ecipe & a DIY delightful DRINK to beat the heat this Summer.
Ingredients-
3 ½ cups of water
¼ cup quick cooking, black boba
A bowl of ice water
2 tea bags of caffeine free, green tea
¼ inch fresh peeled ginger, crushed
slightly
2 cups very hot water
2/3 cup mango pulp, pureed
Sugar or stevia to taste (if needed)
A tiny pinch of sea salt (optional)
Crushed ice to serve
METHOD
Boil the 3 ½ cups of water. When it
comes to a boil, add the boba and
give a quick stir. When they come to
the surface, turn the heat down to
medium, cover and cook for 3 min-
utes. Turn heat to lowest heat and
let them steep in for another 3 min-
utes. Drain the boba, and cool them
for 20 seconds or so in the ice
water. Drain and set them aside.
While the water is boiling in step 1,
steep the green tea bags and the
ginger in the 2 cups of very hot
water. Set aside to cool. Strain to re-
move the ginger pieces.
In a pitcher, combine the mango
puree, the cooled tea, sugar or ste-
via and a tiny pinch of the salt (op-
tional). Stir to combine flavors.
In each tall serving glass, add ½ of
the boba and pour ½ of the mango
drink. Top with crushed ice and
serve.
An Indian Taiwanese fusion recipe combining
the nectarous mango, the health benefits of
green tea and ginger and the cool, gluten
free, boba!This boba tea is a drink with an at-
titude! If you love bubble tea as much as I do,
you will know what I mean. I cannot go past a
bubble tea store without craving the sweet,
ice cold beverage. But then the thought of ar-
tificial powders in the calorie laden drink
makes me think twice. Hence my effort for a
healthier option.To me, mangoes are redolent
of summer! Growing up in India summers
meant a room full of the best Alphanso/Haa-
pus mangoes, ripening in their crates! It is
my most favorite fruit!The health benefits of
green tea and ginger are well known. I
steeped the green tea with some fresh ginger.
I tried to pick a sweet, ripe mango.The
amount of sugar will depend on how sweet
the mango is. I used stevia sweetener in
mine. Boba is rich in iron and�..oh so
yummy!So a little a bout the boba and the
boba/bubble tea, as I understand it. The boba
or bubble tea originated in Taiwan in the
eighties. It is now popular worldwide!
Broadly speaking, there are two types- a milk
tea, sweetened generally with condensed
milk and a fruit tea sweetened with fruit juice.
Boba, made from tapioca starch, are avail-
able in many colors. Cooking the traditional
boba is quite a time consuming task, taking
anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a
half to cook them.I used the quick cooking
boba which were ready in a few minutes. The
package said ‘ready in 5 minutes!’ That and a
couple of lines of instructions is the only
English on the package, so my friend and I
were skeptical. But they did cook very well in
6 minutes.I absolutely loved the ease and the
delectable flavor of this drink and want to
thank my friend Shirley who got me the quick
cooking boba to experiment with!