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Japanese College Student Makes Bubble Tea From Scratch, Harvests Her Own Cassava Plant

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Japanese student makes bubble tea from scratch

Thanks to the bubble tea craze that has caught on globally in the past few years, most of us can get our hands on the addictive drink easily. However, a Japanese college student decided to put in the hard work and made bubble tea completely from scratch – she even harvested her own cassava plant to make tapioca pearls. 

College student makes bubble tea from scratch

Japanese student makes bubble tea - student posing with cassava plant
Image credit: @teruterurururu_ 

A Japanese college student, who originally lived in Tokyo in her high school years but moved to Ibaraki Prefecture for university, shared her journey of making bubble tea from the ground up, literally. 

In her tweet, user @teruterurururu_ proudly showed off her achievement after living in Ibaraki Prefecture for 3 years.

Japanese student makes bubble tea - cassava root
Image credit: @teruterurururu_ 

Instead of buying commercially available tapioca starch, the main ingredient used to make the chewy orbs in boba, the student opted to grow cassava plants in order to make said starch from the roots. 

How she made bubble tea from scratch

Japanese student makes bubble tea - peeled cassava root
Image credit: @teruterurururu_ 

Making homemade tapioca is already a tedious and repetitive process, but add raw cassava plants to the equation and you have a whole new challenge. To end up with tapioca starch, you’d first have to peel off the outer skin of the cassava roots, rinse with cool water several times, and cut them into small chunks.  

Japanese student makes bubble tea - tapioca starchImage credit: @teruterurururu_ 

Once the roots are prepped, pop them into a blender with some water and blitz them until you get a smooth consistency. Pour the mixture into a bowl and let it sit for a while – the white starch will settle to the bottom and you can discard the liquid on top. 

Japanese student makes bubble tea - tapioca starch
Image credit: @teruterurururu_

Scrape the remaining white residue onto a baking tray or any container with a wide surface area, before letting it dry out over a few days. 

Japanese student makes bubble tea- tapioca pearlsImage credit: @teruterurururu_

Japanese student makes bubble tea - end product
Image credit: @teruterurururu_ 

Once dried to a powdered form, the tapioca starch is ready to be made into dainty blobs of pearls and added to your milk tea. 

Japanese student makes bubble tea from scratch

Store-bought alternatives may be more convenient, but there’s nothing more satisfying than the feeling of seeing something through from start to finish, even if it takes a little more work. If you like to see more content on root vegetables, don’t forget to give user @teruterurururu_ a follow. 

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Cover image adapted from: @teruterurururu_, @teruterurururu_ and @teruterurururu_Â