Homemade boba!!

  Looking back at my blogs for the last few years, I have now (actually, as of my last blog post) blogged more this year than I did in 2015, 2017, 2018, or 2019.  Plus, I've blogged more this month than I have in any other month since December of 2016.  I'm glad that the shelter-in-place orders have at least given me the opportunity to cook/bake more and to blog more. 
  Speaking of shelter-in-place, I have been having a major craving for boba for the past week or so.  I knew that I had purchased boba pearls in the past (having recently rediscovered them in my excavations through my pantry), and knew that you could make it in an Instant Pot, so I decided to give it a try.  After scanning the internet (and my e-mails), I came across a recipe for both boba and iced tea (after all, I needed something to put the boba in) and made it today.  Here are my results!

Homemade boba in milk tea

Instant Pot Iced Tea (from https://twosleevers.com/instant-pot-iced-tea/)

Ingredients:

4 regular teabags (I used one large peach iced tea bag which I purchased at Trader Joe's)

6 cups Water

1/2 cup sugar

Procedure: 

1) Pour everything into your Instant Pot and cook on High Pressure for 4 minutes.  Allow the pressure to release naturally for at least 15 minutes.

2) Allow it to cool slightly and then serve over ice.

  A few years ago, I went through a phase where I made this recipe quite often.  It makes a nice (and easy to make!) iced tea.  I've never made it with this particular type of tea before.  I'm not sure my peach tea flavor came through, and I used cane sugar from Trader Joe's so it gave it a little bit of a different flavor.  It was still good, though.

The boba right after it finished cooking

Instant Pot Boba Tea (based upon https://twosleevers.com/instant-pot-boba-tea/)

Ingredients: 

1 cup (152 g) large Boba or Tapioca Pearls

2 cups (375 g) Water

1/4 cup (50 g) Sugar Or Other Sweetener Equivalent

Instant Pot iced tea recipe (see above)

Milk (I used oat milk)

Ice

Procedure: 

1) Place the boba pearls, water and sugar in the inner liner of your Instant Pot. It is important to use sugar in this recipe, as the boba need to rest in a sugar syrup in order to stay chewy and pliable. 

2) Cook at high pressure for 2 minutes. Allow the pot to sit undisturbed for 5 minutes, and then release all remaining pressure.

3) When you open the lid, you will see some mighty big boba floating around. These will settle down to a much more manageable size as they cool. Do not refrigerate the boba. Allow them to cool in the liner, or pour them out into a mason jar and let them cool, about 15-20 minutes.

The boba can be kept in the refrigerator in this sugar syrup for a few hours, but the really don't store very well. 

4) Put boba in empty glasses.  Top with iced tea, milk, and ice.  Don't forget your reusable boba/smoothie straw!  Enjoy!

  The results of these two recipes were pretty darn good.  As I said earlier, I think the cane sugar is giving it a slightly...different... taste (or maybe my cane sugar is just old?).  In the future, I think I will use regular sugar. I have some nice baking sugar that probably would have been perfect but I'm saving it for (duh) baking.  The boba came out just the consistency I like.  Chewy, but not too chewy and not soft (I hate soft boba!).  Generally, I like my boba a little sweeter than the way these came out, but they were still quite good. 
  Either way, these two recipes very definitely satisfied my boba cravings.  And, since I had to use the boba up right away, I simply had to have two glasses of boba.  Isn't life terrible sometimes?  Too bad my package of boba is already halfway gone...  I can hardly wait to play around with different kinds of iced tea flavors and play around with the boba sugar levels.  This was wayyy cheaper (and easier with the shelter-in-place orders) than ordering it from a boba place.  Plus, no single use plastic! Although, since I'm still trying to lose weight, maybe it is a bad thing that it's so easy!  But boba is life!