DIY Bubble Tea

After reading @kevvieguy's experiment on making bubble tea (post is here, and the post he recommended is here), I also decided to give it a try! I'm a big bubble tea fan, and to make my own instead of going to the shops is a definite bonus... I spend too much these days on eating and drinking out, and not enough time making my own things...

So I kind of copied @kevvieguy, but changed ingredients as I was being lazy...

I bought this instant Thai milk tea (I actually don't know what flavour it is), and the black tapioca pearls (I couldn't find the coloured ones in my local store)...

Thai Milk Tea and black tapioca pearls

I cooked the pearls first for 5 minutes as instructed, drained them, and then I added honey instead of making my own syrup... Lazy Geek!! :) (I estimated the amount of pearls needed here).

Boil those bubbles!

Nice and glossy :)

Almost ready..

Then next I added the instant tea into a glass, added some cold water...but then I think it didn't dissolve too well, so I added some hot water, then re-added some cold water...

And then finally I added the tapioca pearls that were soaking in the honey...

DIY Thai Milk Bubble Tea

I didn't have a big straw and so I used a spoon and scooped them out to eat... Wow, chewy! Next time, if I'm craving bubble tea, I will make my own!! :D

Then the next day I made this one using instant Vietnamese coffee :D

Using Vietnamese coffee

DIY Vietnamese Bubble Tea

Ingredients:

- Tapioca pearls

- Instant milk tea (or any ice tea drinks you can make or buy)

- Water (cold and hot)

- Honey (or sugar to make the syrup to soak the tapicoa pearls)

- Ice cubes (optional)
- Big straw (purchasble in China Town)

How to make... instructions as above... too lazy to rewrite it all...  :P

Cuppacha Bubble Tea 喀杯茶 - London China Town

It was a very long Saturday last weekend! Spent a long time with my cousin who was choosing baby clothes for her daughter and friends babies... So after I left her, I decided to have big bubble tea drink at Cuppacha 喀杯茶 (canto: kaa bui cha; mando: ke bei cha) which has opened for a few months now in China Town. I first went there during the Terracotta Film Festival, but lost my pictures and so I couldn't blog about it then. :(

Now weeks later, I have come back to enjoy another bubble tea, the same flavour to be exact! This place seems very popular compared to some others that I've walked passed. When I went in the previous customers left. I sat there for a few moments and suddenly there was a queue! What the...! For a large cup it costs £3.50. Wow! Compared to other places this is a bargain price with a bigger cup size! XD Not sure how much the smaller cups cost but it's worth just having the bigger cup.

Queue building up as I left!! Mega busy in this place!!

The counter 

The pearls are very chewy and the tea has the right tea strength for me. It's not too strong and not too weak... I am sure you will not be disappointed in whatever flavour you get!!!

Cuppacha flavour... normal tea flavour

I think I must come to this place more often to try out the other flavours. The only problem for me is that there's no visible bin. So you either have to find a bin outside or probably ask the staff to throw the cup away for you! They were too busy for me to ask really...

Not going to rate it... But I'll be back for more (^_^)v ... ah, might as well, 5/5 from The Geek!

***

AND before I came here, I ate at a place called Fiori that doesn't sell the best kebabs. This is by Leicester Square Station. It's popular with the tourists... Always pass it and it's full of people! (I will blog about another place that does GREAT kebabs later). Here's our chicken kebab...

Chicken kebab in pita bread

And I tried to take picture of the place which is beside Leicester Square Station, but had "Clapham Tranny" in my picture! Apparently he/she gets about, and doesn't always stick to Clapham! XD

"Clapham Tranny in front of Leicester Square Station"... Fiori is in front!

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Address: 23 Newport Court, London WC2H 7JS

Telephone: 020 7998 0313

Website: https://www.facebook.com/ilovecuppacha

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Instant Bubble Milk Tea from 优乐美 U.LOVEIT

I went on another food shopping spree in China Town a few days ago! And I was looking for some dried lotus root to use in Chinese soup, but couldn't find them and so I ended up buying this at New Long Fung Supermarket 新龍鳳行...

From left to right: Original bubble tea flavour, Red Bean bubble tea , normal instant tea flavour

Jay Chou promoting the U.LOVEIT bubble tea products ^^

Instant Hot/Cold Bubble Milk Tea from a Chinese company U.LOVEIT 优乐美 (you le mei).

It's just perfect for the lazy person who wants bubble tea but doesn't want to spend too much. I think it's been out in London for a while but I have never tried it out. Bubble tea is still an in thing and there's definitely an increasing fan base in London. 

Here's what's inside the bubble tea cups. The one with the very orangy cap is just normal instant tea without the bubbles, it has jelly bits instead.

Everything is tightly packed

This is what's inside the cup: tapioca bubbles, instant milk tea and a big yellow straw

Tapioca bubbles 

First I made the original bubble tea and had it hot. It was nice! Real bubble tea taste. ^^

Start mixing!

This is how you drink it

Then in the evening I had the red bean bubble tea. Cold with pre-made ice. ^^

Red Bean bubble tea with ice!

If you want to buy the ones with tapioca balls make sure you buy the ones that say Bubble Milk Tea 珍珠奶茶. They cost under £1 each (I think it was 86p... something like that! I lost the receipt!).

There's no instructions in English on the cup to show you how to make this, but thankfully I found a video on YouTube!

Easy!

Where to buy: New Long Fung Supermarket 新龍鳳行
Cost: ~86p

Here's my previous post on bubble tea...
http://asimplegeekylife.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/bubble-tea-in-chinese-supermarket.html

A One Time Wine Tasting Event

Many months ago I was asked by an ex-colleague and friend to attend this event, a wine tasting event for a charity, which was a one-time event... To be honest I wasn't that keen at first. I'm not really a wine person (but can still drink it) as I really become disorientated and drunk... And if you had read my posts on Portugal, you'll probably remember the time I drank a whole bottle of port by myself and got a bit tipsy. ¬_¬ Now that wasn't a pretty sight. In the end I gave in and thankfully Miss Pinky said she'll come along with me (she had wanted to go to a wine tasting event for a long time!). ^^

So I didn't know what to expect. I didn't even know where the hotel was!! Luckily Miss Pinky and I met a couple of people on the streets of Blackheath who knew where the hotel was and we found it in the end!!

Sorry for the blurry picture... We were at the Clarendon Hotel in Blackheath

Once we got there not many people had arrived, so we had a drink beforehand, but the place filled up quite quickly!  ^^

My G&T and Miss Pinky's Budweiser

We eventually got to our table for the wine tasting to start. Our table had a mixture of people and we had one particular funny guy at our table who works on a cruise ship! The wine tasting was about how we should taste wine plus it was more of a quiz night where we needed to guess what type of wines we were tasting. They gave us two different descriptions of the correct wine and the incorrect wine. Every person and table were very competitive and some of us were mostly guessing the wines! Heheheh. Our table got 2 out of 7 questions correct :( that's baaad!!! And the table that won were full of lawyers :P (they got every question right!!)... Looks like they are the ones who know their wines. ^^

It's just the start...

My first glass of wine ^^

Anyway, I had a fun night (I still think we had the funniest table)... The food was ok too...

Some of the food from the buffet

A Clarendon Hotel Napkin ¬_¬

The balloons at our table ^^ - sorry for blurriness! 

We had a raffle at the end for the charity, but I'm afraid no-one at our table won anything. :P 

So, if anyone wants to try out a really nice sweet white wine try a Gavi wine... ^^ (I like sweet things). I forgot which one Miss Pinky liked... It was one of the red ones.

Might try out The Clarendon Hotel for some afternoon tea too... You could never know...

www.allaboutwine.co.uk - My friend organised the event with these guys

Bulmers Poster Advert no.2

Riiiight... I think I'm starting to understand the Bulmer Adverts now... This second poster was released about 2 to 3 weeks ago and I've been meaning to get a close up of it but I've had no time to find one to picture! There are loads of them posted at bus stops in Croydon :P

'In the beginning there was Percy and Fred Bulmer'

Anyway, this one makes sense to me!! 'In the beginning there was Percy & Fred Bulmer' who were the ones who produced and manufactured Bulmers Cider... And 125 years later it's still going on!

I think I will soon get the gist of it once it's Christmas, heheheh... Maybe I should drink more Bulmers. ^_^

Here's some background reading (which I should have read beforehand) :P 
http://www.thedrum.com/news/2012/08/23/bulmers-celebrate-125th-anniversary-beginning-campaign

See previous post of Bulmers first poster: 
http://asimplegeekylife.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/bulmers-poster-advert.html

'M' Powered Advert

Yay! I finished my OU exam this morning. I am so overjoyed...!! It's time for a very stiff drink. Bring on the whiskey and coke. ^^

And so after the exam what did I spot...?

'm' powered advert

This has to be one of the most awful advertising schemes I have seen... I know that the mustache milk adverts have been out for a long time, but for me it just doesn't work. I'm not even sure if kids really like this advert. Does it really inspire them to drink milk, or does it make them waste milk by just making a mustache?

To me a milk advert is pouring it into tea, coffee and cereal... or drinking it whilst eating cheese and onion crisps :D but I guess this is all old style. Milk is a source of calcium, vitamins, minerals etc., etc... and I assume that's what this advert is trying to get at... Drinking milk keeps you healthy. 

Unfortunately for me, the advert doesn't appeal to me... There's a possibility that it causes rheumatism and arthritis, so I think drinking too much of it is also not good. :(

Kids - drink milk, but please encourage adults like us to create better adverts for you in the future. :P

Drinking Korean Alcohol

Sometimes I hate Korean dramas because they always make me cry! Argh! And when the actors and actresses get depressed they always start drinking! Hah! So of course, what they have I mus try ^_^ So first off I tried was soju.This is the most popular and cheapest alcohol served in Korea. In the UK, they only sell the original flavour it's around £6 a bottle (a bit expensive for a small bottle). It's very, very strong, just like taking a vodka shot... but it felt 10 times more lethal! 

The next drink I tried was this blackbean soya drink... It tasted like that blackbean soyabean milk I posted earlier. Can't remember the price though...

Next one (I have shown a pic of this before when I went to Arirang) is Hite, I'm not sure if this popular in Korea but I love it! A little cheaper than soju and the blackbean drink ^_^.

Last drink I tried is this wine. It cost £5. I haven't finished it yet, but it is pretty strong stuff.

If you want to try Korean alcohol you can get soju in China Town and Japan Centre. But the best place to get Korean food (although a fairly expensive place) is Centre Point food store which is along St. Giles High Street (opposite ASSA)...


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Bubble Tea in a Chinese Supermarket!

In Taiwan they are famous for their bubble tea which has suddenly become popular in London China Town. When I first tasted it in Hong Kong I think I had either a coffee or a tea version with these big pieces of jelly (tapioca pearls) and a big massive straw which is specially made for these drinks!
Well, as well as some café places in China Town which make them freshly for you, you can also get them in supermarkets!
I found these in Yang Guang Supermarket 阳光超市... Authentic bubble tea!! One vanilla and one that looked like coffee but was actually tea... There were only a few flavours available, but it also seems like they are trialling them out. They cost £2.80 each. A little bit expensive, but it's worth the try! ^_^

One vanilla and one tea

Heheheh, I've just noticed that's there's a spelling mistake in their lid above. They've put "puality" instead of "quality". ^.^

Big tapioca pearls!

 I actually almost choked trying to get those pearls up the straw!

Big straws for the pearls!

You can also get tea and coffee versions in cans, but they will have smaller tapioca pearls.

Update 21/07/2012
If you want a really fresh bubble tea, then go to this place Boba Jam on Shaftesbury Avenue. I have tried it before, and it's great!

Update 09/08/2012
Here's the can version...

Yeo's Soya Drinks

A few weeks ago when I went to China Town, I came across these drinks in New Loong Fung Supermarket 新龍鳳行 (san lung fung hong). They are soya bean drinks from Yeo's, which I have never tasted before... And by the way I spell soya with an "a", the word just doesn't look right without an "a"... ^_^

Green bean and Black bean soy drinks

Have you ever tasted a black bean flavoured soya drink before?... Yes I have, but it was Korean, very tasty and alcoholic! The green bean soya didn't taste that special (as I'm not a green bean fan anyway). 

I definitely recommend the black bean soya drink... I can't remember the cost. But give it a go!

Update 23/06/2012 - they cost 39p per carton! There's also a red bean one, but the supermarket ran out :(