No Half Measures

11 Mar 2020

A friend recently took us to Hmong Village, a place best but inadequately described as a “mall”. Inadequate because this “mall” contains literally everything a Hmong person needs: grocery, clothing, shoes, tailoring, bakery, photography, accountant, tax preparation, jewelry, salon…you get the picture - this isn’t a “mall”, it’s something fundamentally more. A gathering place, a cultural center, maybe those are more accurate descriptions. The best part is all the food. One whole section of this wonderful marketplace is filled with restaurants and boba shops. You can get all sorts of delicacies, of which we tried to eat as many as we could. We tried Hmong sausage, Lao sausage, papaya salad, stuffed drumsticks, taro buns, some sort of custard-filled sweet bread, plantain and sweet rice steamed inside a banana leaf, spring rolls, crazy steak, tendon stew, braised pork belly…and more that I can’t remember. It was all delicious. I was in love, fascinated and absolutely stuffed.

While there, we had boba from two different shops, because one isn’t enough! One of them was taro boba, which I’d never tasted before, and the other had small and noodle-shaped boba mixed together. Everything else we tasted aside (we’ll try to make some of those recipes in time) I really wanted to try and make taro boba myself, because it was delicious. It was sweet and flavorful without being overwhelming.

I found a taro boba mix at my local Asian grocery store, and the directions were…unhelpful to say the least.

2 OZ FRUCTOSE, 2 POWDER SPOON NON-DAIRY CREAMER, 2 POWDER SPOON FRUIT FLAVORED POWDER, 70% ICE, FILL UP TO 90% DRINKING WATER INTO 500cc/16oz SHAKER CUP, SHAKE WILL [sic] TO SERVE.

Basically I have no idea what I’m doing. I read a lot of recipe blogs, watch some YouTube video, learn that I should probably be using actual taro root because it’s better, etc, etc. Nothing is super helpful, so I’m on my own. Commence the trials!

I had seen several different ways of making it: steeping green or jasmine tea in hot milk or water, then using a cocktail shaker to mix in the taro powder and cool the mixture before pouring over ice, blending it with ice…I had no way to tell what would work, taste good enough and be easy enough that I could prepare it on a whim - well, as much of a whim that involves an hour of simmering and then an hour of steeping, which is my current favorite method for making milk tea boba.

First I sketched out several variations and decided I would try, review and tweak until I was happy with the flavor and level of complexity involved.

versions 1 & 2

Version 1: steep green tea in 1 cup microwaved milk, then chill. Prepare boba with 1 spoonful sweetened condensed milk, steep for 1 hour. Whisk 2 Tbsp taro powder into the steeped milk, and then add to the boba.

Version 2: Prepare boba with 1 spoonful sweetened condensed milk, steep for 1 hour. Add 2 Tbsp taro powder and chilled chai tea.

Reviews:

Version 1 had good taro flavor and was really creamy, but the milk did not cool down enough in the time that the boba was simmering and steeping. The drink being lukewarm was really unappealing.

Version 2 had a very weak taro flavor.

Version 1 blended

Since version 1 was unappetizing due to it being warm, we decided to blend it! We added about 2 cups of ice.

Review:

Verison 1 blended was better than warm, but the flavor was really diluted. The texture was nice, though.

Versions 3 and 4

Version 3 started with boba prepared the usual way and steeped in 1 spoonful sweetened condensed milk. Then I whisked cold milk and 4 Tbsp taro powder together, and added it to the boba, then added a little bit of tea to fill the glass.

Apparently I didn’t take a photo of the final product.

Version 4 was the simplest so far: boba steeped in 2 spoonfuls sweetened condensed milk, 4 Tbsp of taro powder and tea to fill.

Reviews: Version 3 was creamy, just like version 1, and I don’t think that leaving out the tea bag affected the flavor at all. It’s definitely easier! Version 4 was quite tasty, but the taro flavor plus the sweetened condensed milk was almost overwhelmingly sweet. I like how simple it was to make, though.

Versions 5 and 6

Version 5 was basically a redo of version 1 but with more time to chill the milk. I wanted to know if all of that work was actually worth it!

Version 6 was nearly like 4: boba, two spoonfuls sweetened condensed milk, 3 Tbsp taro powder and tea to fill.

Reviews:

Version 5 was pretty good, and very creamy compared to version 6. However, version 6 was the right level of taro flavor and much, much simpler to make.

Overall I think that version 6 is the best combination of flavor and ease! If I’m using a smaller glass, I only put in 2 Tbsp of taro powder and it was enough. I think that having two spoonfuls of sweetened condensed milk helps to replace the milk that I was using in some of the versions, so you still get the creaminess that is part of the retail drink.

The milk tea boba recipe is available here!