Boba Milk Tea Recipe

Prepare a clean workstation and dust with the extra tapioca flour set aside for kneading and shaping into pearls.

Into the deep nonstick skillet, mix the water and sugar with the spatula until completely dissolved.

Add the tapioca flour to the sugar-water mixture and stir until completely dissolved.

Place the pan on very low heat and stir continuously until the mixture begins to thicken. It will take some time, so be patient. The low and slow methods will be to your benefit as the ingredients come together.

Once the mixture starts to pull away from the pan and thicken into a gooey gummy, sticky paste-like dough, remove from the heat and scrape onto your dusted work surface.

Knead until the dough is soft and round, then section into quarters: one for working with while the other three quarters are stored in a ziplock bag or covered in plastic wrap to stay moist.

Roll the dough out into snakes. Then cut, roll into 8-9 mm sized pearls, and place into the bowl of extra tapioca flour. Periodically toss the pearls around in the flour to coat them and prevent them from sticking together.

When all the dough has been used to make the pearls, and they have all been coated in flour, use the sieve or strainer to remove them from the flour and gently remove any excess flour by lightly tossing the pearls.

Once you have finished making all the pearls, you can continue the boba cooking and syrup making or place them into a freezer-safe bag and store them in the freezer until ready to make the final boba tea.

Using a 2-3 quart saucepan, fill 3/4 of the way with water and bring to a rolling boil.

Place the boba pearls into the water and lightly toss with the slotted spoon to prevent them from clumping and sticking together.

Once the balls float to the surface, turn the heat down to a low simmer and continue to cook for 15 minutes.

After simmering, remove the pan from the heat, cover, and let the pearls rest in hot water for another 15 minutes.

Using the slotted spoon, remove the pearls from the hot water and place them into the bowl of ice water.

Toss the pearls around in the cold water mixture to break up any clumps and allow them to rest in the cold water until ready to add to the simple syrup.

Into a saucepan, add the water and sugar and mix until completely dissolved.

Add the 1/4 teaspoon of tapioca flour and stir to dissolve.

Place the saucepan onto a medium to high heat and stir continuously until the mixture becomes a thick syrup-like texture before turning the heat down to low.

Using the slotted spoon, remove the pearls from the ice bath and place them into the simple syrup, stirring to combine on a low heat for 3-5 minutes.

When the pearls are coated in the syrup, and the texture is smooth and slightly thick, remove from the heat and allow to cool for at least 5 minutes.

Take a scoop of cool Boba Pearls and syrup and place it into the bottom of the 20 oz glass. Then, swirl the glass to coat the lower 2/3 of the glass with the syrup for that photo-op moment.

Add the 8 oz of milk and then top with the 8 oz of Black Tea. Take your social media pictures at this time, so you can show the layers of Boba Pearls, Milk, and Tea.

Use your straw to stir all the ingredients together in the glass before sipping and munching your Boba Tea. Be careful when sucking the pearls through the straw as they could fly out and become a choking hazard. 

Exchange the muscovado sugar with white granulated sugar.

Exchange water with fruit juice or flavored tea.

Exchange black tea for any other tea, coffee, or anything that will go well with milk.

Exchange milk for flavored milk, fruit juice, flavored tea, yogurt, or a smoothie.

Be creative and use your imagination: Guava-flavored Boba Pearls with pineapple juice for a guava pine bubble Juice. Mint flavored Boba Pearls with lemon juice for a bubble mint lemonade. Use the Boba Pearls as a garnish or toppings for other desserts.