Bubble tea is red,
Bubble tea is blue,
However you quaff it,
You'll then get to chew.
If bubble tea has made it to your neck of the woods, you're already on mouth-to-mouth terms with the exact brand of happy that the tapioca drink can deliver. And if it hasn't? Hellooooo, newbie. Allow us to launch your rocket.
Hatched in Taiwan, bubble tea is delivered either hot or cold in a glass with chewy pearls of tapioca settling lazily to the bottom. It's one-part drink, one-part dessert, since the tapioca provides plenty to chew, chew, chew on long after the liquid has slid its agreeable way down your gullet.
And what about those silky pearls? Made from the processed root of the cassava plant (also known as manioc, yuca, and boba, among other names), tapioca is basically a flavorless starch with a chewy, jelly-like texture that takes on the taste of whatever surrounds it. The pearls are made by forcing the moist starch through sieves and then boiling and cooling.
And while bubble tea is excellent, it's not the only way to go with tapioca. At French Laundry, Thomas Keller serves oysters on a bed of tapioca, a.k.a Oysters and Pearls. You can use it to concoct a tapioca dessert of your own creation—perhaps involving chocolate, coconut milk, and our favorite chewies.
A caveat: Don't go chopping up cassava root at home. Instead, go for the packaged stuff, which comes in a fast-cooking multi-colored version, or black, or mini. If it's a drink you're after, you can try this, or go balls-out and get the DIY Gift Pack
.