If you’re like me, you’ve wondered: “What is boba?” I honestly had no idea, until I noticed it quietly invading our town this summer. I heard locals praising Korean restaurant Bapp for starting to sell the Taiwanese treat.
People have been wanting boba tea so badly. They’ve been telling me about it for years and asking me to make it for so long. So I finally said, okay, I’m just going to make as much as I can.
Kim Degman, Owner of Bapp
Although newer to Jackson, making its way onto the menu at Bapp this summer, boba tea or bubble tea, was invented in Taiwan in the 1980s. The boba is small tapioca balls, which are made from cassava starch, a root vegetable from South America. The tapioca balls are boiled until they reach the perfect consistency, then left to soak in a sweetener, before a final rinse to remove all excess sticky starch away. At Bapp, boba has become so popular, that it is made once or twice a day, with each batch taking up to 1 1/2 hours from start to finish.
If you overcook the tapioca pearls [balls] they will be too soggy and if you undercook them they will be hard in the center. You want them a little bit chewy.
Kim Degman
The second part of the process is creating the long list of flavors to add to your boba tea. Each flavor is a powder mixture of dairy free ingredients that is added to boiling water and stirred until the desired flavor profile is created. At Bapp, you have your choice of over 10 varieties for your iced beverage including mocha, watermelon, green tea, mango, banana, coffee, Thai tea, red bean, honeydew, milk tea, matcha, and taro. There are also options for fresh brewed coffee and house brewed loose leaf teas.
The boba pearls are added to the glass first, followed by ice, your flavor of choice and a splash of milk. If you prefer dairy free options, Bapp provides soy and almond milk as substitutes.
The specialty drink has become more than just something to wash down your to-go meal. Boba tea has made its way to the front lines as a fun, exciting, colorful, snack, and dessert, with customers returning several times a week for their boba fix. By mid-summer, Bapp was selling between 40 to 60 cups a day!
There is something about boba tea that makes people excited. When you drink it, it just pops in your mouth.
Kim Degman
This filling beverage has attracted a younger crowd with flavors like mango, honeydew and watermelon, while adults tend to prefer the flavors of milk tea, Thai tea, and red bean. Restaurant owner, Kim Degman, calls the red bean, a popular flavor in Asian countries, her favorite.
Drive through and take out service are available at Bapp Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Follow @bappinjh for daily specials.
