Bubble Tea Products: Boba Now Tapioca and Bobafide Stainless Steel Straws Review

Bubble Tea Products: Boba Now Tapioca and Bobafide Stainless Steel Straws Review

Buy it at Amazon: Bubble Tea Products: Boba Now Tapioca and Bobafide Stainless Steel Straws [Affiliate Link]
Buy the Bobafied Stainless Steel Straws at Amazon: https://geni.us/wDUS [Amazon Affiliate Product Link]

Takeaway: Instant gratification, bubble tea in under 30 seconds; environmentally friendly straws that are easy to use and clean.

If you’re not familiar with bubble tea, it’s a drink, typically sweetened milk tea or a frozen smoothie, with large, chewy tapioca pearls, called Boba, mixed in. It’s usually served with an over-sized straw so you can suck the boba up and eat them while you enjoy your drink. If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend it, but they can be quite pricey per serving and average about $3 – 5 for a 16 oz serving at different restaurants and drink vendors.

If you love bubble tea and want to be able to replicate that experience at home for about half the cost, Boba Now promises to deliver just that in about 20 seconds, while traditional tapioca pearls can take 20 minutes or more to make on a stovetop. In the package you’ll receive 5 individual serving packs of tapioca pearls stored in a sugar syrup. You can see that the boba aren’t cooked all the way through and have an opaque white center and medium brown color. Each bag contains 54g or 1.9oz of tapioca and syrup - roughly 40 - 45 pearls, and there’s an easy-tear slit pre-cut on one side. The instructions on the back of the bag are pretty simple. Cut a small slit in the packet. Microwave on high in a 1000 Watt microwave oven for 20 seconds. Then open the packet and add to your drink and enjoy!

I try and squeeze down the tapioca a little so it doesn’t spill out of the bag, then I make a small cut near the edge to let out any steam and place it in a cup so I can stand up the cut side before I put it in the microwave. Since my microwave is 1100 Watts, I’ll set it to 90% power to be closer to the 1000 Watt requirement, and put on 20 seconds. True to its claims the boba are done in exactly 20 seconds. If we compare the uncooked pack with the cooked tapioca, the color of the pearls has changed to a dark brown, almost black, versus the medium brown color. Be careful removing them from the bag because the contents will be hot! All the pearls come out fully and there weren't any with opaque white centers. The taste of these boba is very good: slightly sweet, chewy, and delicious. On hot days, I like to put the boba in iced sweet tea, which I can make in advance (extra concentrated since I usually add milk and ice), but you can also put them in hot tea or even iced coffee.

But no bubble tea experience would be complete with an over-sized boba straw. Instead of using one-time use disposable plastic straws, I chose washable and re-usable stainless steel boba straws from Bobafide, so I don’t have to worry about adding yet another piece of unnecessary plastic that could end up in the ocean or in a landfill. The Bobafide straw set includes two carrying satchels and 4 stainless steel straws. In each bag you’ll find a cleaning brush and one long and one short straw. The long straw measures about 9.5” and the shorter one about 8.5” and each has a pointed end and soft silicone tip in different colors on the other. The tips are to protect your teeth during use and are removable. They are soft, squishy and have a narrower opening on one side so that when you put it on the straw, it stays in place at the top and won’t slide down any farther. The colors you’ll receive are green, yellow, blue, and pink. You can always swap the tops and switch straws too. The brushes are about 10” long and can travel the whole length of each straw and even be pulled straight through. The stainless steel material means you don’t have to worry about rust and the straws are very durable much like other eating utensils.

So do they work for bubble tea? Absolutely. The boba from the Boba Now packs and other brands of tapioca balls that I've made fresh and tried with these straws are able to be drawn into and right up the straw without getting stuck, and I can have a delicious mouthful of tea and a few boba with every sip. Do note that if you've stored your cooked boba in the fridge (whether in a drink or sugar syrup) this can change their texture making them harder and larger so these might end up getting stuck in the straws from time to time. Otherwise, the straws are easy to use and clean, and with the satchels, you can even take them on the go.

Buy it at Amazon: Bubble Tea Products: Boba Now Tapioca and Bobafide Stainless Steel Straws [Affiliate Link]
Buy the Bobafied Stainless Steel Straws at Amazon: https://geni.us/wDUS [Amazon Affiliate Product Link]