Like a lot of people out there, we crave bubble tea almost daily. It’s practically an addiction! But we all know how expensive boba is in North America (up to 6-7$ per drink where we live!) and our wallets just can’t sustain our cravings for this yummy drink.

So why not make one at home? We decided to give it a try and wow! We never knew it was this easy to make at home and it’s just as delicious as the store-bought bubble tea!

So for our first boba recipe, we decided to make the classic, and our favourite, black milk tea.

The flavour and texture of your boba will depend on the tea, the milk, and the sweetener you use.

The tea: We used Tetley’s orange pekoe black tea for its strong flavour and rich colour. You can use your favourite black tea but we suggest something with strong flavour in order for the tea taste to not be diluted by the milk and ice.

The milk: In this case, we’re not using real “milk”. We chose to use Coffee Mate’s non-dairy powdered creamer for a richer and milkier flavour and a slightly richer texture. Also, many of the original boba shops in Taiwan and in North America use non-dairy powdered creamer. And since we want to kind of mimic the drinks from our favourite bubble tea shops, we decided to go with this option.

The sweetener: In this recipe, we used regular granulated white sugar because we want to keep the sweetener flavour neutral. If you want to give it a little bit of flavour, you can use brown sugar or honey instead of granulated sugar. However, you do have to adjust the quantity of the brown sugar or honey to add since they do not have the same sweetness as granulated white sugar.

We hope you enjoy this recipe of bubble milk tea and hope you’re as excited as we are to be able to make this yummy drink at home!

To make the tapioca pearls, bring 3 cups of water to a boil in medium pot. Stir in 1/2 cup of the uncooked tapioca pearls and boil on medium heat for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, remove from heat. Drain off the water into a bowl and add 1/2 cup of brown sugar into the drained water and mix well. Transfer the tapioca pearls back into the pot and add in the brown-sugar-water mixture. Cover with a lid and let sit for 30 minutes or until chewy and cooked (removed from heat).

In a large cup, place 2 bags of orange pekoe tea and add in 1 1/2 cups of boiling water. Let the tea seep for about 5 minutes and remove the tea bags. Stir in 2 tbsp of granulated white sugar (to taste) and 5 tbsp of powdered non-dairy creamer and mix well. In a shaker, add 1 cup of ice. Add in the tea mixture into the shaker and shake well until all the ice melts and the milk tea is foamy.

Add the cooked and sweetened tapioca pearls to two medium-sized glasses evenly (note that you can also add in the sugar syrup in which the tapioca pearls sit in). Add some ice to each glass (optional). Gently add in the milk tea and mix well.