Bubbleology- The science of bubble tea

Trends in food and drink are fast paced and ever changing for example the cupcake craze or the time when everybody went sushi mad. The latest wave to hit British shores is bubble tea.

The blogger event tonight (14th July) was held at Cafe 164 and in addition to the tea there was a delicious array of breads and cakes on offer that are all made in the cafe itself. Some of our favourites included the mozzarella and sun blush tomato loaf, the olive, asparagus, sun blush tomato and parmesan loaf, toffee apple cake and the lemon drizzle. Who am I kidding, all of the food was divine! If you find yourself down by Munro House on Duke Street in Leeds you should definitely check it out. :)

Bubble tea was first invented in Taiwan in the 1980s and refers to a refreshing tea based drink with chewy tapioca balls  that you suck up through a large straw. The balls are sometimes referred to as 'pearls' or 'boba' and over time 'boba' became 'bubble' hence the name.

However a very westernised addition to the traditional bubble tea is what is known as popping boba. These multicoloured bubbles composed of fruit syrup enrobed in a seaweed case burst in your mouth. It's a very weird (in a good way) sensation.

Bubbleology are based in London and have only recently opened a new store in the Trinity centre, where I am told they are making quite the impression as bubble tea not only looks great but also tastes fantastic.  The vast variety of fruit syrups allows you to make your own custom drink and is a fun brew and snack in one!

The art of making bubble tea is a precise science that involves adding hot tea (Bubbleology used Jasmine Green tea in our drinks) to cold fruit syrups (of your choice) and shaking vigourously to cool the tea down before adding the boba and/or tapioca and finally sealing the cup. Our bubble tea was served cold (somewhat like ice tea) and is therefore a perfect summer drink, yet you can also get milk based bubble teas that are similar to milkshakes and even hot bubble teas that are highly in demand during the winter months.

Of all the tea in China, so I made cupcakes

If anyone has ever had the pleasure, nay the privilege, of entering my humble abode you will know that is filled with an array of different teas. Whether it is colour, flavour, type or the country of origin I can pretty much guarantee that I have that tea. 

According to the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project tea “is today’s most popular beverage in the world,[1]” since its introduction to Europe in the seventeenth century tea was seen to be a very expensive product and tea smuggling was rife especially amongst those who could not afford the product that was worth its weight in gold. It seemed like nobody could keep their hands off the stuff but why only drink it when the tea can be used for so much more?

When first trying out a recipe I have been advised to stick to it and adapt it later on when you know that it works, well I’m throwing caution to the wind and the song goes ‘It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to.’ I probably will cry if it goes wrong.

The original recipe can be found here: http://www.lowfatvegancooking.org/?p=2213

 

My version is as follows:

Ingredients:

3 tsp green tea leaves  I used Bancha Arashiyama a Japanese Green Tea  available from the Tea House Emporium without additional flavours added to it but I wonder if using a different type of tea, maybe a more flavoursome variety would change taste of the cupcake.

400ml Almond milk 

60g Almond butter

Or alternatively 475ml of milk and no butter, I used Almond because we had some in the house but regular milk and/or butter can be used instead, unless you are vegan, then I would suggest a milk/butter of the nut variety 

160g Whole grain flour, you could use white flour but it tastes more refined and contains less fibre.

1 tsp Baking Powder

¼ tsp salt

150g sugar

Boil the milk with the tea leaves for 10 minutes allowing the leaves to infuse the milk. Strain, making sure to get as much of the liquid out of the leaves as possible.

Cream the sugar and butter (if using butter, if not then this a pretty useless step to have) 

Add the vanilla extract and ¾ of the milk mixture to the sugar as well as folding in the rest of the dry ingredients.

Bake in the oven at 180°c for 25-30 minutes

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To make the icing, don’t do as I do and pour the icing sugar into the green tea milk, it will never thicken. Instead mix a tsp of vanilla and a tsp. of almond extract with 150g icing sugar and gradually add the green tea milk.

To go with my almond theme (almond milk and almond butter) I decided to put marzipan rounds on top of each cupcake before icing, it also added a different texture to the finished cupcake. I didn’t add the marzipan rounds because I had loads of marzipan left over from making Christmas cake and needed to find a use for it, of course not.

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[1] CHCP, Teas Wonderful History (online) available from: http://www.chcp.org/tea.html