Recipe: Cardamom Boba

By Sarah Adams

This is one of our most popular specials at our Chico Farmers' Market booth. The texture of boba with the cool spice of cardamom at the bottom of an iced chai. It's pretty fantastic.

For those of you new to boba, they’re soft, chewy, tapioca balls that are a Taiwanese tradition that came about in the 1980s. They’re typically served with a strong tea, which is often sweetened and mixed with milk, to make what’s known as boba tea.

Masala chai is (as you probably know, if you're reading a blog about chai), from India, and the combination of these two forces isn't traditional to either country. But you can now find them together in many boba tea shops across the US (and beyond?).

Disclaimer: nobody at Chico Chai invented boba or chai, but we're eternally grateful to those who did.

RECIPE:

Cardamom Syrup:
Boil 1/2 cup water
Add 1 T cardamom
boil 5 mins
Add 1/2 cup sugar
Stir until dissolved
Strain and set liquid aside

Boba:
Boil 4 cups water
Add 1/2 cup boba
Boil 4 mins
Strain out boba
Add boba to syrup
Let soak 10 mins +

Add cardamom boba to iced chai, iced oolong or any tea of your choice!