Tapioca pearls

Tapioca pearls are small round beads made from cassava starch. To make them, moist cassava starch is gelatinized with heat and shaped, often in rotating pans, into round beads that are then dried. Only very white, first-quality starch is used for the best pearls.

When the dried pearls are soaked and simmered in water, milk or syrup, they swell, turn clear and become soft and chewy. They are the base of classic tapioca pudding and of many Asian desserts, and they come in several sizes, from tiny seed pearls to large pearls.

In some regions, such as Malaysia, cassava products are known in the industry as sago products. Pearls from different starches are not always interchangeable, so a recipe should be made with the type it names.