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Boba milk tea or bubble tea, the ultimate chewy tea treat, is super easy to make at home. It’s healthier when you make it from a scratch, may contain less calories, and you can use any tea you want.

Learn how to make bubble tea at home in only a few simple steps.

How to make milk tea?

Not all milk teas are the same.

The most troublesome part of making bubble tea at home is not the actual preparation – it’s choosing the right ingredients. There’s only one rule for making an authentic bubble tea – you must add a chewy component. Although tapioca pearls are the original chewy ingredient, you can use jellies, egg pudding or popping boba too. Popping boba and jellies will have intense fruit flavors and are great for making fruit boba tea.

While there may be thousands of boba tea flavors, the boba tea story started with a classic milk tea, not much different from other popular milk teas.

To make a classic milk bubble tea you will need:

1.      Tapioca pearls

First, you will need to make tapioca pearls. Although you can make them from a scratch, it’s much less time-consuming to buy pre-made tapioca pearls. They are available from almost any specialized Asian groceries store or online and come in different flavors and colors. The original Black Sugar flavor will be great for any type of boba tea. Although you can make tapioca pearls at home, buying a ready-to-cook ones will save you a lot of time.

2.      Tea leaves

You can use any tea for making boba tea, even white and green. The best option are teas with a stronger flavor, such as Matcha, Hojicha, Gunpowder, Assam, 2nd flush Darjeeling, Oriental Beauty oolong, or red rooibos. We recommend starting with a stronger black tea first. Flavored blends are amazing for making boba too. Alternatively, you can add different flavor extracts to plain unflavored teas.

3.      Milk

The best milk for making boba is whole cow's milk, but feel free to experiment. Plant-based alternatives such as cashew milk or barista oats milk work well too. Fruit boba teas don’t need to contain milk at all. For a creamier drink, use half-and-half or condensed milk.

4.      Water

You will need water to make most boba teas, although there are some that are made with milk only. Usually, boba tea contains more water than milk, but you can adjust the ratio. For the ultimate milk boba, don’t steep the tea in water - boil it in milk instead.

5.      Ice

Nowadays, ice is an important component of boba tea, but you don’t need to use it. You can enjoy a hot boba instead. Serve hot boba tea from smaller cups and cold boba from large glasses. Don’t use too much ice if you plan to sip it slowly – it will melt and dilute the tea.

6.      Honey or another sweetener

Best sweeteners for boba tea are those that are easily dissolved, such as honey, simple syrup, or fruit syrups.

Is there the perfect combination?

Boba is all about experimenting and making the perfect flavor you will enjoy 100%. That means you can use almost any ingredient you want, almost any milk you want, any tea type you want and any sweetener you want. You can add more or less tapioca pearls to make it more or less chewy, use less water and more milk, or more water and less milk, add cream and fruit toppings, etc. You can even make your own jellies or flavored puddings, instead of tapioca pearls or add flavor extracts or coffee syrups.

We recommend starting with a basic recipe and adjusting ratios if needed.

Simple bubble tea recipe

This simple boba milk tea recipe will show you how easy it is to make boba at home. Boba is usually served from very large plastic cups. At home, you can serve it in 12 oz iced tea glasses.

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cup of water
• 2-3 teaspoons of loose leaf black tea
  
• ¼ cup of tapioca pearls
• 1/3 cup of whole milk or cashew milk
• 1/6 cup of ice
• 1-2 tablespoon of honey

Bubble tea recipe steps

1. 1First, you will need to boil tapioca pearls. The best way to do it is by following the instruction on the packaging. Once your pearls are ready, transfer them to cold water for a few minutes. Strain and mix them with honey or simple syrup.
2. Bring fresh water to a boil. Steep 5 grams of tea in 8 oz. of water for 10 minutes to make a stronger brew.
3. Once your tea is ready, strain it into a clean serving glass or a cup. Add milk, sweetened tapioca pearls and ice. Add more sweetener if needed.

Feel free to adjust this recipe as you wish.