Rather, I can afford it on Syd's birthday, and after her ballet recital. Maybe on Mother's Day, but definitely not as often as Syd would like to drink bubble tea, which is daily.
Seriously, Friends, bubble tea is something like $4.50 here! It's not a steak dinner, sure, but I have a hard time paying that for a beverage. I don't buy steak dinners, either.
You know what's cheap, though? I'll tell you what's cheap:
Tapioca pearls. Matcha powder. Almond milk.
None of those ingredients are even close to $4.50 a serving, and what's better is that I don't have to get out of my pajamas to turn them into bubble tea!
All the credit goes to Syd for this experimental process. Back in the spring she requested tapioca pearls, and I helped her play around with them some, mostly putting them into cold-brew coffee spiked with chocolate milk, which I let her drink, because whatever.
But Syd wanted more the restaurant-quality, $4.50 per serving type of bubble tea, and what we were making wasn't nearly cutting it, so off and on over the past few months, she's kept experimenting. And finally, just this week, she's nailed it, and now we can make ourselves absolutely delicious matcha bubble tea whenever we want.
I get to be in charge of the tapioca pearls. They're super easy to make, which is good because they don't keep AT ALL, so you have to make them fresh whenever you want them. You just follow the instructions on the bag, but instead of scooping them into simple syrup when they're done, I stir a whopping spoonful of honey into them and that makes them perfect and delicious.
Since we have a Vitamix (I remember having an anxiety attack about the cost of that blender once upon a time, but I've had it by now for well over a decade, and the only thing that's ever gone wrong with it is the pitcher cracking back in April, and I'm almost positive that happened when I accidentally blended the plastic cap a little bit, oops), Syd uses this recipe from the Vitamix website, but I know for a fact that she doesn't bother with blooming the matcha. She says she can't taste the difference, and I sure as heck don't care!
When the separate ingredients are ready, Syd divides the tapioca pearls between our cups--
--and then adds the matcha milk:
I feel like vertical videos are supposed to be gauche, but I don't care. You're lucky I didn't do it vertical AND in slo-mo or as a time-lapse!
You guys, this matcha milk tea is DELICIOUS. We've had these exact metal straws since May (and I LOVE them), and they're the perfect diameter for slurping up boba!
See, even Gracie likes it!
Right now, Matt's in the other room giving the kids a lesson on how to use Powerpoint (I'm eavesdropping, which is how I know that he's assigned them to create a presentation about tacos to prove their mastery), and I am just about to fall asleep in my chair, but I'm toughing it out, because as soon as he's done Syd and I have HUGE plans.
We're going to jammy up, make a double batch of matcha bubble tea, and then settle into my bed to watch the 1976 version of Carrie, which Syd has been longing to see since October. It's a cheap date, and one that I am very, very, very excited about.
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