Equipment and Utensils for Making Bubble Tea
Shaker
Usage: The primary purpose of the shaker is to mix ice, milk powder, juice, egg, honey, and other ingredients together. This process allows the ingredients to quickly cool down and blend those ingredients that could not be mixed together easily together. This is a vital tool when making bubble teas.
Size of Shakers: A shaker has three parts: the cap, the filter, and the bottle. Usually the shakers are made out of stainless steel or resin. The commonly used sizes are: 350c.c, 500c.c, 700c.c..
Manual:
Shaking Steps:
- Place ice inside the shaker. (Usually fill 70% ~ 80% of the shaker)
- Select the desired ingredients, and put them in the proper sequence.
- Put the filter and the cap on.
Shaking Position and Motion:
- Firmly hold the cap with your dominate hand and hold the bottle steady with your other hand. Do make sure that the filter and cap are put in properly and the cup is seal tight.
- Raise the shaker up to your chest and form a 45 degree angle. The position of your dominate hand should be lower than your other hand. Quick note, the cap should be pointing upwards, not downwards.
- Rotate/shake the shaker in a circulating motion. The circular shaking movement should be in a vertical movement, not horizontal. This means that your hands are not moving left to right, but rather, up and down.
- Shake 20 to 30 loops and it will be good to go.
Precautions:
In order to prevent the shaker from being damaged and cause leakages, do not twist the filter and cap when removing them. You should place the shaker on a flat surface, firmly hold onto the bottle, and gently push the filter forward and back to open it up.
Note that when removing the cap and filter, be as gentle as possible to prevent the liquid from squirting out. Furthermore, keep the bottle as upright as possible and do not bang or slam the bottle. In order to prevent the ice inside the shaker from melting due to the heat from hand, your palms should not be holding onto the shaker bottle at all.
Jigger
Purpose:
The jigger is used to precisely calculate the amount of ingredients needed. It also allows adding ingredients into the shaker to be more accurate and efficient. This is a must-have item when making bubble tea.
Size of Jiggers:
The standards sizes are small, medium, and large.
Manual:
It is very simple to use. All you need to do is select the jigger of choice, and put the required ingredients in it.
Bar Spoon
Usage:
Its main usage is to effectively mix all the ingredients together.
Size of Bar Spoons:
The length of bar Spoons are either 9 inches or 12 inches.
Manual:
Use the spoon to stir and mix all the ingredients together.
How to Make the Perfect Bubble Tea Syrup
A perfect cup of bubble tea not only requires the right amount of all ingredients, it also needs the right syrup to enhance the taste.
The main ingredients of syrup are brown sugar and water. Why choose brown sugar you may ask, this is because brown sugar contains more minerals, and since people’s taste are more sensitive towards minerals, brown sugar will taste sweeter than normal sugar. A small note is that, food that requires more sweetness will often use brown sugar.
The ratio for syrup is 1:1, Brown sugar is 1000g and water is 1000c.c.
Manual:
Boil 1000c.c. of water in a pot, when the water is boiling, add 1000g of brown sugar into the water. Slowly stir the water after you put the brown sugar in. When the brown sugar is fully dissolved, turn off the stove and we have our syrup ready to go.
What is Tapioca (Pearl)
Pearl is mainly made from cornstarch, namely cassava (manioc, cassava) wood (tree) tapioca (tapioca), but also sweet potato flour, potato powder or jelly. These ingredients are mixed together to form a 5 to 10 mm diameter ball starch. Water, sugar, and different flavours dictate the colour and taste of pearls.
The “bubbles” in bubble tea are made out of sweet potato flour. Prior to putting the pearls into the milk tea, you would usually soak the pearls in honey or syrup, in order to preserve the taste of the pearls when it’s in sweeter milk teas. The base can either be red tea or green tea.
Bubble tea, also known as Tapioca tea is a beverage that you can serve hot or cold. You would usually use a larger straw to drink bubble team because you can drink and eat the pearls at the same time.
Cooking Method of Tapioca
It is required to have lots of water and must stir the pearls around constantly. Sometimes we may find pearls stuck to the bottom of the pot, this is mainly due to the lack of water.
When cooking pearls, the amount of water should be 12 times the amount of pearls. The reason is because if there is a lot of water, the boiled water will have a slower time radiating heat.
Further, the pearls will grow in size as the water boils, thus, it is important to take account of the space of the inflated pearls. When you put the pearl in the boiled water, you must consistently stir until the water boils again. You may stop stirring when the water re-boils because the pearls will roll by itself at this point. Turn off the stove after 30 minutes, then put the lid on the pot and allow the remaining heat to boil for another 30 minutes.
Do not put cooked pearls in cold water, put it in ice water.
This is because the temperature of cold water is not low enough, thus the pearl will suck in the cold water instead. The purpose of using ice water is to immediately cool down the temperature of the pearls. You must stir the pearls when you place them in ice water, this is to allow the ice water and pearl to have sufficient contact, which enable the pearls to contract and enhance its taste.
Boil for 30 minutes first, and then stew it for 30 minutes.
The main reasons for this method are to save gas during the latter portion of boiling, and also because if the water is continuously boiling the pearls, it will result in the pearl disintegrating while the centre part is still raw.
Ingredients:
Ice water, Ice cubes, Honey / Sugar water (Brown Sugar 2: Water 5).
Procedure:
- Boil a pot of hot water; place the pearls in the pot when the water started to boil. Stir gently and close the lid.
- Maintain the max heat level for 30 minutes before turning the stove off. Stew the pearls for 30 additional minutes before lifting the lid.
- Prepare another pot of ice water. Scoop up the pearls and place it in the ice water to cool off the heat.
- Scoop up the cooled pearls and put it inside the sugar water. You can also put honey in the pearls as well. (The main purpose of honey is to prevent the pearls from sticking together, so you will have to stir when putting honey inside the pearls)
How to Make Bubble Tea
When making bubble tea, the first step is to cook highly concentrated tea and syrup. It is also vital to know the characteristics of different ingredients, so you can create the best combination. After putting all the ingredients together, shake the beverage until bubbles appear, and that is a delicious cup of bubble tea ready to go!
The most utilized tea leaves are red tea leaves, scented tea, oolong tea, and other fermented tea leaves.
Standard Procedure of Making Bubble Tea
- Take the bottle of the shaker.
- Fill it with ice cubes to about 60% ~ 70%.
- Select the medium size jigger 1 1/2 oz. (45c.c).
- Put 1 1/2 oz. of syrup into the shaker.
- Fill the shaker with black/green tea to about 90% full.
- Put on the filter and cap. Shake the shaker quickly for about 30 times until there are bubbles.
- Take a glass cup (around 350c.c. ~ 400c.c.), and fill half of the cup with ice cubes.
- Remove the cap of the shaker, and pour the beverage into the glass cup to about 70% of the glass cup.
- Remove the filter from the shaker, and pour the rest of your beverage into the glass cup, gently allow the bubbles to surface.
- Place a straw in the drink and enjoy!
If you choose to use the 500c.c. shaker bottle, you will need 2oz. of syrup.
If you choose to use the 700c.c. shaker bottle, you will need 3oz. of syrup.
Note that the amount of syrup depends on your preference.
How to use Concentrated Juice, Flavoured Fruit Powder, and Freshly Squeezed Juice
If you put in lemon juice into the bubble tea, it becomes lemon bubble tea. Similarly, if you put in grape juice, it becomes grape bubble tea. This concept is very clear and easy to understand. However, the real knowledge lies in how to successfully have the flavour in your bubble tea.
There are three methods of changing the flavour of your bubble tea: Concentrated juice, flavoured fruit powder, and freshly squeezed juice.
Concentrated juice: Freshly squeezed juice that has been concentrated artificially.
Fruit powder: Fruit powder that changes the flavour by adding the powder to the liquid.
Freshly squeezed juice: Freshly squeezed juice from fruits that has not been diluted, fermented, or any additional artificial process.
It is absolutely plausible to mix two or more of the above flavourings to create new tastes.
Under normal circumstances, a bubble tea shop would choose concentrated juice or fruit powder considering the time, costs, and ingredient (season of the fruits). Thus, when adding different ingredients, the amount of ingredient, the procedures, and the techniques will vary differently.