Very popular in various Asian cuisines, such as Taiwanese, tapioca pearls are useful for various preparations. Famous, mainly, for its use in the viral bubble tea or boba tea, making them at home is possible.

But first, we must talk about tapioca, an input that perhaps many in the West do not know. It is a starch that is extracted from the cassava roots, a very common tuber in South America that is also found in Africa and Asia.

With this element the aforementioned pearls are made, which offer a gelatinous texture and have a size that ranges from five millimeters to one centimeter. For many years they have been well appreciated in the cuisines of India, Taiwan, China and other nearby nations.

In such East Asian countries, the use of starch to make gelatinous preparations has been common for centuries. With the arrival of cassava to these lands thanks to the colonizers, tapioca gained ground as a cheaper and easier option to obtain than others such as sago pearls. The latter, obtained from various types of palm trees. Continue reading “How to make tapioca pearls (bubble tea) at home”