Get bubble tea vibes on a grocery store budget.
My favorite food trends aren’t necessarily the ones that teach me something new. Though every once in a while, I do strike culinary gold with things like pan-fried doughnuts or Diet Coke coffee. My favorites are the ones that remind me cooking can still be playful. Sometimes, all a viral recipe is trying to accomplish is to get you to smile for a few minutes, and there’s something very charming in that.
Lately, it’s been Jell-O boba. I’ve watched people make it with homemade gelatin, store-bought snack cups and even melted gummy candies. The goal is to turn brightly colored gelatin into a chewy, bubbly drink ingredient that looks straight out of a boba shop.
At this point, Jell-O and I have been on a bit of a journey. I’ve frozen it. I’ve turned it into an easy panna cotta. And it only felt right to see whether it could stand in for boba.
What is Jell-O boba?
Traditional boba is made with chewy tapioca pearls, but many bubble tea shops also offer jelly boba. Rather than being soft and stretchy like tapioca, jelly boba is firmer, fruitier and has a satisfying little bite.
That’s what makes this trend so clever.
Instead of hunting down specialty jelly pearls, creators are simply making flavored Jell-O, cutting it into tiny cubes and pouring it into everything from milk tea to soda. As you sip, the little pieces tumble through the straw with the drink, creating an experience that’s surprisingly close to jelly boba.
After seeing version after version appear in my feeds, I finally decided to find out whether the trend was actually as fun to drink as it looked on camera. I opted for the homemade method, which seemed to strike the best balance between simple and eye-catching.
How to Make Jell-O Boba
The creator I followed made two different flavors of Jell-O for a colorful layered effect, which was too pretty not to copy. I chose raspberry and black cherry, prepared both according to the package directions and chilled them until completely firm.
Once set, I cut each flavor into tiny cubes, taking far more care than the situation probably warranted. Once I buried them under a scoop of ice, my painstaking handiwork was crushed almost immediately. Consider this permission to skip obsessing over perfect Jell-O cubes. They aren’t going to stay that way for long.
I then topped everything with Spindrift sparkling water, and the bubbles lifted the Jell-O pieces up through the glass, making the drink look almost like a lava lamp.
How does it taste?
This might be one of the happiest little drink trends I’ve tried all year.
If you’re expecting traditional tapioca boba, you’ll probably be disappointed. Tapioca pearls are dense, chewy and pleasantly stretchy, while these Jell-O cubes are softer and melt away easily.
But if you’ve ever ordered fruit jelly in your bubble tea, the experience is remarkably similar. Each sip brings little bursts of fruity gelatin that bounce around with the sparkling water, which is incredibly fun and playful.
I was also surprised by how the drink changed as it sat. My carefully cut cubes didn’t stand a chance, but that actually made the glass prettier. Tiny flecks of raspberry and black cherry drifted upward on the carbonation before slowly floating back down again, almost like edible glitter.
More than anything, this trend reminded me that not every viral recipe has to be revolutionary. Sometimes it’s enough to make an ordinary afternoon drink feel a little more whimsical.
