Model originally uploaded to Thingiverse at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4550501.
This is a press/mold I made to avoid having to roll the tapioca pearls when making bubble tea at home.
IMO, the 8mm pearls have the ideal size.
You can edit the mold fairly easily, and making the size_x/y values higher increases the amount of pearls automatically.
Both the top and bottom are included in the press.scad file. switch the boolean from true to false to switch which stl is generated.
Print settingsI printed my mold at 22% infill using gyroid pattern with PLA at 200C.
Usage:The tapioca pearl recipe I use is 3 parts tapioca starch and 1 part warm/boiling water. I sometimes have to go with a 9:4 or 9:5 ratio depending on humidity. I have more ease kneading the dough if it is sifted first.
Wrap both halves in plastic wrap and lightly cover the wrap with tapioca starch to make it not sticky.
When putting the pearl paste/dough in the mold, make sure it is not too thick, around 5-8mm, depending on the size of the mold. You might have to add more water than usual to the tapioca starch/water mix to make the dough flow better in the mold. Make sure the dough is not sticky.
Once pressed, the pearls should tear appart from one another fairly easily.
Cook the pearls in boiling water, or a water/sugar mix until they turn translucent, or until they have the proper mouth-feel (roughly 20 minutes for me). The amount of water and sugar does not matter, but all the pearls should be able to be submerged before they start floating. Brown sugar tastes better.
You can store the pearls in the water/sugar mix if you wish.
They should be eaten within 24h-36h, or they harden. You might be able to re-heat them slightly