![Tapioca balls (4507369304)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Tapioca_balls_%284507369304%29.jpg)
Tapioca pearls, also known as tapioca balls, are edible translucent spheres produced from
tapioca
Tapioca (; ) is a starch extracted from the storage roots of the cassava plant (''Manihot esculenta,'' also known as manioc), a species native to the North Region, Brazil, North and Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast regions of Brazil, but wh ...
, a starch made from the
cassava root
''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated a ...
. They originated as a cheaper alternative to
sago
Sago () is a starch extracted from the pith, or spongy core tissue, of various tropical palm stems, especially those of ''Metroxylon sagu''. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Maluku Islands, where it is ...
in
Southeast Asian cuisine
This is a list of Asian cuisines, by region. A cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, usually associated with a specific culture or region. Asia, being the largest, most populous and culturally diverse continent, ...
.
When used as an ingredient in
bubble tea, they are most commonly referred to as pearls or boba. The
starch
Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human diets ...
pearls are typically in diameter. By adding different ingredients, like water, sugar, or some other type of sweetener like honey, tapioca pearls can be made to vary in color and in texture. Various forms of tapioca pearls include black, flavored, popping, mini, and clear. Tapioca pearls are commonly soaked in sugar syrup to make them sweet and chewy. In teas, they are often added for their texture, with the flavor being provided by the drink itself.
History
Making jelly-like desserts from starch and using them in dessert dishes and drinks originated from
Island Southeast Asia
Maritime Southeast Asia comprises the countries of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and East Timor. Maritime Southeast Asia is sometimes also referred to as Island Southeast Asia, Insular Southeast Asia or Oceanic Sout ...
. Traditional versions of tapioca pearls made from native starch sources like
palm hearts or
glutinous rice
Glutinous rice (''Oryza sativa var. glutinosa''; also called sticky rice, sweet rice or waxy rice) is a type of rice grown mainly in Southeast and East Asia, and the northeastern regions of South Asia, which has opaque grains, very low amylose ...
include
pearl sago
Sago () is a starch extracted from the pith, or spongy core tissue, of various tropical palm stems, especially those of ''Metroxylon sagu''. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Maluku Islands, where it is ...
,
landang
Landang, comes from Buli or Buri Tree
(''Corypha''), a type of palm found in the Philippines and other tropical countries. This tree only flowers once in its life and then dies. At first glance, landang looks like shrunken, flattened sago. It is ...
, and
kaong
''Arenga pinnata'' (syn. ''Arenga saccharifera'') is an economically important feather palm native to tropical Asia, from eastern India east to Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines in the east. Common names include sugar palm, areng palm (al ...
. They are used in a wide variety of dishes and drinks like ''
bilo-bilo
Bilo-bilo is a Filipino dessert made of small glutinous balls (sticky rice flour rounded up by adding water) in coconut milk and sugar. Then jackfruit, saba bananas, various tubers, and tapioca pearls are added. Bilo bilo's origin is in Luzon (Tugu ...
'', ''
binignit
Binignit is a Visayan dessert soup from the central Philippines. The dish is traditionally made with glutinous rice cooked in coconut milk with various slices of sabá bananas, taro, ube, and sweet potato, among other ingredients. It is compar ...
'', ''
es campur'', ''
es doger
Es doger is an Indonesian coconut milk-based shaved ice beverage with pinkish color often served as a dessert. It is a specialty of Bandung, West Java. The main, or base, part is sugared sweet coconut milk-based ice in pink syrup, served with '' ...
'', and ''
halo-halo'', among others. The introduction of cassava from
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
during the
colonial era added another starch source to Southeast Asian cuisine, resulting in cassava-based versions of Southeast Asian dishes that were formerly made from native starch sources. Among these are tapioca pearls, which originated as a cheaper alternative to pearl sago. They are virtually indistinguishable in taste and can be used interchangeably.
Pearl sago and tapioca pearls were introduced to
Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine encompasses the numerous cuisines originating from China, as well as overseas cuisines created by the Chinese diaspora. Because of the Chinese diaspora and historical power of the country, Chinese cuisine has influenced many ot ...
via the
Hokkien diaspora
The Hoklo people or Hokkien people () are a Han Chinese (also Han Taiwanese) subgroup who speak Hokkien, a Southern Min language, or trace their ancestry to Minnan region, Southeastern Fujian, China and known by various endonyms or other relate ...
. They are popularly sold in "jelly tapioca pearls" (also known as "frog egg drinks") which are adaptations of Southeast Asian drinks and shaved ice desserts. They get their Mandarin name, "frog eggs", from their white appearance in the balls' centers after cooking. Vendors who sell the drink usually add
syrup
In cooking, a syrup (less commonly sirup; from ar, شراب; , beverage, wine and la, sirupus) is a condiment that is a thick, viscous liquid consisting primarily of a solution of sugar in water, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars ...
or
creamer before serving, or serve it on top of
shaved ice
Shaved ice is a large family of ice-based desserts made of fine shavings of ice or finely crushed ice and sweet condiments or syrups. Usually, the syrup is added after the ice has been frozen and shaved—typically at the point of sale; however, ...
. In Taiwan, it is more common for people to refer to bubble tea as pearl milk tea (zhēn zhū nǎi chá, 珍珠奶茶) because originally, small tapioca pearls with a diameter were used. It was only when one tea shop owner—in an attempt to make his tea stand out—decided to use larger tapioca balls and chose a more provocative name, "boba", to represent the difference. In Chinese, the word boba, 波霸, is a combination of a word for bubble and a word for big, which, when found together, is slang for "big breasts" or "buxom lady". When used to describe the drink, the characters 波霸奶茶 directly translate to boba milk tea, and loosely to bubble milk tea. This translation is commonly used by English speakers and refers to the variant with tapioca pearls.
The making of tapioca balls was also introduced to
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
(where cassava is native), where they are still known as ''sagu'', despite being made from cassava and not
sago palm
Sago palm is a common name for several plants which are used to produce a starchy food known as sago. Sago palms may be "true palms" in the family Arecaceae, or cycads with a palm-like appearance. Sago produced from cycads must be detoxified before ...
s.
Sagu is used in a traditional dish known as ''
sagu de vinho'' ("wine sago"), popular in the southern state of
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative_units_of_Brazil#List, fifth-most-populous state and the List of Brazilian st ...
. It is usually mixed with sugar and red wine and served warm. It is also often added to tea drinks.
Popularity
![Bubble Tea](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Bubble_Tea.png)
Tapioca pearls have recently gained greater global popularity due to the spread of
Taiwanese
Taiwanese may refer to:
* Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien
* Something from or related to Taiwan ( Formosa)
* Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan
* Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan
* Taiwanese people, ...
bubble tea, also called ''boba tea'', across Europe and North America.
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...
restaurants in Germany and Austria were temporarily selling the dessert beverage as part of their revamped McCafé menu in 2012.
Manufacturing
Tapioca pearls are derived as baked tapioca products, which are obtained from heat treatment of the moist cassava starch in shallow pans.
Preparation of wet flour
To create pearls, tapioca flour (also known as tapioca starch) is mixed with boiling water until a kneadable consistency is achieved. The dough is cut and rolled into a spherical shape. One method of achieving the correct shape is called the gangsor method. The starch is inserted into a long, cylindrical twill cloth bag and a jerking motion is used to toss the starch lumps back and forth. The lumps will become more firm and gain a more spherical shape. The process is repeated until the pearls have roughly become the desired size, then sorted according to size.
Another method is to feed the moist flour into open cylindrical pans, which rotate for a certain amount of time and at a specific speed to form the pearls.
Gelatinization
Traditionally, during heat treatment, the temperature is kept moderate so that only the surface layer of the lumps of the moist starch begins to gelatinize, and this process is described as
gelatinization
Starch gelatinization is a process of breaking down the intermolecular bonds of starch molecules in the presence of water and heat, allowing the hydrogen bonding sites (the hydroxyl hydrogen and oxygen) to engage more water. This irreversibly d ...
. One process of gelatinization is performed by placing the pearls inside shallow pans, which are then placed inside a brick oven. The pans are covered with a towel soaked in oil or fat to prevent burning the starch. While the pearls are heated over a moderate fire, it is stirred continuously with large forks to prevent burning. When this hand-baking process is applied to manufacture pearls, irregularly shaped beads may be obtained, inferior in color and in other qualities.
In order to produce first-rate products, the starch beads are poured onto plates in a thick layer, and the plates are slowly drawn through a tunnel charged with steam. In this way, uniform gelatinization is ensured.
Drying
During the gelatinization process, since moisture content does not change much, another drying stage is required to achieve the desired moisture content of 12%. Drying is done in a chamber dryer and when drying, it must have an initial temperature of below 40°C to avoid further gelatinization.
Freezing
Other than drying, freezing can also be used to preserve pearls before consumption. After gelatinization, the pearls are soaked in ice water to decrease the viscosity and enhance chewiness. If stored, pearls should be frozen using a quick freezing device, such as an air-blast freezer, or through an
individual quick freezing
Individual Quick Freezing, usually abbreviated IQF, is a descriptive term for freezing methods used in the food processing industry. The food is in individual pieces, and is frozen quickly. Products commonly frozen with IQF technologies are typical ...
process to prevent them from sticking together. One important note is that
retrogradation
Retrogradation is the landward change in position of the front of a river delta with time. This occurs when the mass balance of sediment into the delta is such that the volume of incoming sediment is less than the volume of the delta that is lost ...
happens quickest at near 0°C temperatures, which would lead to tougher pearls, so it is best to minimize the time that the pearls spend in that temperature range and freeze the pearls to lower temperatures quickly.
Preparation for consumption
![A giant brick of boba bubbles](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/A_giant_brick_of_boba_bubbles.jpg)
Consumers and food retail establishments can purchase raw tapioca starch and create their own pearls, or they can purchase partially cooked pearls, which have already gone through the gelatinization process. Raw tapioca pearls usually require 45 minutes of boiling whereas partially-cooked tapioca pearls require 30 minutes. To ensure a chewy texture, the pearls are then cooled for approximately 20 minutes. One can verify whether the pearls are ready to serve by taking a pearl and chewing it, making sure it is well-cooked all the way to the center.
In addition to the shorter cooking time, another benefit of partially cooked tapioca is that it lasts longer, with a shelf life of 8 months compared with the shelf life of 6 months for raw tapioca. Cooked tapioca pearls should only be kept for around 4-6 hours. When serving tapioca pearls, the pearls will harden once submerged in water and will eventually soften and lump together. Lumping of tapioca pearls can be avoided by stirring and adding sugar.
After the tapioca pearls are cooked, they should be strained through a colander and then rinsed to remove excess starch. Then, if they're to be used as something sweet, such as in bubble tea or as a dessert topping, the tapioca pearls are soaked in a sugar solution for ten minutes. The sugar will also help to prevent them from lumping. The only way to determine the quality of the tapioca pearls is by the texture. The pearls will all stick together if they are too soft and squishy. They will be too difficult to chew if they are too hard. There is a balance for tapioca being both chewy and firm. There is a Chinese term for this pronounced ''QQ''. This is similar to the Italian term ''al dente'' describing pasta that is chewable, but not too soft.
Health and nutrition information
Tapioca consists of mostly carbohydrates - one cup contains nearly 550 calories and 135 grams of carbohydrates. Some benefits of tapioca are that it is a source of iron,
dietary fiber
Dietary fiber (in British English fibre) or roughage is the portion of plant-derived food that cannot be completely broken down by human digestive enzymes. Dietary fibers are diverse in chemical composition, and can be grouped generally by the ...
, and manganese. In addition, tapioca is a good option for those that have allergies to gluten, nuts, or grain since it does not contain any of them. Tapioca also contains very little cholesterol, fat, or sodium.
Additives
To support to the creation of tapioca pearls, some additives are used, especially during the tapioca flour making process.
*
Sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid ( Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen and hydrogen, with the molecular formu ...
is added as a bleaching agent and helps to speed up the process of making flour.
*
Aluminum sulfate
Aluminium sulfate is a salt with the formula Al2 (SO4)3. It is soluble in water and is mainly used as a coagulating agent (promoting particle collision by neutralizing charge) in the purification of drinking water and wastewater treatment plant ...
is useful for increasing the viscosity of the flour.
*
Sulfur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide (IUPAC-recommended spelling) or sulphur dioxide (traditional Commonwealth English) is the chemical compound with the formula . It is a toxic gas responsible for the odor of burnt matches. It is released naturally by volcanic activ ...
is used to separate the starch from other unwanted substances as well as acting as a bleaching agent, and regulating microbial and enzymatic reactions.
*
Chlorine
Chlorine is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate betwee ...
(use is banned in many countries) helps to create a higher quality flour and also has disinfecting and bleaching properties.
The tables below list permitted additives in tapioca pearl products regulated under different regions.
Additives permitted as domestic or imported food
Philippines
Singapore
Taiwan
Environmental issues
Tapioca is not a natural product, as it is processed from cassava. See
Manufacturing
Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a r ...
. There is an issue with tapioca because a large amount of water is needed in order to produce it. One factory reports that it uses around 60 m
3 for one ton of tapioca starch just in the first step of processing. With this much water being used, properly disposing of the wastewater is a priority. Tapioca contains
cyanide
Cyanide is a naturally occurring, rapidly acting, toxic chemical that can exist in many different forms.
In chemistry, a cyanide () is a chemical compound that contains a functional group. This group, known as the cyano group, consists of ...
, and depending on whether or not the tapioca is made for human consumption or industrial purposes there will be less or more cyanide. The wastewater used to process the tapioca contains this cyanide and if the wastewater is leaked into bodies of water containing aquatic life, due to the contaminated water's low pH, there is a direct effect on fish and possibly other animals that live on the shores of the polluted water. Water pollution from tapioca manufacturing has been a problem in many countries in Southeast Asia.
Controversy
German researchers from University Hospital Aachen tested the tapioca pearls from an unnamed Taiwanese chain. According to the ''New York Daily News'', the report showed that carcinogenic chemicals were found in the samples. Chemicals found included
styrene
Styrene () is an organic compound with the chemical formula C6H5CH=CH2. This derivative of benzene is a colorless oily liquid, although aged samples can appear yellowish. The compound evaporates easily and has a sweet smell, although high concen ...
,
acetophenone, and brominated substances, which were not permitted as food additives. Another German study found carcinogenic
PCBs
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are highly carcinogenic chemical compounds, formerly used in industrial and consumer products, whose production was banned in the United States by the Toxic Substances Control Act in 1979 and internationally by t ...
, or polychlorinated biphenyls, in the starchy pearls as well.
But the German reports didn’t specify the amount of substances they found in the tapioca pearls, and were not published in peer-reviewed medical or scientific journals. That is saying the accuracy of the results are not ensured.
Phthalates
Phthalates (, ), or phthalate esters, are esters of phthalic acid. They are mainly used as plasticizers, i.e., substances added to plastics to increase their flexibility, transparency, durability, and longevity. They are used primarily to soften ...
are a class of chemicals added to plastics for the purpose of strengthening plastic’s flexibility, durability, longevity and transparency. In 2011, the
Canadian Food Inspection Agency warned of phthalate contamination in some food items imported from Taiwan.
DEHP, a type of phthalates, was reportedly found in concentrated juice beverages, tea drinks, and other
food supplements. This low cost substance had replaced regular food additives, which would normally be an emulsifier for the contents inside the drinks to generate a more attractive and natural appearance. Over-consumption of phthalates can lead to very serious negative health effects such as endocrine disruption, malformation of reproductive organs, infertility and abnormal neurodevelopment. The tolerable daily intake of DEHP is 0.05 mg/kg/day for a 70 kg body weight individual. Fortunately, the study showed that some beverages contain phthalates at levels that do not exceed the daily limit. In high concentrations, it could modify the product's appearance significantly as well.
In 2013, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore recalled tapioca pearls from bubble tea shops after 11 kinds of Taiwanese starch additives that contained
maleic acid were discovered. Maleic acid, when ingested, is known to induce kidney damage. An experiment done on dogs and rats also found kidney and liver damage when they were given daily doses of maleic acid for two years.
In June 2019, there was a case where a 14 year old girl from China was admitted to the hospital after she described her stomach pain and constipation. After Dr. Zhang Louzhen, from the Zhuji People's Hospital, gave her a
CT scan
A computed tomography scan (CT scan; formerly called computed axial tomography scan or CAT scan) is a medical imaging technique used to obtain detailed internal images of the body. The personnel that perform CT scans are called radiographers ...
, he saw over one hundred small, grey spheres sitting in parts of her abdomen. The starch that tapioca pearls are made of, in combination of thickeners and other additives, when consumed in large amounts may lead to bowel obstruction.
Undigested Bubble Tea Pearls Are Actually Impacted Faeces
/ref>
See also
*'' Arenga pinnata''
*''Chondrus crispus
''Chondrus crispus''—commonly called Irish moss or carrageen moss (Irish ''carraigín'', "little rock")—is a species of red algae which grows abundantly along the rocky parts of the Atlantic coast of Europe and North America. In its fresh c ...
''
*Sago
Sago () is a starch extracted from the pith, or spongy core tissue, of various tropical palm stems, especially those of ''Metroxylon sagu''. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Maluku Islands, where it is ...
*Agar
Agar ( or ), or agar-agar, is a jelly-like substance consisting of polysaccharides obtained from the cell walls of some species of red algae, primarily from ogonori (''Gracilaria'') and "tengusa" (''Gelidiaceae''). As found in nature, agar is ...
References
{{commons category, Tapioca pearls
Food ingredients