Over lockdown, we keenly tried every at-home experience gift we could find. Lockdown may be over, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still fun to do things at home once in a while. At home experiences can be a great gift idea for any friend dependant on their interests, especially now that the cold weather is creeping in and leaving the house suddenly doesn’t sound as appealing as it once did.
A little confession before we get into my evaluation of Boba Bar London’s Bubble Tea Making Kit: I’d never actually had bubble tea before this experience. This is more than a review; you’re about to come on a journey of self-discovery with me. Having recently moved to London, it’s hard to ignore the abundance of bubble tea shops dotted around the city.
People have often told me that I’d enjoy bubble tea. Due to my love of food with that distinctive chewiness such as mochi and summer rolls, tapioca pearls sounded right up my street. Then obviously, being British, I’m born with an ingrained dedication to tea.
I stumbled upon Boba Bar, and saw that they were offering at-home, bubble tea making kits, so I thought I’d give them a go as something to do on a Sunday afternoon. I loved that they’re all vegan friendly, and eco packaged. It always makes a difference to know a company is going that extra mile for the environment. At the time, I thought it was a great idea to mix my introduction into bubble tea with a fun little activity. SPOILER ALERT: this was not a great idea.
The Boba Bar Bubble Tea Kit
The kits are available for nationwide delivery, so anyone can get involved. It came in a well-designed box; with everything I’d need inside. This included: winter melon syrup, apple syrup, strawberry jelly, mango jelly, raspberry boba, coffee boba, strawberry milk powder, coconut milk powder, uncooked tapioca pearls (+instructions to cook them), four fancy teabags, four reusable bamboo straws and a set of instructions for making both milk tea and fruit tea.
Bubble Tea Kit Review
Now, this is where my lack of experience did not come in handy, because not only did the instructions confuse me, but there were also no suggestions of what flavour combinations to put together and when to use the tapioca pearls and when to use the boba.
There were also two large tubs of coconut and strawberry milk powder that were only for using in the breakfast teas, however I had only been given one breakfast tea and 3 fruit teas. Although the instructions had serving suggestions for some parts, such as the milk powders, and fruit syrups, these were all in grams, meaning I had to get the scales out to measure 2/3 tsp, and the correct proportion of water. This created washing up and extra hassle.
With other parts like the fruit jellies and boba, I was unsure whether I should be putting the whole tub into one cup of tea, as this seemed too much.
I turned to Instagram for some much-needed help, where I saw others had already shared themselves making the tea and I could judge the flavour combination/amounts of ingredients they had used and mimic them to my own personal taste.
Instagram was less helpful when it came to cooking my tapioca pearls. I followed the instructions exactly, and they ended up undercooked - although I had no idea at the time, as I’d never tried them before (oops).
Now, I realised after completing the box that I couldn’t really evaluate how good the bubble tea was, as I had no comparison. I thought it only fair that I went out into London and tried some before writing my final verdict.
I chose my local T4 bubble tea shop. I could now officially confirm that I undercooked the tapioca pearls, and the ones from T4 were much more satisfying to chew. The tea itself was of good quality, but I would say the quality of the tea in the kit was possibly even better.
Is The Boba Bar Bubble Tea Kit Worth it?
I think that the main benefit of the Boba London Kit is that you get to tailor each cup to your tastes. You can play around with the ratios and flavours, and if you have some extra tea bags then you can use the excess ingredients to your heart’s content.
I was especially pleased with the coffee boba and tapioca milk tea with whipped cream that I made, and kept making it again and again.
However, the overall experience for me wasn’t anything special. It was more stressful trying to work out the perfect combinations on my own and involved a lot of trial and error. I think the ingredients were good quality, but I think Boba Bar London could have put the kit together with a clearer, more user-friendly structure.
The kit is £16.99, and comes with four straws and four teabags. When my bubble tea from T4 was £4, I find it hard to justify spending £4.25 on making one at home.
