Is Jumbo Boba the Hot New Trend? Inside Look at Different Types of Boba!

Tiger Sugar, which was founded in Taichung, Taiwan in 2017, launched the new jumbo boba, which they claim is the world’s largest boba in November 2023. Jumbo boba are made with coffee and jelly. They’re soft and sweet. But are they really boba? They look like larger versions of what you traditionally think of as boba: dark brown or black tapioca balls. Even back in the earliest days of boba milk tea (i.e., Taiwan in the 1980’s), boba of different colors were added to drinks.

Today, boba refers to more than just tapioca pearls or even chewy pearls made of other starches. Boba can refer to the drink as well. And boba drinks don’t have to have tea or milk, but they do have to have some type of boba. While traditionally added to cold milk tea, boba can now be found in a wide variety of beverages, including smoothies, slushes, fruit drinks, coffee drinks, fruit teas, cocktails, and more.

As for the boba toppings, the term boba can refer to several kinds of spherical toppings, including jumbo boba, tapioca boba, crystal boba, and popping boba.

Tapioca boba

To make tapioca boba (aka tapioca pearls or tapioca balls), starch (typically tapioca starch derived from cassava root, combined with other starches like cornstarch and sweet potato starch), boiling water, and sugar are combined and kneaded into a dough. The dough is cut and rolled into little balls. Fresh tapioca only lasts for a day or two, so most boba shops use dried tapioca pearls. 

Dried tapioca pearls take about 30 minutes – 1 hour to cook, depending on the size of the pearls. There are quick cook versions of tapioca pearls that are pre-softened and take 5 minutes to cook. Food Network Kitchen even has tips for cooking dried tapioca pearls and a recipe for homemade brown sugar boba. Cooked tapioca pearls are bouncy, soft, and chewy. Tapioca boba can be any color but the most common colors are black/brown and clear/white.

Crystal boba

Crystal boba (aka agar boba or white pearls) are made out of agar (derived from algae) or the konjac plant, a root vegetable that’s thought to have many health benefits. Konjac is used in traditional Chinese and Japanese medicine. According to Healthline, the corm of the konjac plant is used to make a rich source of soluble dietary fiber known as glucomannan. 

Crystal boba is whitish-clear in coloring and has a firm, chewy, jelly-like texture. Konjac and agar have little flavor on their own, so crystal boba can easily be infused with flavors and colors. To make crystal boba, combine agar powder or konjac powder, sugar, and water and whisk until the sugar dissolves. Boil the mixture until the agar or konjac powder dissolves, and then pour the mixture in a boba mold. Once cooled, the boba are ready to eat.

China Sichuan Food provides several recipes for making your own crystal boba. Crystal boba is also sold ready to use in bags that can be stored at room temperature.

Popping boba

Popping boba (aka, bursting boba or popping pearls) are clear bubbles filled with fruit juice. They’re made by mixing fruit juice with powdered sodium alginate. The mixture is put into a bowl filled with a cold calcium chloride. A thin outer membrane is formed by the reaction of the alginate to the calcium chloride with the juice is contained inside the membrane. The alginate has little flavor. The membrane is thin and not chewy.

Popping boba is sold in buckets and requires no cooking. Unopened, they can be stored at room temperature. Popping boba are also a popular froyo topping. Most froyo shops offer popping boba.

Frozen Solutions stocks several flavors of popping boba, sold by the case, as well as boba straws, boba cups, cup sealing machines, and sealing film.