Traditional Bubble Tea is made with sweetened milk tea and  tapioca pearls which are small, chewy tapioca balls.   Bubble Tea originated in Taiwan in the 1980’s.  Traditional bubble tea  isn’t very healthy.   Tapioca pearls are starchy and the milk tea is usually sweetened.  So traditional bubble tea has anywhere from 400 to 10,000 calories in a serving.

As an alternative, you can make a healthier bubble tea with chia seeds.   Chia seeds are much smaller than tapioca pearls.  They’re loaded with omega-3’s, fiber, calcium, healthy fats and protein.  Another neat quality of chia seeds is that they absorb whatever fluid they’re in and make tasty  jellied  bubbles  that you can chew.

So in this post Marie of Humblebee and Me shares a very simple recipe that uses chia seeds and unsweetened iced fruity tea.

Another way to use chia seeds is to soak 2 tablespoons in any kind of milk. Refrigerate for 6 hours so the seeds expand.  Make 2 cups of hot chai tea.  Refrigerate the tea for 3 or 4 hours.    Add 1/4 cup of the milk and chia seed mixture to the bottom of a glass.  Fill the rest of the class with the cold chai tea.  Stir.

I love the  raw, organic Chia Seeds  at Live Superfoods.

Chia Seed Bubble Tea Recipe