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Aetherflow – Autumn 2018
Official beverage of both the Ala Mhigan alliance and the Doman uprising, or so cider brewers would have you believe.
This drink, the staple of most raiders looking for an extra boost in DPS, was especially challenging to recreate. The crafting recipe asks for loquat, but there are no indications of apple juice or cider. And how the hell am I supposed to incorporate Kudzu Root? The answer was actually pretty straightforward, it’s basically a hot bubble tea using apple juice (or cider) as a base!
You will need
40 g or 1/3 cup tapioca pearls
1 can of loquats (about 600 g or 1,5 lbs)
400 ml or 1 11/16 cup water
800 ml or 3 3/8 cup apple juice or cider
Approx. 2,5 cm or 1 inch length of fresh ginger
A pinch of cayenne pepper and cumin powder
We first take care of the tapioca pearls. They can be stored overnight in the fridge but shouldn’t be stored much longer since their texture will decline. We want some nice, chewy boba pearls in our cider, yes, yes.
Bring a small to medium pot filled with water to a boil. Add the tapioca pearls and cook for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pot. As soon as the pearls start becoming translucent, fish them out quickly and drain them, discarding the water from the pot.
Open your can of loquats and separate the liquid from fruit. Pour the liquid from your loquat can into the tapioca pearl pot. Put the happy little tapioca pearls back in and let them soak up all that juice for about 10 minutes.
Slowly bring the pearls and loquat liquid to a boil and cook at medium heat for about 5 minutes, until the mixture starts becoming thick. Put a lid on the pot and remove from heat. Let them continue to soak up until they’re cooled down.
Take your lovely loquat fruits and water and puree them. Now, this next step is optional, but I prefer hot beverages without fruit bits, so I go the extra mile and strain the thinned fruit pulp through a sieve to receive a thinned loquat juice.
You can now either use the remaining fruit pulp for some other random dish, or be like me, horribly wasteful and decadent, and discard it. Heat the loquat juice, apple juice/ cider and spices over low heat in a medium-sized pot. Peel the ginger and cut in large chunks and add it to the pot as well. Now the spice quantities I have included here make these unobtrusive, healthy, additions to your cider.
If you’re feeling really spicy, you are more than welcome to increase the amount of cayenne pepper and ginger. No matter whether the day is cold or you are stuck with a cold yourself – this mix will warm you up from the inside out.
As soon as your mixture is hot, add about a tablespoon of tapioca pearls into a cup and pour your hot juice/ cider over it. You can obviously add more pearls – it’s totally up to you! Serve with a spoon, so you can ladle the pearls out. Bubble, bubble, pop, pop!
