may be used in a variety of ways. As a result, it is capable of ensuring that people can enjoy a range of drinks just by engaging in the art of crystal boba making at home. It’s also relatively simple to create, which explains its growing popularity on TikTok, where videos discussing the product have over 1.5 million views.
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