no, i haven’t been to san francisco lately, but a little piece of sf did make it’s way to me in the form of a few blends by tea people. if you aren’t familiar with the brand, you may have heard of their sister company, boba guys. the whole company started back in 2011 as a pop-up shop. it was so wildly successful, that the put their heads together and launched their first shop in the summer of 2013 and have since grown into two tea companies with multiple locations. i never got a chance to go there when i was living in the bay area, but i have seen many an instagram photo of a frosty mug filled with delicious bubble milk tea. it’s almost enough to make be book a one-way ticket back to my old home! but since i don’t have any real plans to visit at the moment, i can pretend i’m there by attempting to hack their famous recipe.

i started by brewing the boba guys blend no. 1 as the base, which was designed as a blend strong enough to match straus family creamery milk and still hold it’s flavor. from there, i boiled some tapioca balls until soft and mixed it all together with some half and half and a teensy bit of sugar.  i don’t know if it’s as good as the original, but it certainly satisfied my craving for boba. now all i need to do is find the right straws…