🧋 Milk bubble tea
Milk bubble tea, also called boba milk tea or pearl milk tea, is strong black tea shaken with milk, sweetened with sugar syrup and poured over chewy tapioca pearls, then drunk through a wide straw. It is creamy, sweet and refreshing, usually served iced in a large cup, and most shops let you choose the sweetness and the amount of ice.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 40 g dried tapioca pearls
- 2 black tea bags (or 2 tsp loose tea)
- 200 ml hot water
- 150 ml milk
- 2 tbsp sugar (25 g), made into a syrup with 2 tbsp water
- Ice cubes
Method
- Boil the pearls in plenty of water for about 20 minutes, then cover and rest for 10 minutes; drain and rinse.
- Stir the pearls into the sugar syrup.
- Brew the tea in the hot water for 5 minutes, remove the bags and cool.
- Shake the tea with the milk and ice, pour over the pearls in a tall glass and serve with a wide straw.
How to make it lighter
- Order 25–50% sugar: each tablespoon of sugar adds about 50 kcal.
- Ask for a smaller cup or fewer pearls — the pearls are a large share of the calories.
- Treat it as a snack rather than a drink alongside a meal.
History
Bubble tea was created in Taiwan in the 1980s, when tea shops began adding tapioca pearls to sweet iced milk tea; more than one teahouse claims to have been first. The drink spread across East and Southeast Asia in the 1990s and is now sold by dedicated chains worldwide.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →