Edible ABC Slime ⋆ Parenting Chaos

This Edible ABC Slime was definitely a happy accident. I have been wanting to make edible slime for quite some time but have had poor luck with the other methods out there that I have found. We tried Chia Slime and well…that molded overnight. Then we tried Phylum Slime and it never quite reached the right consistency – plus it stunk horribly and wasn’t cheap to purchase. So stumbling across this failproof way to make edible slime was a such a happy mistake for us!

We originally started out our afternoon with the kids wanting a Boba Tea for snack. For those of you who have never had one, Boba Tea is a sweet fruity tea with large tapioca pearls at the bottom of the glass. My kids love them! Finding those tapioca pearls though in my neighborhood is kinda hard though. About the only place I can find them is on Amazon or local Asian shops. For this particular bag I had managed to find it in the store, but it had very poorly translated instructions on the back that were quite different from the instructions that I was used to.

These instructions said to soak the tapioca pearls in a bowl of hot water for an hour before boiling…ok not something that I was used to, but I went ahead and gave it a try.

By the time the hour was up I had a bowl full of mush. The pearls were either past their expiration date or lost in translation…either way, they weren’t edible. However, the instructions did say to boil for ten minutes after soaking for an hour and that the tapioca pearls would bubble to the top. And well, what could it hurt to try?

As the mush in the pan came to a boil, the most vibrant and clear gelled colors emerged. Not exactly tapioca, but something I could do something with.

Instead of a sweet Boba Tea, we made a fantastic edible sensory bin. The kids couldn’t have been more in love!

How to Make Edible Alphabet Slime

Items Needed:

Tapioca Pearls
Water
Alphabet Beads
Large Plastic Bin

Wufuyuan – Tapioca Pearl (8.8 Oz)Rubbermaid Storage Tote Lowercase Manuscript Letter Beads

Directions:

Separate Tapioca Pearls by color into individual bowls.
Fill each bowl with hot water. If you are using white/clear tapioca pearls add in food dye.
Set aside for an hour.
After the pearls have mostly dissolved add to a saucepan over medium to high heat and bring to a boil. Stir constantly so it does not burn. If it starts to get too thick before turning a clearish color add in more water.
Once gelled, about 10 minutes, transfer to a large bin. We used an under the bed storage bin and about 1/2 pack of tapioca pearls.
Repeat for additional colors.
Set aside to cool before adding in toys or playing.

My kids had so much fun with this. Mr. Roo did give it a taste…so did Mr. Q and the dogs – and all promptly spit it out. Unlike Boba Tea Pearls that sit on the bottom of a sugary drink, this edible slime is just pure starch so pretty bland.

A couple tapioca pearls also managed to survive, so on top of being gooey and stretchy (yes this stuff stretches just like a normal liquid starch slime) it also had some clumpy “water beads”. So much fun!