Diving for Pearls

A few weeks ago I stepped inside a grocery store in Santa Rosa’s Southern Asian neighborhood. Prowling around for something fun to take home, I spied a package of black tapioca pearls and purchased them.

These chewy little balls of tapioca (themselves made of cassava flour) are, of course, the essence of pearl tea. I like pearl tea, especially milk tea—iced black tea with milk—but it’s always served so sweet I don’t order it often. Now that I had access to the pearls, I figured I’d make my own pearl milk tea and sweeten it as I like.

I boiled the pearls according to the oddly translated directions on the package (“stir softly”) and concocted a glass of Earl Grey pearl milk tea. It tasted great, but after chasing the pearls around with a spoon, I realized the drink was missing a crucial ingredient. The fat straw that allows you to suck up the pearls — creating that thrilling POP when the pearl lands in your mouth — is  what makes the drink so fun. Scooping them out with a spoon just didn’t cut it. Now on the shopping list: fat straws. I have a whole bag of pearls to use up.