I think you could reconstitute pearl tapioca fairly easily if you used a slow-cooker. From my limited experience with bubble tea, I don't think it contributes flavor, it's basically a texture thing. SOOOO, what I would do is place the soaked pearls in the cooker with a fair amount of water--much more than the recipe calls for--and put the cooker on low. Cook for am couple hours, stirring occasionally, until the pearls have assumed the parameters of tea bubbles. Now, this is just an hypothesis, I have not actually tried it. I'm just running it up the flagpole to see if anyone salutes it....