by Emeric Harney April 29, 2021 6 min read 2 Comments
Last summer, we posted a blog about Bubble Tea, the incredibly popular (and fun!) tea drink that has stormed the U.S. in recent years. As spring is upon us and a feeling of excitement is in the air, we thought we’d provide you with a few more ways you can have fun with bubble tea this season. If drinking delicious tea while sucking large tapioca pearls through a big straw isn’t your idea of a good time, we encourage you to think again!
In that article, we gave you the basic recipe for making bubble tea, which is super easy and straightforward. Paul Harney shows you just how easy it is in this video:
As you can see, all it involves is making a cuppa tea, cooking your tapioca pearls, and letting them cool, adding in milk or a milk substitute, sweetener, and ice. Bubble tea up!
The first easy variation on the classic is fruity bubble tea. To cut down on the sugar content of bubble tea – which can be high due to the starch of the tapioca pearls and the fact that they are often soaked in brown sugar, as well as added sugars to the drink itself – use real fruit to flavor your bubble tea. Print the recipe card here.
Taiwanese Bubble Tea is a recipe that features brown sugar prominently. Taiwan is the birthplace of bubble tea, and this recipe pays homage to this sweet concoction. Print the recipe card here.
Black Tea
Tapioca Pearls and Brown Sugar Syrup
Assembly
(https://tasty.co/recipe/taiwanese-bubble-tea)
Lychee is a fruit that comes from the lychee tree, which is native to the Guangdong and Fujian provinces of China. The fruit has a grape-like texture and a sweet citrus flavor with just a hint of rose. Fortunately for this recipe, we make a lychee tea! Please note: “lychee” is also sometimes spelled “litchi,” as in this recipe. Print the recipe card here.
For each bubble tea:
½ C chilled tapioca pearls
1 C crushed ice
8 oz. brewed lychee tea, chilled
1 C canned litchi nuts in syrup
¾ C coconut milk
¼ C milk
1-2 tsp fresh lime juice
(https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/8646-litchi-coconut-bubble-tea)
How about some watermelon mint tea and fresh watermelon in a boba slushie? Yes, please! Print the recipe card here.
(https://www.thebutterhalf.com/watermelon-boba-slushie/)
Matcha fans, rejoice! Matcha just got even cooler as the star of this bubble tea show. Print the recipe card here.
Matcha Green Tea
Boba/Tapioca Pearls
Finally, if you want to get really fun, take any of these boba tea slushie recipes and turn them into Boba Pops! Simply put the cooked boba pearls into a popsicle mold, pour in the prepared boba tea liquid, freeze slightly, insert popsicle sticks and return to the freezer until solid. Bobalicious!
Also, a note on the tapioca pearls: they are best used within four hours of cooking or they will become mushy. If you think, “Oh well, no worries! I’ll just pop the leftovers in the fridge until next time,” you should know that they will harden in the refrigerator to the point of being impossible to chew. If you also think “Fine, I’ll put them in an airtight container,” think again. After four hours, they will still become mushy. Bottom line: use ‘em within four hours or lose ‘em. Just another “pearl” of wisdom from Harney!
May 04, 2021
Really enjoyed this boba tea article. Would love to see more of these recipes and ideas and tips.
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Emma
September 15, 2022
Can’t wait to try some of these. Would love to see more boba slush recipes.