Bubble tea with brown sugar pearls
Taiwanese milk tea with chewy tapioca pearls in dark sugar syrup
Pearl milk tea (zhen zhu nai cha) was born in Taichung, Taiwan, in the 1980s and has since spread to tea shops in every Chinese city. Strong black tea is shaken with milk and ice over dark, chewy tapioca pearls soaked in brown sugar syrup. Store-bought quick-cook pearls make it easy at home; kids love the big straws. Chef's tip: cook the pearls right before serving; after a couple of hours they go hard, and they can't be revived in the fridge.
- Total time
- 30 min
- Difficulty
- easy
- Serves
- 2
Ingredients
For the pearls
For the tea
Method
0/5 doneStep 1: Steep 2 tbsp strong black tea leaves (Assam or Ceylon) in 1 ½ cups boiling water for 5 minutes until very strong, then strain and cool. It should taste too strong on its own; milk and ice dilute it.
5 minStep 2: Bring a pan of water to a rolling boil, add 2 ⅞ oz quick-cook black tapioca pearls and cook according to the packet (usually 5–8 minutes), until there's no white core when you cut one. Common mistake: adding pearls before the water is boiling; they dissolve on the outside and stick together.
10 minStep 3: Meanwhile simmer 2 ⅛ oz dark muscovado or brown sugar and ¼ cup water for 2–3 minutes until syrupy. Drain the pearls and stir them into the syrup; leave for 5 minutes so they soak it up.
5 minStep 4: Spoon the pearls and syrup into two tall glasses, tilting each so the syrup streaks down the sides. Add 10 ice cubes.
Step 5: Shake or whisk the cooled tea with 1 cup whole milk and pour over. Serve with wide straws and stir before drinking.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 310 kcal
- Protein
- 7 g
- Carbs
- 60 g
- Fat
- 5 g
- Fibre
- 0 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does bubble tea with brown sugar pearls take?
- About 30 minutes in total: 5 minutes to prepare and 25 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 2 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegetarian?
- Yes. It has no meat or fish.
- What can I use instead of dark muscovado or brown sugar?
- White sugar + 1 tbsp molasses or treacle per 200g.
- What can I use instead of whole milk?
- Semi-skimmed milk with 1 tbsp cream per 240ml (1 cup).
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to cook it.
Rate this recipe
Sign in to rate and review this recipe.
You might also like
Guava delight
A thick, fragrant blend of ripe guava, mango and banana, boosted with a spoonful of guava powder from the health shop. The book calls it a modern-day vitality drink, drawing on guava's long use in traditional Indian medicine. Serve it well chilled; sieve it if you don't like the little guava seeds.
Power pack
A sweet, energising juice of apples, pears and kiwi fruit with a stick of celery, all used unpeeled for extra goodness. It's naturally sweet, so it needs no sugar. Serve well chilled.
Horchata de chufa
Horchata de chufa is the drink of Valencia's summer, sold ice-cold in the city's horchaterías with long, soft fartons pastries for dipping. It is made from chufas, or tiger nuts: small wrinkled tubers grown around the village of Alboraya just north of Valencia, which have their own protected designation of origin. Soaked, ground with water, strained and sweetened, they give a creamy, nutty, naturally dairy-free milk with a hint of cinnamon. Valencians drink it very cold, or half-frozen as 'granizada'. Chef's tip: soak the tiger nuts for a full 24 hours and change the water once; they must be plump and soft enough to blend into a fine pulp, or the horchata will be thin and taste of raw starch.