THE FASHION IDENTITY Edition 41 | Page 25

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!