🧋 Homemade Boba

Turn a drop of juice into a squishy ball. Draft: not yet checked

How it works

Seaweed powder (sodium alginate) mixed into juice makes it gloopy. When a drop lands in calcium water, the outside instantly turns into a jelly skin, so you get a ball with juice inside.

What you will do

1. Hold the dropper 2 or 3 inches up.
2. Squeeze one drop at a time.
3. Wait 30 seconds. Scoop.
4. A volunteer rinses the pearls.

Try it at home

Ask a grown-up to help.

What you need:

Juice, plus sodium alginate and calcium chloride. Those two are not household items: buy them as food-grade ingredients, or as a kit.

Safety at home:

Use food-grade ingredients only if anyone will taste them, and ask a grown-up first.

Watch how it is done:

• Science Buddies – How to Make Popping Boba: The Science of Spherification (opens another site)
• Bite Scized Education – DIY Popping Boba (opens another site)