TRADITIONAL DRINKS
Welcome to the world of yin liao, which translates from Mandarin as “drinks.” Of course, “traditional” is a tricky word when it comes to boba and yin liao, because things are always changing so fast. In this section, you’ll find drinks you might have seen in cafés or in boba shops—drinks that for us are cultural staples. We’re trying to honor the classics without too much embellishment in these recipes. We also weight this section heavily toward more entry-level techniques and ingredients; then we level up as we proceed deeper into the book. You’ll probably learn a little bit about our childhoods in the stories behind these drinks because we grew up on them. But it’s not going to be all stuff you’ve heard of before. Even for the boba expert, there are bound to be a couple of surprises in this chapter.
ICED MATCHA LATTE
The combination of matcha and milk has been around for a long time—green tea ice cream is at least as old as the 1980s! And matcha lattes started to show up stateside more than 10 years ago. The grassiness and umami of the tea with the creaminess of the milk—and yes, the colors—all make the combination work, even though matcha traditionally had nothing to do with milk.
We wanted to take this modern classic combination of matcha and milk, and we wanted to tell a story with it. Which is where the layering technique comes in. You see the tea and the milk in distinct layers, and then you stir them into a cloudy green—it’s East meets West, and it’s beautiful.
Start with the milk and ice in the glass. Then carefully pour in the tea so it hits the ice and disperses slowly over the top of the milk. If you pour it too fast, the tea will shoot straight through the milk and marbleize the drink.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BOBA, GRASS JELLY, EGG PUDDING
1½ teaspoons premium matcha
3½ tablespoons filtered water, heated to 170°F
1 tablespoon honey
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
1 tablespoon House Syrup (this page), or to taste
8 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
6 ounces whole milk
Place the matcha in a bowl and add 1 tablespoon of the hot water. Whisk vigorously to make a paste. It should have the consistency of peanut butter with no clumps. Then add the remaining 2½ tablespoons hot water to the matcha and whisk vigorously, until any remaining clumps disappear.
Coat the inside of a glass with the honey (see this page). Add the toppings, if using, and pour the syrup into the glass. Add the ice and the milk. Then gently pour the matcha over the milk, aiming for the ice cubes to keep the layers cleanly separated. Stir before drinking.
HONG KONG MILK TEA
ANDREW: I grew up on this tea. I’m part Taiwanese, part Cantonese. (So please don’t talk to me about Chinese politics!) Cantonese food is totally banging: think char siu bao/pork buns, beef chow fun, and salted fish fried rice. And Hong Kong café culture is vibrant, a cross-cultural mix of British, European, and Chinese influences. My grandmother used to make these macaroni soups you see in HK cafés all the time, and she’d serve it with milk tea enriched with evaporated or sweetened condensed milk. The brand that everybody knows is called Longevity. It’s got an illustration of an old dude who looks like an Asian Saruman.
When we were first starting Boba Guys, we were considering focusing on Hong Kong teas, but we ended up with Taiwanese boba as our staple. So in an alternate universe, this recipe, instead of the Classic Milk Tea, is the staple drink we would have riffed on.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: GRASS JELLY, EGG PUDDING, BLACK STICKY RICE
2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
5 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
1 tablespoon House Syrup (this page), or to taste
8 ounces Brewed Boba Guys’ Black Tea (this page)
Coat the inside of a glass with half of the condensed milk (see sidebar following). Add the toppings, if using, and the ice. Pour the syrup and the remaining condensed milk over the ice. Pour the tea over the ice. Stir until everything is mixed before drinking.
TEH TARIK
This is a classic Singaporean/Malaysian drink from which you can (and should) build riffs and variations and remixes. Teh Tarik is more aerated than a Hong Kong milk tea and less bitter than the Taiwanese style. It’s pretty much the lightest of all the iconic Asian milk teas. “Pulling” it, meaning pouring it back and forth between two cups, helps to aerate it and gives it even more of a feeling of lightness. And it creates a layer of frothy bubbles on top.
This recipe was created by our friend chef Nora Haron, who helped out a lot with the Southeast Asian recipes in this book. Nora added ginger to the classic presentation of Teh Tarik to spice it up a bit. Get your crazy rich Asian drink on.
MAKES 10 TO 12 SERVINGS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BOBA, COCONUT ALMOND JELLY, JAPANESE COFFEE JELLY
¾ cup black tea leaves
8 cups filtered water, heated to 190˚F
½ cup ginger juice (fresh or store-bought; see note)
1 cup sweetened condensed milk, heated
1 cup heavy cream, heated
2 to 4 tablespoons (per cup) toppings of your choice (optional)
Steep the black tea leaves in the hot water for 4 minutes. Then strain the tea into a heatproof pitcher. Add the ginger juice, condensed milk, and heavy cream. Stir to thoroughly mix the contents. Divide the tea into serving cups.
For the “pulled” (or Tarik) effect: For best results, use a handheld milk frother in each cup until you see fine bubbles topping the cup. Or to go old-school, pour some of the tea into a cup; then pour it, from as high a distance as you’re comfortable, into another cup. Pour the tea back and forth between the two cups until it is frothy. Add the toppings, if using.
NOTE:
If you want to make ginger juice, the most effective method is to use a juicer. We do not recommend using a blender or food processor, but if you must, for ½ cup juice, you’ll need ¾ pound fresh ginger, blended and squeezed / strained through a few layers of cheesecloth. It’s a workout!You can store ginger juice in the fridge for up to 1 week.
THAI ICED TEA
Sweet, creamy, and aromatic, Thai iced tea is really good with anything salty, like curries and all the spicy dishes you get at Thai restaurants. It’s almost a desserty drink, but you get to have it with your meal, so as kids, how could we resist? For most of our drinks at Boba Guys, we leave it to the customers to adjust the sweetness to their taste, but for this, you really want it sweet.
For us, Thai Iced Tea was also an early example of thinking outside the box with tea. It has mounds of spices in the tea blend. And it’s like the OG Instagrammable drink, but way before Instagram. It looks beautiful, with the gentle marbling from the condensed milk in this bright orange tea. It’s iconic.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BOBA, GRASS JELLY
1 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
5 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
1 cup Brewed Thai Tea (recipe follows)
2½ ounces half-and-half
Coat the inside of a glass with the condensed milk (see this page). Add the toppings, if using, and the ice, and pour the tea over the ice. Add the half-and-half. Stir until everything is mixed before drinking.
brewed thai tea
MAKES ABOUT 10 CUPS
1 cup white sugar
Thai Tea Blend (recipe follows)
6 cups filtered water, heated to 190°F
5 cups ice cubes
Mix the sugar and Thai tea blend in a heatproof bowl. Add the hot water and steep the tea for 20 minutes.
Fill a pitcher with the ice cubes. Strain the tea over the ice, and set the pitcher aside to allow the ice to fully melt.
Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
thai tea blend
MAKES ENOUGH FOR 10 CUPS
3 whole star anise pods
6 green cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick, approximately 4 inches long
1 tablespoon vanilla powder
½ cup Ceylon tea leaves
Using a mortar and pestle or a mallet, lightly crush the star anise, cardamom, and cinnamon stick. Mix these thoroughly with the vanilla powder and tea leaves. Store in an airtight container. Keeps for up to a year.
ICED TURMERIC LATTE
Ah…the Golden Latte, as some would call it. Turmeric tea and something creamy. We love it. Turmeric is known for its digestive and anti-inflammatory properties. The drink tastes like a blend of mustard, nuts, and ginger. This drink would win a drink decathlon. It’s colorful, versatile, healthy, and distinctive to the palate.
So how could such a drink be so divisive? It’s not because it’s slightly bitter. The cultural conversation around turmeric is a lot like matcha. Both are ingredients with millennia of tradition—Japan for matcha, South Asia for turmeric—so for many, it feels weird to separate this item from its cultural significance. In parts of India, turmeric is used in sacred ceremonies and in regional fashion.
We decided to include a turmeric latte recipe in this book because we hope people who are being introduced to turmeric also take the time to learn about its role in other cultures. We originally wanted to tell you a story about how we once ruined $200 worth of Boba Guys equipment because turmeric stains are notoriously difficult to remove. But that’s a story for another day. Today is about building a bridge.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BOBA
2 tablespoons honey
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
5 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
1 cup almond milk or “coconut beverage” (you can find this at stores like Trader Joe’s; it’s essentially coconut milk thinned down to a drinkable consistency)
¼ cup Turmeric Tea (recipe follows)
Coat the inside of a glass with honey (see this page). Add the toppings, if using, and the ice. Pour the almond milk or coconut beverage into the glass. Gently pour the turmeric tea into the glass, aiming for the ice to create a layering effect.
turmeric tea
MAKES 1 CUP
1 cup almond milk
¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon honey (optional)
In a small saucepan, cook the almond milk on medium heat until it is almost boiling. Turn the heat to low so the milk is simmering. Whisk in the turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, vanilla extract, and honey, if using. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the mixture to cool. Strain the tea into a cup or mason jar.
You can store the turmeric tea in the fridge for up to 3 days.
CHAI LATTE
We both love Indian food and chai goes hand in hand with that. Shout-out to our favorites, Naan N Curry and Pakwan in San Francisco, where we spent many nights brainstorming ideas for Boba Guys. Chai became our chaser from everything to saag paneer to ghobi gosht (cauliflower and lamb). We know Indian drinks go beyond chai, but this is a staple in our lives.
Our chai blend recipe is trying to get somewhere in the ballpark of an instantly recognizable classic. You kind of empty out your spice cabinet for it.
But of course pretty much every South Asian family has their own recipe for chai. We always respect that and encourage people to try their own special variations—so feel free to play with the ratios and the kinds of spices with this recipe.
MAKES 6 CUPS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BOBA, GRASS JELLY, EGG PUDDING
6 cups filtered water
4 inches of fresh ginger (about 4 inches total), peeled and thinly sliced
Chai Tea Blend (recipe follows)
1½ cups half-and-half, heated
6 tablespoons House Syrup (this page), or to taste
2 to 4 tablespoons (per cup) toppings of your choice (optional)
In a small saucepan, combine the water and ginger and simmer, covered, over medium heat for 15 minutes. (You may need to reduce the heat to keep it at a gentle simmer.)
Bring the water up to 190°F. Remove the pan from the heat and add the chai blend. Steep for 5 minutes.
Strain the tea and divide it evenly among six cups. Mix ¼ cup of half-and-half and 1 tablespoon house syrup into each cup. Add the toppings, if using.
chai tea blend
MAKES ENOUGH FOR 6 SERVINGS OF TEA
8 green cardamom pods
4 cinnamon sticks, 3 inches each
3 teaspoons black peppercorns
10 whole cloves
½ cup Ceylon tea leaves
Using a mortar and pestle or a mallet, crush the spices lightly. In a small mixing bowl, combine the spices with the tea leaves. The mixture can be kept in an airtight container for months, until the spices are noticeably diminished in aroma.
MANGO LASSI
This is another classic Indian drink. The combo of tangy yogurt and sweet mango is exactly what you want when it’s hot outside. If you don’t feel like eating too much, this will fill you up a bit while cooling you down.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: SAGO, EGG PUDDING
½ cup Mango Puree (recipe follows)
5 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
¼ cup whole milk
¼ cup kefir or drinkable yogurt
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
½ lime, juiced
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
In a blender, combine the mango puree, ice cubes, milk, kefir or yogurt, cardamom, and lime juice. Blend until smooth. Pour the mango lassi into a glass, add the toppings, if using, and serve.
mango puree
MAKES 3 CUPS
1½ cups cold filtered water
1 cup raw cane sugar, preferably turbinado
2 cups diced fresh mango (Buy more mangoes than you think you’ll need, because you’ll compost the skin and the pit.)
In a blender, combine the water, sugar, and mangoes and blend until smooth. Store in the fridge for up to 7 days.
HORCHATA
Growing up, we always thought of horchata as the Mexican Vitasoy (a sweet soy milk that every Asian drank growing up). Now that we’re older, we understand its cultural significance a bit more. When people ask what our first signature drink was, it’s our housemade horchata recipe. It’s a staple in many Hispanic cultures: traditionally made from rice milk, it’s a sweet, spiced drink, a great pairing with spicy savory food. We call Cali our home, so horchata is particularly near and dear to our hearts as you’ll find versions of it in most taquerias and local supermarkets.
Our original horchata recipe came in a lot of local inspiration, including our favorites, La Balompié and Taqueria Cancun in the Mission District in San Francisco. We want to thank everyone in the neighborhood for teaching two Asian guys something so near and dear to your hearts.
We love the combination of whole and rice milks here, but you can also try switching out the whole milk for some really good, thick almond milk to get a nuttier flavor, closer to the Spanish or Salvadorian styles of horchata.
You can enjoy this on its own without mixing it into one of our drinks.
MAKES ABOUT 8 GLASSES
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: JAPANESE COFFEE JELLY, EGG PUDDING, BOBA
6 tablespoons white sugar
2½ teaspoons vanilla powder
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup whole milk
6½ cups rice milk
2 to 4 tablespoons (per glass) toppings of your choice (optional)
In a pitcher, combine the sugar, vanilla powder, and cinnamon. Pour the whole milk into the pitcher and stir. Add the rice milk and mix thoroughly. Serve, with the toppings, if desired.
You can store this in the fridge for up to 1 week.
ICED CHAMPURRADO
When we started out as a pop-up in the Mission District of San Francisco, we’d be carrying our equipment out to our car at the end of those long nights and we would smell the sweet, spicy aroma of champurrado filling the cool night air. It’s a hot Mexican corn-thickened chocolate-and-spice milk drink, and it’d be impossible to resist. It’s always cold in San Francisco.
So champurrado always hits the spot in the most comforting, warming way. You can have boba drinks hot or cold, so pick whatever is to your liking, but we love this one cold.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BOBA, EGG PUDDING
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
5 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
1 cup Champurrado (recipe follows), cool or room temperature
Put the toppings, if using, in a glass, and add the ice. Pour in the champurrado.
champurrado
MAKES 6 SERVINGS
½ cup masa harina or corn flour (not cornstarch)
3 cups filtered water
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 whole star anise pods
½ teaspoon salt
2 ounces (¼ cup packed) dark brown sugar or piloncillo
4 ounces dark/bittersweet chocolate
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 cups whole milk
In a medium-size saucepan, slowly whisk the masa harina or corn flour into the water. Add the cinnamon, star anise, and salt. Cook over medium heat, whisking, until the mixture thickens and is almost simmering.
Turn the heat down to low and add the brown sugar, chocolate, and cayenne pepper. Mix until the sugar and chocolate are completely dissolved.
Slowly whisk in the milk until thoroughly mixed. Remove from the heat and, for best texture, strain the champurrado through a fine-mesh sieve into a container. Let it cool.
You can store the champurrado in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
POG
POG! So classic. So its own thing. This is just pretty much the Hawai’ian standard you know and love. (Or if you don’t, you’re about to.) The classic combination of passion fruit plus orange plus guava was created in the 1970s at Haleakala Creamery in Maui. We don’t mess with it too much. You get that nice tartness and sweetness from the fruit in this combination, but we use a bit more pulp than most might because, you know, chewing your drink. Use fresh-squeezed juice if possible.
And a little fun history: The caps to the bottles that POG is traditionally served in became collectors’ items and then that morphed into a game. Milk cap games had been played in Hawai’i, according to some reports, since as early as the 1920s. The game of POG we grew up with, which was big in the ’90s, was an update of that game. You’d stack a bunch of POG caps (they weren’t even bottle caps anymore, but that’s what they were called), then you’d try to upset the stack with a “slammer.” Whichever caps landed faceup, you got to keep. Then you’d keep your winnings until the next game. While developing this recipe we had fun reminiscing about our old POG “slammers,” which you could buy in baseball card shops back in the day: Beavis and Butt-Head, yin and yang, skull and crossbones…kids of the ’90s, you know what we’re talking about!
MAKES 6 SERVINGS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: GRASS JELLY, CENDOL, TAPIOCA CHIA SEED PUDDING
2 cups passion fruit pulp (or store-bought puree)
1 cup orange juice
1 cup guava juice
½ cup pineapple juice
¼ cup honey
Ice cubes, as desired
2 to 4 tablespoons (per glass) toppings of your choice (optional)
In a blender, process the passion fruit pulp on medium-low speed to break up the seeds and puree the pulp. Strain out the seeds with a fine-mesh strainer and return the strained puree to the blender. (If you’re using bottled puree, no need to strain. Just pour it into the blender.) Add the orange, guava, and pineapple juices and the honey. Blend on low speed. Then either blend in ice cubes to make a slushie, or serve the juice over ice. Add the toppings, if desired.
You can store the blended juice in the fridge for up to a week.
VIETNAMESE ICED COFFEE
Vietnam is known for its sweet, strong coffee drinks. You can’t write a book about Asian drinks without mentioning the iconic Vietnamese iced coffee. We do it with a homemade macadamia nut condensed milk because we like the idea that Hawai’i and Southeast Asia are shaking hands in this cup, but you can go old-school and just use the standard sweetened condensed milk instead. For the full effect, you’ll want to get a Vietnamese coffee filter, which is a simple single-serving dripper you set on top of your glass. They’re readily available in Asian markets and online. For the coffee, you can use your favorite dark-roast coffee, or do like they do in New Orleans and use a coffee-chicory blend, or add some ground chicory to the dark roast.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: JAPANESE COFFEE JELLY, EGG PUDDING, BLACK STICKY RICE
1½ tablespoons coarsely ground dark roast coffee beans
½ teaspoon ground chicory (optional)
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
2 tablespoons Macadamia Nut Condensed Milk (recipe follows) or sweetened condensed milk, or to taste
8 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
5 ounces (½ cup + 2 tablespoons) filtered water, heated to 200°F
Unscrew the filter plate in a Vietnamese coffee filter and add the ground coffee and chicory, if using, to it. Screw the filter plate back on, but not too tight. (The tighter you set it, the slower the drip and the stronger the coffee.) Set the filter aside.
Put the toppings, if using, in a glass, and add the condensed milk and the ice. Place the coffee filter over the top of the glass and fill the filter with the hot water. Allow the coffee to slowly drip into the glass; this will take 4 to 5 minutes. If necessary, continue adding hot water as the coffee drips out. Once the dripping has stopped, stir the drink to combine.
macadamia nut condensed milk
Not even King Kamehameha could have dreamed of this. Of course, back then, macadamia nuts weren’t even harvested from the trees in Hawai’i. They were considered to be too beautiful to be a crop. But their creamy flavor is transcendent, and we love using them to make a rich condensed milk alternative. Note that this isn’t a dairy-free version—we just love how the nuts infuse the milk with their flavor.
MAKES 1½ CUPS, ENOUGH FOR ABOUT 10 SERVINGS
1 cup macadamia nuts
2 cups whole milk
¾ cup cane sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Using a food processor, grind the macadamia nuts until they form a paste. In a medium saucepan, cook the nut paste on medium-high heat, stirring, for 5 minutes, or until it is very fragrant but not burning. Transfer the nut paste to a bowl.
In the same saucepan, combine the milk and the sugar. Cook over low heat until the sugar has dissolved, then raise the heat to medium-low. Cook, whisking often, until the milk has reduced by half, about 30 minutes. Add the nut paste, salt, and vanilla extract. Whisk together until everything is thoroughly combined. Remove from the heat. Allow to cool.
Store the mixture in a mason jar or other airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week.
VIETNAMESE EGG SODA
The combination of fizzy soda and creamy richness is totally delicious. This Vietnamese drink takes that idea and goes hard on it, adding egg yolk. This drink is on the sweeter side, so it’s a real treat, somewhere between a drink and a dessert.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BOBA, JAPANESE COFFEE JELLY
1 large egg yolk
3 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
Leaves from 1 sprig fresh mint
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
5 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
8 ounces seltzer or club soda
In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolk and condensed milk.
In a glass, use a muddler or a spoon to smash the mint leaves. Pour the egg yolk mixture into the glass. Add the toppings, if using, the ice, and the seltzer or club soda. Mix vigorously.
VIETNAMESE EGG COFFEE
This is a bit of a riff on both the Vietnamese Iced Coffee (this page) and the Vietnamese Egg Soda (this page). We take the rich element of the soda—the combination of condensed milk and egg yolk—and refashion it as a topping for a hot Vietnamese coffee. Using a dark roast coffee is very important here. Lighter roasts are cool these days, highlighting the beans’ fruitiness and acidity, but let’s face it, our parents never go in for lighter roasts. Dark roast is more old-school, which is the vibe we like for this drink, and a dark roast stands up to the sweetness and richness of the egg cream.
MAKES 2 GLASSES
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BOBA, EGG PUDDING, JAPANESE COFFEE JELLY
3 tablespoons coarsely ground dark-roast coffee beans
1¼ cups filtered water, heated to 200°F
Whipped Egg Cream (recipe follows)
1 to 2 tablespoons (per glass) toppings of your choice (optional)
Unscrew the filter plate of two Vietnamese coffee filters, and divide the coffee grounds between them. Screw the filter plates back on, but not too tight. Place a coffee filter over the top of each glass. Fill the filters with the hot water. If necessary, continue adding hot water as the coffee drips out. Allow the coffee to slowly drip into the glasses, which will take 4 to 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, whisk together the whipped egg cream (see following).
Once the coffee is done dripping, divide the whipped egg cream between the glasses. Add the toppings, if using. Mix together before drinking.
whipped egg cream
MAKES ENOUGH FOR 2 GLASSES
2 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons sugar
6 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and condensed milk. Using an electric whisk, whisk for 5 minutes or until the mixture becomes foamy.
COCONUT PANDAN DRINK
Pandan—everywhere in Asia, hardly anywhere in America. It’s a South Asian plant that imparts a sweet, floral, vanilla-like quality to savory and sweet dishes alike. Pandan is the Drake of Asian flavoring. Put it in anything. It’ll be a hit.
Pandan jelly is common in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand. So we like to use it in this drink as a nod to those traditions. Sago is basically the Southeast Asian version of tapioca pudding; the pearls are way smaller and softer than boba, but we’re equal-opportunity tapioca lovers.
With the addition of tender sago, the firm-melting texture of the pandan-agar jelly, and the coconut milk, this is a complex, rich drink you can chew—sure to be a showstopper if you want to impress friends who love delicious new flavors.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED (ADDITIONAL) TOPPINGS: CENDOL, TAPIOCA CHIA SEED PUDDING, CHÈ BA MÀU JELLY
1 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons Sago (this page)
1 tablespoon diced Pandan Jelly (recipe follows)
1 to 2 tablespoons additional toppings of your choice (optional)
5 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
1 cup coconut beverage (you can find this at stores like Trader Joe’s; it’s essentially coconut milk thinned down to a drinkable consistency)
½ teaspoon pandan extract
Coat a glass with the condensed milk (see this page). Add the sago topping and pandan jelly to the glass. Add any additional toppings, if using, and the ice. Pour the coconut beverage over the ice. Add the pandan extract. With a spoon, mix everything together thoroughly before drinking.
pandan jelly
1½ cups filtered water
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon pandan extract
2½ tablespoons agar powder
In a medium saucepan, bring the water to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the sugar and the pandan extract. Bring the water back to a boil and whisk in the agar powder. Once the powder is fully dissolved, pour the liquid into a heatproof storage container, preferably one with a wide surface to make later cutting easier. Allow the liquid to cool, then store it in the fridge overnight or until firm.
Dice the jelly into small cubes. Store it in the fridge for up to 1 week.
AIR MATA KUCING
This is another Malaysian dish. It’s so tropically muggy out there, you can imagine how crushable any super-fruity drink would be in such a hot and humid setting. If you hear “tropical fruit” and automatically think “pineapple and passion fruit,” well, we don’t blame you. But this is different.
One of the keys to this drink is the longan (pronounced lung-AHN in Cantonese and literally means “dragon’s eye”), which looks and tastes similar to a lychee. When longan is dried, its flavor is almost candied. And we knew we wanted to use winter melon in this book somewhere, because it’s such an iconic ingredient in our culture’s cooking. It’s not super sweet, but it cooks up into a smooth, clear, creamy but light texture.
You’ll be drinking this all summer long; it’s like a fruit substitute for sweet tea.
MAKES 6 TO 8 SERVINGS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BOBA
6 cups filtered water
1 cup dried monk fruit, diced and loosely packed
¼ cup dried longan
2 cups julienned fresh winter melon
¾ cup rock sugar
2 to 4 tablespoons (per glass) toppings of your choice (optional)
In a medium pot over medium-high heat, bring the water to a boil. While waiting for the water to boil, crush the monk fruit. When the water boils, add the crushed monk fruit and dried longan. Allow the water to come back up to a boil. Add the winter melon and the rock sugar. Bring the contents back up to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer, partially covered, for 15 to 20 minutes, until the flavors meld. Remove the pot from the heat and allow the contents to rest for 1 hour.
Serve hot or over ice. Add the boba, if desired, before serving. This will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
ICED LEMONGRASS CHRYSANTHEMUM TEA
Chrysanthemum tea, the kind that came in a yellow juice box with a flower on the front, is one of the top Chinatown staples of our childhood. It tastes like flowers, but in a totally delicious, even-kids-will-like-it way. You can still find it in many Asian markets. The funny thing is, this “tea drink,” as it says on the box, is not even tea! But of course, as you know by now, the fact that it’s not tea won’t stop us!
Chrysanthemum, like many “herbal” or non-tea teas, can help reduce inflammation and mitigate anxiety, and it is also a source of vitamins A and C. But what’s important to us is that this drink is honoring that little yellow juice box. For our twist, we mix in a little lemongrass for that unmistakably citrusy herbal flavor that you find in Thai cuisine.
We use rock sugar because it’s a typically Asian thing and it has a rounder, more brown-sugar-like taste. Look for it in Asian markets or online; it will have a yellow or brownish tint and often comes in irregular “rocks,” or sometimes in flat cakes.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: NONE
5 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
1 cup Brewed Lemongrass Chrysanthemum Tea (recipe follows), chilled
2 tablespoons Rock Sugar Syrup (recipe follows)
Put the ice in a glass. Pour the tea over the ice, add the syrup, and stir to mix everything together before drinking.
brewed lemongrass chrysanthemum tea
MAKES 1 CUP TEA
2 tablespoons Lemongrass Chrysanthemum Blend (recipe follows)
5 ounces (½ cup + 2 tablespoons) filtered water, heated to 180°F
4 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
In a heatproof bowl, steep the chrysanthemum blend in the hot water for 4 minutes.
Put the ice cubes in a glass, strain the tea over the ice, and allow the ice to fully melt.
lemongrass chrysanthemum blend
MAKES 1 CUP
⅔ cup dried chrysanthemum flowers
⅓ cup dried lemongrass
Combine the chrysanthemum and lemongrass in a mixing bowl; stir well to fully mix. Store in an airtight container.
rock sugar syrup
MAKES ABOUT 1 CUP
½ cup filtered water
1 cup rock sugar pieces
In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil over high heat. When the water begins boiling, add the rock sugar and cook, stirring occasionally, until it fully dissolves. Let the syrup cool. It can be kept in the fridge for 2 weeks.
Use leftovers as a sweetener in place of honey, sugar, etc.
HALO HALO
This is one of our favorite desserts of all time. Halo halo is, like, the iconic Filipino dessert. It usually consists of some combination of pudding, rice, other starches, and coconut meat, topped with condensed milk, and a scoop of bright purple ube ice cream. Andrew grew up in South San Francisco and Daly City, which are heavily Filipino areas, so there were lots of trips after school for this hefty, beautiful sweet dish. And when Bin moved to San Francisco, he got into halo halo, too. (Mitchell’s Ice Cream, the S.F. institution, has a great ube ice cream, by the way!) And for us, we top it all off with some Rice Krispies.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: NONE
¼ cup Ube Jam (this page)
2 tablespoons Egg Pudding (this page)
2 tablespoons Tapioca Balls, aka Boba (this page)
2 tablespoons Grass Jelly (this page)
5 ounces (by weight) shaved or finely crushed ice
¾ cup coconut beverage (you can find this at stores like Trader Joe’s; it’s essentially coconut milk thinned down to a drinkable consistency)
2 tablespoons chopped jackfruit (fresh or frozen)
1 tablespoon Rice Krispies
Coat the inside of a large glass with the ube jam (see this page). Spoon the egg pudding, boba, and grass jelly into the glass. Add the shaved ice. Pour the coconut beverage over the ice. Top the glass with the jackfruit and Rice Krispies. Serve with a long spoon, and mix while you eat and drink it.
RED BEAN LATTE
In the U.S. we generally think of beans as savory and people look at you weird if you tell them about sweet beans in Asian desserts. (Except you eat Boston baked beans with molasses? What’s up with that?) But sweetened cooked red beans are perfect for a smoothie or dessert topping. The red beans have a relatively soft skin and break down as they cook, making a perfect puree. This drink is essentially a red bean milkshake, taking the soft, nutty flavor of the bean and blending it with coconut milk. It’s more filling than a lot of our drinks, a great protein-rich snack. And it’s super easy to make.
You can probably find canned sweetened red beans in many markets, like Whole Foods, these days. If you’re shopping for them dried, look for the smaller beans, usually adzuki beans—not, like, New Orleans red beans. Once you find a source for them, you’ll probably become addicted to this drink as a morning or afternoon treat.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BLACK STICKY RICE, BOBA
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
¼ cup Red Bean Puree (recipe follows)
5 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
1 cup rice milk
Put the toppings, if using, in a glass. Then add the red bean puree and the ice. Gently pour the rice milk over the ice to evenly layer the drink. Mix the drink before serving.
red bean puree
MAKES ABOUT 3 CUPS
1 can (15 ounces) sweetened red beans
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
½ cup white sugar
In a blender, combine the red beans, coconut milk, and sugar. Blend until smooth. Store in the fridge for up to 1 week.