Tapioca Starch

I have to balance making snacks for the Maestro to take to pre-school, and keeping the test kitchen running. Now that I have a workable formulation for potato starch, I'm interested in Tapioca Starch, the purest of flavours. According the the esteemed Ms. Hagman, Tapioca starch imparts "chew". What does that mean, exactly? I had a waffle made with a high proportion of tapioca starch, and it was very chewy. That was a long time ago, though. How does the moisture -retaining properties compare to potato (moist, like extra xanthan) and corn (hygroscopic and quick staling)?

If anyone has any ideas, let me know.

Also, if anyone has any ideas for cheap and easy things to put in muffins, give me a shout. I think the Maestro is getting tired of banana.