Boba tea is one of my favorite drinks.
While I love drinking bubble tea, I don’t exactly like the ones sold in bubble tea shops because they contain a lot of sugar and additives. So – I make it at home. All you need is tapioca pearls, milk, a sweetener of your choice and of course tea!
I typically use jasmine tea to start with – you want it to be a really strong tasting tea. Pick your favorite!
For the pearls I use these from Amazon. They cook really quick – the texture isn’t as amazing as the pearls from the tea houses I frequent – but they cook so fast… so I can forgive them. Also – you’ll want these to be fresh, so make them right before you make your tea. They don’t keep very well.
For the milk – whole milk tastes best (of course) but you can substitute it for any other kind of milk, it will just taste less rich. You can also substitute the milk for heavy cream… it tastes AMAZING… but the calories alone make me cringe, plus it’s VERY sweet.
For the sweetener – really any kind will do the trick. Just make sure you mix it in while the tea is hot (before you’ve added the ice) so that it melts in well and doesn’t leave a film or a sugary layer at the bottom of your drink.
INGREDIENTS:
- 4 cups boiled water
- 3/4 cup quick-cooking tapioca pearls
- 8 bags of black tea
- Your choice of milk
- Your choice of sweetener or syrup recipe below
For the DIY Syrup
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup sugar
DIRECTIONS:
- Prep the tea: Steep the tea bags with 4 cups of freshly boiled water. Let the tea sit until it reaches room temperature. There’s no need to remove the tea bags from the water as the tea is steeping. You can stick the tea in the fridge to speed up the cooling process.
- Cook the tapioca pearls: Boil 4 cups of water to boil and add the tapioca pearls. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes. Drain and rinse the pearls under cold water. Place them in a bowl.
- Put the drinks together: This recipe makes about four glasses of bubble tea. Place the pearls evenly into the four glasses. Add a few ice cubes to each glass. Pour one cup of tea into each glass. Add 1 1/2 tbsp. of milk and 1 1/2 tbsp. of your sweetener or DIY syrup into each glass. Stir and add more milk or sweetener to your taste. Add large boba straws or if you don’t have them, you can use a spoon to scoop out the tapioca.
- Enjoy!
If you make this let me know below in the comments below and tag me on Instagram! I want to see all of your beautiful boba creations.
xoxo, Callie