Bubble Bubble!!

Oh. My. Word.
Jon and I are so thrilled!!
We figured out how to make our favorite treat right at home:
The Japanese school-girl obsession that is Bubble Tea (to quote my friend Steve).
There is an Asian Supermarket right down the street from our house, so after doing a bit of online research we figured out our list and headed down to "Fubon". When we walked in it reeked of fish--I think our kids thought they had just stepped into a foreign country!
We quickly found what we needed: the tapioca "pearls" (called Boba--this is what makes it Bubble Tea), the flavoring we wanted (Mango!), and of course, big fat straws to drink it with.

We got home, I made some sweet iced tea, mixed in some half & half (it has to be milk tea for me to drink it),

cooked up some delicious Boba (10 minutes boiling time, 10 minutes to steep with the lid on),

stirred in a little mango flavoring and voila! (oops, can I use French to describe this Asian delight??) it was ready. For the price of 3 bubble teas at a tea shop, we can enjoy about 50.
Now the only drawback is all the calories involved...