Bubble tea is a Taiwanese beverage. Bubble tea is becoming popular in the United States, and is characterized by the soft, chewy "boba" bubbles floating in it. If you'd like to make bubble tea at home, it's important to know about the types of bubble tea pearls, their ingredients and the nutrition they provide will help you stay within your calorie goals.
Ingredients and Types
Bubble tea pearls consist of three ingredients: tapioca, water, and fructose, a naturally-occurring sugar. They come in several colors, from deep black, to brown, to white. Bubble tea pearls, also called boba tea pearls, are larger than tapioca pearls you might find in your grocery store's baking aisle. Each pearl is about a quarter-inch in diameter.
Serving Size, Calories and Nutrition
A serving size of bubble tea pearls is 30 g, or about 1 cup, according to the label of one brand available in Asian markets. The label says this serving size contains 68 calories, no fat, 24 mg of sodium and 1 percent of the daily value for calcium. Those numbers are just for the pearls. They don't include the tea.
Benefits
Though bubble tea pearls are not rich in nutrients, they do have some benefits for the calorie-conscious. It is rather hard to swallow them whole, and product packaging recommends against that, anyway. That means you have to chew them, which slows down your consumption, giving your body time to register fullness. Bubble tea is also fun to drink, which helps increase satisfaction.
Cooking Tips
To prepare bubble tea at home, treat the pearls as a starch, and cook in plenty of water. WhatsCookingAmerica recommends using a ratio of at least seven parts water to one part pearls, since the pearls absorb a lot of water during cooking. Serve them in black tea, tea with milk or your favorite beverage.
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