Mango Bubble Tea

I don't typically have the best luck when it comes to finding sweet, good mangoes... either they are totally bland or on the few occassions they've been sweet, they are much too fibrous etc. So, when I do find the perfect mango, i just peel and eat it plain... and hardly venture into making anything with it. When it's not that sweet however, I typically toss them in with strawberries, sweet yogurt or some haagen dazs mango icecream & milk and blend them to a delicious smoothie.

This time however, though the mangoes I had were quite sweet, I was suddenly in the mood for bubble tea. Bubble tea is typically fruit flavoured tea with some tapioca starch in the bottom (which make up the bubble component). I first had them in Singapore and it was quite popular then and we would get many exotic flavours and I loved the chewy tapioca pearls in the bottom which made the drink a long lasting, even filling one and it was something we (my friends and I) enjoyed while roaming the streets of Orchard. I was quite happy to find them here in the US - and though I don't always go for different flavours here, the one my husband and I pretty much have is the mango flavored one and it doesn't seem to have much tea to it.. just mango juice with these tapioca pearls.

Imagine my surprise when I found a pack of these tapioca pearls in an asian grocery store that we frequent.. I picked up a pack and decided to whip up some of this delicious bubble tea at home. Only thing I didn't have was those fat straws.. need to get them to complete the experience. For now, I just take a couple sips and use a spoon to scoop out the pearls. You could add black tea to the mix below but I skipped it this time.

BUBBLE TEA


Ingredients: (for 2-3 servings)
Ripe Mango - 1, peeled & cut into chunks
Low Fat milk - 1 cup
Water - about half cup
Sugar - 2 tbsp
Tapioca Pearls - half cup
Honey - to taste

Method:
1) Cook the Tapioca Pearls according to package directions - for mine, I boiled about 3 cups water and slowly stirred in the tapioca pearls and let them cook for 5 mins, covered on medium flame, till plumped up and soft. Scoop them out to a bowl and add a few tbsp of the water that the tapioca pearls were cooked in, 1 tbsp sugar and a bit of honey and mix well. This will keep it soft until ready to serve.

2) Blend mango pieces, milk, water as required (so it's not too thick) & sugar to taste.

3) To serve, add tapioca pearls to the cup, mango juice, (black tea, if using can be added at this point). It makes for a filling, refreshing drink.

I would like to send this as my entry to Refreshing Drinks - RD for Summer hosted by Chandrabhaga.