Alcoholic Boba Part 2
Not to be outdone by a professional, I decided to have my own go at making alcoholic boba. How hard can it be?
What I learned from my previous experience with alcoholic boba was that sweet creamy drinks work best. So using the utmost of my google-fu I came up with a good candidate list, tempered by the materials I had on hand. The milk punch, white russian, and vodka mudslide were chosen (approximately, I had to do some modifications).
MILK PUNCH
1.5 oz Bourbon
0.5 oz Dark Rum
Fill rest of glass with milk
WHITE RUSSIAN
1 oz Vodka
1 oz Coffee Liquer
1 oz Heavy Cream
Fill rest of glass with milk
VODKA MUDSLIDE
1 oz Vodka
1 oz Kahlua
1 scoop Vanilla Ice Cream
Fill rest of glass with milk
But, of course, I am not one to often follow the beaten path. So I came up with three of my own inventions to pit off against the well accepted contenders. I don’t have fancy names for them.
THE COCOA
2 oz Chocolate Liquer
Fill rest of glass with milk
THE TEA
Brew a cup of your favorite tea
Add a dash of milk
1.5 oz Bourbon
THE TEA STEEPED MILK
Fill a glass with milk
Steep a bag of tea for > 30 minutes
1.5 oz Elderflower
Drink list in hand, I got started, assisted by my friends. First step, boba:
The drinks got finished far faster than the boba so they had to spend a spell in the fridge:
The boba finished up, but to match the sweetness of the drink we had to sweeten the boba. We did this by soaking it in condensed milk:
And now we are ready. A generous helping of boba was added to each and every glass. The judges assembled. The tasting began.
We had three judges: Paul Choi, Rachel Kao, and me. Here were the scores:
| Paul Choi | Rachel Kao | Me | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milk Punch | 8 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| White Russian | 7 | 4 | 7 | 6 |
| Vodka Mudslide | 8.5 | 8 | 6 | 7 |
| The Cocoa | 5 | 8 | 6 | 7 |
| The Tea | 4 | 1 | 8 | 4 |
| Tea Steeped Milk | 8.6 | 10 | 7 | 8.5 |
In general, Rachel tended to favor the sweeter ones, I tended to favor the alcoholic ones, and Paul was middling.
The Tea was a very divisive drink, drawing low ratings from our two other judges. Since this is my blog I get to defend my drink with no opposition 😈 I think it did a great job of being clearly alcoholic (read: you could taste the alcohol) while still complimenting the boba. I believe that the other two judges were just not sophisticated enough to recognize my genius.
In the end the drink with the highest rating was probably the least alcoholic of the bunch, only containing milk and elderflower. I would hesitate to even call it a real drink…
The quest must continue! 🥛🍵🍸