1. Bring 1/4 cup of hot water to a rolling boil in a small pot.
2. Add brown sugar to the boiling water on high heat and stir until it dissolves.
3. When the sugar is completely dissolved, turn off the heat.
4. Incorporate half of the tapioca starch into the sugar/water mixture. Stir it until it becomes sticky.
5. While the ingredients are still warm, add the other half of tapioca starch.
6. Continue to mix the ingredients until you form a dough. Allow the ingredients to cool before continuing to the next step.
7. Knead the dough. You may want to throw some tapioca starch on your workstation so that the dough doesn’t stick to your countertop.
8. Roll out the dough to approximately 1/2 inch in thickness. Cut the dough into 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch pieces using a knife.
9. Roll each piece in your hands to give it a circular shape. Coat the pearl in tapioca starch so that the pearls don’t stick together.
   You now have raw tapioca pearls. If you are making them ahead of time, you can store the pearls in an airtight container until you are ready to cook them.
10. Add the tapioca balls to a medium-sized pot with 8 cups of water. Cook them on medium-high heat for approximately 7 minutes.
11. Reduce the heat to low and continue to cook them for 5-10 minutes. When the pearls start to float in the water, they are ready. If it is your first time making them, taste test a few pearls along the way to see how the consistency changes and how you prefer them.
12. Remove the pearls from the water, place them immediately in an ice bath to ensure they don’t become too soft and lose their famous chewy texture.

Optional Brown Sugar Syrup

1. To sweeten the pearls, even more, you can make brown sugar boba. Bring 1/4 cup of water and 1.5 tablespoons of brown sugar to a boil in a separate small pot. Boil it for approximately five minutes until a syrupy consistency is formed.
2. Place the tapioca pearls into the brown sugar syrup on low heat. Allow the mixture to thicken for six to eight minutes.