Tips n’ Tricks from a Boba-Barista!

By: Suryka Kom

Now, how often is it that you find yourself on the opposite end of a tip screen—forced out of social politeness to add on an extra 15% fee for your now $8.09 drink? How long does that drink last you? If you’re slow, maybe an okay iced drink (excluding fast drinkers) is going to take around 30 minutes before its flavors are dulled by some ice. Or, if it’s something hot in a paper cup, then you’re bound to carry a lukewarm beverage after some 20 or so minutes. So, I ask, is the temporary drink worth it? Sure, you could make the drink last, but barring excruciating circumstances, it’s still not going to last longer than it took you to (probably) get the drink in the first place. Now, what if I told you there were better alternatives that allowed you to enjoy as many brown sugar milk teas or thai teas to your content–especially for way cheaper? Please allow me, a barista of 5 years, to impart my wealth of customer experiences and company insider knowledge upon you.

Most of the time, you can just buy all of the ingredients for your favorite drink at your local grocery store. For a basic brown sugar milk tea, all you’d really need are some tea leaves, milk, and brown sugar (or liquid cane sugar). If it’s a certain type of flavor (like taro), then maybe you’d need to buy some taro-flavored powder to really get the authentic flavor. Still, as a whole, powdered creamer, a bag of tea leaves, and a bag of brown sugar would cost you around $16~$20, if not less. All of this could easily be a part of your regular groceries, so you could already have some of this in stock in your cabinets!

Here comes the easiest part: making the drink. First, you boil some tea. In the meantime, get the rest of your ingredients together while everything’s still hot. Then, once the tea is ready, you (usually) add three tablespoons of creamer to three tablespoons of flavored powders, mix in your desired amount of sugar, top it off with ice, and then you’re done! That’s it! It’s that simple! With the ingredients you have, you could literally make upwards of 12 (large) drinks if you so desire. This kind of mindset will literally let you make any drink from a boba shop for incrementally cheaper! Slushies, jams, the world–and its drinks–are your oyster!

Now, I haven’t touched on the boba at all, but it’s pretty simple as well. You can basically buy a bag of uncooked tapioca pearls for less than $10 at a grocery chain store or online. Then, you get a pot of boiling water, throw your boba in for 30 or so minutes while making sure to stir, let it sit for a while, wash it off in some cold water, add some sugar to it, and then bon appétit! You’ve got boba for days! You’ve cooked…literally!

So, envision this: you now have twenty drinks. Twenty whole cups of boba- what could you possibly do with them now? Well, you could easily drink it all yourself–but that’s bound to give you a stomachache. Then, what else could you possibly do with your spoils? Boba for the rest of the week for breakfast, lunch, or dinner? How about a tea party! This fall, take a spin on the classic image of a tea party and replace it with some nice sips of boba and milk tea!