Pearl milk tea, referred to as pearl milk, is a tea drink popular in Taiwan. After adding powder balls to the milk tea, it becomes pearl milk tea. Because of its special taste, it is quite popular among teenagers.

Pearl milk tea is a branch of Taiwan's "bubble black tea" culture. Although it only adds tapioca rice balls to milk tea, it has become one of Taiwan's most representative drinks and snacks.

*** *** After the "610.8 billion arms purchase plan" was proposed in 2004, due to constant social opposition, the Ministry of National Defense even shouted the slogan to drink one less cup of pearl milk tea a week, which clearly shows that pearl milk tea has become the most popular food in the world. Taiwan’s unique position.

In the past ten years, bubble milk tea has become popular from Taiwan to Hong Kong, Mainland China, Southeast Asia, Japan and the United States. Most of them are opened by Taiwanese.

History

Pearl milk tea originated in Central Taiwan. Liu Hanjie, who opened the bubble tea shop Chun Shui Tang in 1983, began to experiment with making milk tea. He added fruits, syrup, candied sweet potatoes, and rice balls. The milk tea he launched was not popular at first, but after an interview on a Japanese TV show, it finally attracted the attention of businessmen. Soon, the pearl milk tea gained popularity throughout Asia in the 1990s. In the first half of the 1990s, bubble tea was first included in the menus of chain bubble tea shops such as "Xiao Xie". Since bubble tea shops were popular places for office workers to discuss business and students to gather before coffee shops became popular in Taiwan, bubble milk tea became widely popular among students. . Then, bubble milk tea vendors gradually appeared near schools, in areas with dense cram schools (such as Nanyang Street), and at night markets. In the late 1990s, some industry players invented the automatic sealing machine. Many new investors, such as Leli Cup, Leisure Station, Dalian, Kuai Keli, etc., used automatic sealing machines to start expanding the business of chain takeaway beverage stores. Since then, take-out pearl milk tea shops have become mainstream, and due to the participation of chain stores, businessmen have begun to expand pearl milk tea to the world, becoming one of the world's most well-known foods.

Currently, Chun Shui Tang does not have patent or trademark rights for bubble milk tea. There are currently other people in Taiwan who claim to be the inventor of bubble milk tea.

Introduction

The "pearls" of pearl milk tea are powder balls made from sweet potato powder. Before the powder balls are added to the milk tea, they are usually soaked in syrup to ensure that the powder balls are In the sweeter milk tea, the sweetness can still be maintained. The base is usually black tea, but some stores also offer green tea bubble milk tea (often called pearl green milk). Currently in Taiwan, you can also see drinks such as pearl green tea and pearl black tea, or "pearls" are used as an option, allowing customers to add them to any drink.

Pearl milk tea can be served as a cold or hot drink. It is usually consumed through a straw. The diameter of the straw used for pearl milk tea is larger than that used for ordinary tea drinks. This is so that in addition to drinking milk tea, you can also suck pearls.

Culture

In Taiwan, the generalized pearl milk tea shop has replaced the previous bubble tea shop and has become synonymous with the general name of tea refreshing beverage shops. Usually, the features of a bubble milk tea shop include a dazzling menu, automatic sealing machine, etc. Some people in mainland China and other places even think that the biggest feature of Taiwanese bubble milk tea is the use of automatic sealing machines.

The drinks generally sold by bubble milk tea shops also include the following:

* Snow bubble (a drink with only creamer and no tea)

* Smoothies (thinly crushed ice cubes, similar to Slurpee drinks)

* Frozen drinks (popular in the middle, similar to smoothies, but keeping the ice cubes larger)

In addition to tapioca rice balls, there are also many stores that add coffee jelly, pudding, grass jelly, konjac and other foods with similar textures to milk tea.

Materials and production

Taiwan’s early bubble milk tea was born in bubble tea shops, and most of them emphasized that the milk tea must be freshly shaken. Since the emergence of chain-style pearl milk tea, many chain stores have switched to pre-mixed milk tea in order to manage taste and speed up production and supply. Most of the pre-mixed milk tea is not mixed with black tea and creamer before opening the store. Instead, the main store provides it directly to the store in the form of milk tea powder, just add water.

In order to make milk tea into the form of milk tea powder, black tea must be ground directly, so the taste will be different from traditional freshly shaken milk tea. If you let this milk tea sit for a few hours without drinking it, you will find that the powder has completely precipitated and there is transparent sugar water on top. This proves that the black tea ingredients in the milk tea prepared in this way are not soluble in water. Therefore, some fans insist on drinking freshly prepared pearl milk tea.

The types of creamers used in milk tea include liquid, powder, etc. Taiwanese pearl milk tea generally uses powdered creamer, because powdered creamer has higher calories and tapioca pearls also have extremely high calories (one Some experts point out that the calories of a cup of 500cc pearl milk tea are equivalent to the calories of an ordinary pork rib lunch box. For people who are committed to losing weight, they should not drink it regularly.

Name

Pearl milk tea generally uses larger-sized powder balls, and the diameter after cooking is about 7mm or more. Otherwise, if the diameter is too small, it will easily fill your mouth with pearls, and it will be inconvenient to swallow and chew. . However, most bubble tea merchants still provide small round bubble tea, called small pearls or mini pearls.

Pearl milk tea has a special name in southern Taiwan, called boba milk tea. Pearl milk tea instead refers to the above-mentioned pearl milk tea using small powder balls. In fact, in the early years, all of Taiwan was called pearl milk tea. Later, merchants in the south called the special large powder balls of pearl milk tea "Boba", which caused the inconsistency in nouns between the north and the south.

How to make pearl milk tea

1. Black pearl cooking method: Take one kilogram of pearl balls of any color. Add 10 kilograms of water and cook in a pot (boil the water first and then add the pearl balls and powder balls. Be sure to wait until the hot water boils before adding them, otherwise they will melt into powder immediately. Use a strainer to keep the water boiling over medium heat. Stir. Cook for 15-20 minutes (you can increase or decrease the time according to your preference. The longer it cooks, the softer it will be). When the time is up, cover the pot and simmer for another 15-20 minutes (the longer it simmers, the more elastic it will be). Or cook until all the rice balls are transparent. When the time is up, remove the pearls and rinse them with cold water. Put the rice balls in a large bowl and add sugar until the pearls are soaked. Stir evenly and leave for about 30 minutes.

Boil 500g of water and add 750g of sugar, stirring while adding, to get 22oz (638mL) of syrup (can also be directly replaced with honey)

2. Make 60g of tea bags. (If you use bags, you don’t need to pack the tea leaves.) Add 3 kilograms of water and cook it in a stainless steel pot or an ordinary pot. (First boil the water above 90 degrees and then add the tea leaves. Let it soak for about 10 minutes - 20 minutes. Take out the tea bag, and the brewed tea will have a slightly bitter taste. If it is too bitter, add boiling water to dissolve it. You can decide the brewing time according to your requirements for tea concentration. Generally, it is not recommended to brew for too long, because this will cause The tea taste is too strong, which affects the taste. Use the refrigerator to chill the tea juice.

3. For cold pearl milk tea, put 30g of creamer (2) in the shaker cup. tablespoon), 2 tablespoons of fruit powder, one tablespoon of syrup, add 40g of hot water and mix thoroughly, use a stir stick to mix thoroughly, add 300mL~400m of black tea, add 3~4 ice cubes, fill the cup with about 2/3 volume, and shake quickly After shaking the cup 20 times, shake it until all the ice cubes in the cup melt and let it bubble. Finally, add an appropriate amount of 20g of pearls to make a perfect cup of cold pearl milk tea! Take a 360ML pearl milk tea cup, Pour the shaker into the cup, insert the straw, and hand it to the customer. If you need to seal it, put the milk tea on the sealing machine, cover it with the sealing film, and heat seal it.

Note: Milk tea and The ratio of pearl milk tea fruit powder directly affects the taste and quality of pearl milk tea.

If you put more creamer and milk tea powder, the taste of pearl milk tea will be better, but the cost will also be higher. If you reduce the cost, you can Add sugar or other flavors and milk powder to it.

An appropriate amount of milk powder plays a finishing touch to the milk tea, but once the milk powder is excessive, the taste of the milk tea will become a little greasy. . Therefore, be sure to pay attention to the amount of milk powder. The stronger the milk flavor, the better.

Note: The method for making fruity pearl milk tea is the same, just add 2 tablespoons of fruit powder to the cup. Depending on the added fruit powder, it can be made into papaya pearl milk tea, taro pearl milk tea, etc.)

Syrup cooking method: Boil 1.5kg white sugar to 1kg water, then simmer for 10 seconds. After a few minutes, turn off the heat and let it cool.

, Pearl Milk Tea

Foreword

How to cook rice balls:

1. There must be enough water, otherwise it will be easy to burn.

2. Boil the water before adding the rice balls, which is the same as adding dumplings.

3. Wait until the pink balls float to the surface for the first time before turning to medium-low heat, and maintain the heat until the pink balls float to the surface of the water.

4. Don’t forget two steps during the cooking process:

1) Stir the rice balls every three to five minutes to avoid sticking to the bottom of the pot

< p> 2) To maintain the thinness of the soup itself, add water at any time to avoid undercooking the rice balls.

5. Cook for about 50 minutes, turn off the heat and simmer for ten or twenty minutes. When you taste it and it tastes "flavorful, elastic and not raw", you can take it out with a ladle. Rinse the taken out rice balls several times with cold boiled water: the purpose is to wash away the thick soup, prevent it from sticking together, lower the temperature, and make the noodles more elastic (the principle is the same as making cold noodles).

6. Tips on whether the rice balls are delicious:

Process the drained pearls and add molasses. This step makes the rice balls sweet, so milk tea is not needed. By adding too much syrup, you can easily feel the sweetness when chewing the tapioca balls.

Ingredients

One cup of Assam black tea

One ounce of syrup

One spoonful of creamer powder

Appropriate amount of ice cubes

Method

1. Add appropriate amount of warm black tea and creamer powder with a stirring spoon and mix thoroughly.

2. Add one ounce of syrup, mix thoroughly with a stirring spoon, and fully dissolve it into the hot milk tea.

(If there are pearls, add them at this time)

3. Finally add ice cubes and shake it until the shaker cup is cold.

4. First open the small hole on the top and let part of it come out.

5. Open the cup again and pour out the ice cubes and the rest of the milk tea.

Notes

1. Creamer powder and syrup must be added before adding ice cubes. Black tea is best warm, because this is the most suitable temperature for melting, so The milky aroma and sweetness can fully fill the entire cup of milk tea. If the order is reversed, the milk tea will lose its flavor! !

2. The number of shakes must be enough to have enough freezing point for a cup of milk tea! !

3. Pour a little milk tea through the small hole first, unscrew the cup and pour out the rest to prevent the milk tea from overflowing due to unscrewing the cup (the milk tea must be higher than the cup after shaking).

,Reference: yahoo,