How To Make Popping Boba - EveryChusDay

Little Miss turned 5 recently, and one of her current obsessions is popping boba. We discovered it several months ago in the toppings section at a frozen yoghurt shop – they are little flavoured jelly balls filled with juice that burst in your mouth when you bite into them. Quite delicious, if I do say so myself. So I tried to buy some for her birthday party…but soon realised that no shops here sell these things! You can only buy from wholesalers. Well, Little Miss managed to persuade a local dessert shop to sell us a couple of small tubs on account of her impending birthday. But I also figured that perhaps we could try and make some ourselves. And so began our first foray into molecular gastronomy.

Popping Boba is made using a process called Spherification, a technique pioneered over a decade ago by the once-famed, three Michelin-starred El Bulli restaurant (now closed). It requires very few ingredients, but may need a little trial and error to get right if you don’t have precise food measuring equipment. It was surprisingly simple overall and we’ve made a video to prove that even kids can do this!

All you need are water, juice, sodium alginate and calcium lactate (which are relatively inexpensive and can be ordered from health food shops online). All ingredients and instructions are explained in the video if you want to have a go. It’s very satisfying! We were quite imprecise with the chemistry but there is quite a lot of information online if you want to do it properly. In particular I’d highlight that the sodium alginate solution is supposed to be a 1% solution (ie. 1g of powder to 100g juice) but my scales couldn’t handle such tiny amounts. Also, I added in a dash of red food colouring to help the boba show up better for videoing purposes…they can be quite pale using regular juice.

Dessert-store boba (left) vs homemade boba (right)

The kids struggled a little with the syringe control required to make little spheres…and ending up making boba-tadpoles instead!

Extremely unspherical spherification

But it must have tasted good because it all but disappeared almost as soon as it was made.

A yummy spoonful of homemade boba!

 

After our success with the first lot of boba, we went on to try reverse spherification and we managed these rather delectable orbs of “strawberry yoghurt ravioli”. This method allows you to use dairy-based (ie. calcium-containing) ingredients for the spheres.

These larger spheres were made by dropping measuring-spoonfuls of the yoghurt-calcium mix into the alginate solution, wafting around to achieve the ball and then rinsing in water. These had an egg-yolky texture!

 

Admittedly, it would still take ages to make the quantities required for a party using a single syringe (although you can buy a fancy bit of equipment called a caviar-maker to help you mass produce the stuff). Neither do we have the means to preserve the popping boba for very long. So our homemade option is not exactly a solution to the lack of boba in the shops. But nevertheless, it was actually pretty fun and the kids have been asking to make some more. Perhaps we shall invent something new in the next round of experimentation!

 

 

 

 

 

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kitchen science, popping boba

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30 Comments

1. Irmeli Pietilä November 27, 2016 at 5:00 pm Reply

   Thanks for sharing! I’ll try this with two eight year olds!

   • T Chu November 28, 2016 at 3:15 am Reply

     Hope it works out! I’m sure they’ll love it.

2. Eleanor November 27, 2016 at 10:53 pm Reply

   That looks like fun – we may have to have a go – would also be nice for the grown ups in a glass of fizz at Xmas!!

   • T Chu November 28, 2016 at 3:14 am Reply

     It also works with alcohol – I saw a video for cointreau caviar I think ?!

     • Sarwar richard June 13, 2021 at 7:49 am Reply

       I am from pakistan Sodium alginate and calcium lactate Not available here canany one help me some powder send.me in pakistan i pay u

3. Tina June 23, 2017 at 11:43 am Reply

   Hi I tried the recipe but the juice just dissolved in sodium … the juice didn’t thicken like yours.. what should i do?

   • T Chu June 29, 2017 at 2:27 am Reply

     I think the right amount of sodium alginate powder in the juice is important. Try increasing it to 1/2 teaspoon? If you have very precise weighing scales, you should aim for 1g of sodium alginate powder for 100g juice. It doesn’t thicken the juice though, the boba only forms upon contact with the calcium lactate water.

     • Kamil March 2, 2018 at 7:23 am Reply

       I have precise weighing scales and when I try to add sodium alginate it forms some kind of jelly, what am I doing wrong?

       • Misty December 25, 2018 at 1:26 pm Reply

         More than likely you’re not using distilled water. This is very important — the gelling happens because the alginate reacts with calcium ions — there are *lots* of those in hard water, and more than you’d think even in “soft” — distilled is the only way it will work reliably. This is also why some juices and liquids work better than others. Anything with a lot of calcium in it, like dairy or orange juice, won’t work with the first method, only with the reverse spherification. (Either method, though — distilled water only!)

4. Andrey August 4, 2018 at 5:56 pm Reply

   U r really goid with such try with kids. I will try to do thus in my restaraunt for kids)) they will like, for sure! Thanks and have great mood)))

5. laila August 23, 2018 at 9:27 am Reply

   this video was really helpful and cute! i personally plan to make boba bubble tea and this looks really simple and easy! thanks

6. Chloe September 17, 2018 at 6:31 pm Reply

   Any substitutes for calcium lactate and sodium alginate? Its expensive here in SA

   • T Chu September 30, 2018 at 3:54 pm Reply

     Sorry I don’t think so! I’ve never come across alternative ingredients for this process.

   • madison hawk November 1, 2018 at 6:31 pm Reply

     did u try getting it from ebay or amazon they have it on amozon i’m sure

7. AG October 9, 2018 at 4:34 am Reply

   Juice is a liquid and is measured in ml (not gm). Did you actually weigh 100 gm (not 100 ml) of juice? Thanks for sharing the process – I am in the process of trying this as well.

   • T Chu November 1, 2018 at 1:33 am Reply

     Hi – sorry for the slow reply – yes we weren’t too sure how to mix up the 1% solution of alginate powder (in mg) to juice (ml) so we “weighed” the juice to keep the units the same. Not sure if that was the right thing to do but since it worked we didn’t give it any further thought!

8. Sydney Gordon October 16, 2018 at 4:25 pm Reply

   you should put the receppie up!!!!!!!!!!!1

9. madison hawk November 9, 2018 at 7:36 pm Reply

   well the recipe is sodium alginate water calcium chloride juice powder or juice and a spoon or a ladle to scoop the balls out with and a syringe or spoon and of course 2 bowls and 1 plate or whatever your going to put them in. sorry to be nos if that’s what it seems like i have to study this for a science project!😊😕😬 i just feel like im crossing some boundaries with putting this up just trying to be helpful

10. Mariyam Mukthar December 4, 2018 at 10:45 pm Reply

    Hi, lovel your work here. I wanted to ask why does adding alginate to juice looks like it had got thicker in your video? Also does adding alginate+juice in calcium solution make the gel outer layer and liquid in the middle? Or does calcium+ juice in alginate solution make the outer gel and liquid inside? Thank you

11. MILLA SCHAUN January 20, 2019 at 1:20 pm Reply

    hi, i would like to know where did you buyed the sodium alginate and the clacium lactate. I live in Brazil and I cant find them, even in internet, the fews i could find was very expansive.

12. emrah June 23, 2019 at 8:28 am Reply

    I did, but I wonder why there was no water please

13. nate hughes September 13, 2019 at 3:53 am Reply

    you can mix juice with agar agar and drip it into cold vegetable oil. di that is school, best way to do it with simple ingredients.

14. CARY DAMES March 3, 2020 at 11:03 pm Reply

    try using an eyedropper with a rubber end you squeeze to drip the balls instead of a syringe.

15. E October 5, 2020 at 12:36 am Reply

    Where can I find calcium lactate and sodium alginate? 🧐

    • T Chu October 6, 2020 at 1:26 am Reply

      I bought these products online but you can also try some health food shops or baking supply stores.

      • erinsbs7 October 9, 2020 at 3:07 am Reply

        ah- thank youuu

16. Audrey Hartman November 5, 2020 at 4:12 pm Reply

    That’s really cool! I have tried to find popping boba in bubble tea stores (and never really knew what it was called) so my mother and I tried tapioca. I had a feeling the tapioca wasn’t what I was thinking of, so I looked for a recipe, and found this!! I’m super excited to try it, looks super fun.

17. Tina Golden May 11, 2021 at 9:46 am Reply

    I just printscreened the cans in this video, searched for the address online and bought it from the place written on the containers. Shipped from UK to Norway. Waiting for the shipment now. Cant wait to try!!

18. Ice May 24, 2021 at 1:47 pm Reply

    May I know which health shop did you purchase the calcium lactate powder and sodium alginate powder? I tried iherb but couldn’t find them.

    • T Chu May 25, 2021 at 2:56 am Reply

      Hi, I actually bought our supplies from the UK (https://www.specialingredients.co.uk) and they do ship overseas. However, I think the ingredients may also be available locally at Phoon Huat shops in Singapore or at online suppliers like better4u.sg. Hope that helps and good luck!

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