Bubble Tea
The Taiwanese drink sensation, bubble tea, is served in tea shops, Asian restaurants, and shopping malls. It can be served cold with ice or as a smoothie drink and made from fruit juice, milk, or alternatives. Although the name implies tea, it does not necessarily contain any. The drinks are usually served with a straw so that the soft, chewy boba (bubbles) in the bottom can be sucked up.
Bubble tea is coming back to North America. Many of bubble tea’s reinventions have contributed to its resurgence. “popping boba” (also known as “bursting popping boba”) is likely to be the most interesting. This is precisely challenging!
Boba is made from tapioca, but popping boba is a new experience. What is popping boba? They are small fruit juice spheres with a burstable shell.
How Is Popping Boba Made?
A spherification process is used to make popping boba, which involves a reaction between sodium alginate and calcium chloride or calcium lactate. Pressure is applied to these “bubbles”, and they burst when filled with fruit juice. For an understanding of how texture plays such a vital role, let’s examine the physical properties of these “bubbles”:
Popping bobas are most enjoyable (or not), depending on how much pressure/force they require to burst.
The bubble will be softer when you pop a boba under low pressure, so you’ll have to chew a bit to pop it. A popping boba that is hard to break at the breaking point and requires high force from your teeth is more likely to create an enjoyable “bubble popping” sensation.
It is also essential to have the correct bubble wall thickness.
For the boba to survive the journey from factory to cup, the breaking force of the bubble walls must be high. Thicker bubble walls require more force when popping the boba with your teeth but can also leave consumers with an unpleasant thick agar shell in their mouths. To survive their journey, pop in the boba without leaving shell residue.
The popping boba food fad is fun, but it is another example of the multiple textural needs that must be met simultaneously by a product. In the case of products such as popping boba, precise texture measurement is crucial—the TA.XTPlus Texture Analyzer is the perfect tool to do this. Learn how to make popping boba at home.
Conclusion
There you have it! That’s how popping boba is made. Please share other methods for making it in our comments section if you know of any!
