Rose Milk Tea | Homemade Rose Bubble Tea

Rose milk tea is a rose-scented sweet, floral, and aromatic tea that is soothing and refreshing. This iced sweet rose bubble tea will leave you wanting more. A drink to impress but so easy to make. All tea lovers should at least try it once. The mellow flavor of tea coupled with rose pleasantly hits your palate.

The brown sugar boba gives a chewy surprise as you sip the tea through the boba straw and a characteristic brown sugar bubble tea flavor. Though, it can be served with or without boba pearls. Milk gives it much-needed smoothness.

Rose milk tea, often called rose boba tea is a bubble tea recipe that has a sweet floral flavor. You can also enjoy rose in your tea by making yourself a cup of hot rose tea latte.

If you enjoy scented tea like this, do try the lychee sweet tea or the lychee bubble tea. Also, try fruity bubble tea like strawberry bubble tea, mango boba, chocolate boba, etc.

Why does this rose boba tea recipe work? Or why should you try this recipe?

• Freshly made. There is nothing like a homemade refreshing glass of milk boba. You can whip up this delightful drink for yourself fresh batch at your home.
  
• Aromatic. This recipe uses fresh rose fruits. The freshness that rose syrup or rose petals add to this bubble tea is unbeatable. It is sweet and aromatic.
  
• Easy to make.  It is so easy to make. It does have some steps involved when you are making the rose milk at home. But if you use store-bought rose milk, it is going to be way easier and quicker.
  
• Use what you have on hand. You can either make this recipe with rose syrup or use the dry rose petals.
  
• Make it to fit your health or diet needs. You can substitute the ingredients to match your dietary needs. If you are following special diets like vegan, then you can replace the dairy milk with plant-based milk of your choice. If you want to cut down on tea flavor, reduce the quantity of tea that you add to the boba.
  
• Customizable to taste. You can customize it to match your taste. You can reduce the sugar and add more rose syrup.
  
• No preservatives or stabilizers. The packed bubble tea has stabilizers in them. Some also use preservatives to enhance their shelf life. The best way to avoid them is to make your bubble tea at home.
  

Rose milk tea benefits

Rose petals are high in antioxidants. They improve the cellular health of our bodies. Rose tea is known to reduce anxiety and improve digestion. In Ayurveda rose is known to have a cooling effect on our body, but at the same time, it enhances the digestive power of our body.

Ingredients for making rose milk tea

1. Teabags/ Tea leaves

 You can use whichever type of tea you like. If you want to go for the rose-infused tea, you will still have to use rose petals or rose syrup to get an evident rose flavor in the milk tea. Choose from black tea, green tea, or oolong tea, whichever you like.

You need two teabags for making this recipe. If you are using tea leaves, two teaspoons of green tea leaves or black tea leaves will be sufficient. I am using black tea for this recipe.

Rose tea variations based on the type of tea type

• Rose green milk tea. Using Green tea
  
• Rose oolong milk tea. Made using Oolong tea
  
• Rose black tea. Black tea leaves or tea bags are used in this tea.
  
• Rose Tea latte. Rose tea is served hot with milk. Use any of the above types of tea.
  

2. Boba pearls

Boba pearls make the rose milk tea a bubble tea. I am using black boba for making this rose bubble tea. You can choose whichever boba you like. Try getting the quick-cooking boba.

The brown sugar boba or the black tapioca pearls are the most commonly used boba pearls. Other options that you can explore are:

• Clear boba.
• Mini boba.
• Flavored boba
• Popping boba.
• Jelly boba.

3. Whole milk

I am using whole milk; you can whatever suit your diet and taste. You can substitute it with plant-based milk like oat milk or soy milk for making vegan rose tea latte or bubble tea.

4. Brown sugar syrup

We are going to need some sort of syrup, preferably a brown sugar syrup to put the cooked boba into something. Brown sugar syrup works best as it kind of goes with bubble tea. You can use simple syrup or maple syrup if do not have brown sugar syrup.

5. Rose syrup

You are going to need some rose flavoring. The ideal solution is to use rose syrup. Rose syrup is a red-colored rose-flavored syrup. It is sweet, floral, and refreshing in its way.

You can use some store-bought syrups like Rooh Afza, Torani rose syrup, etc., or make a rose syrup at home using a few ingredients.

Also, rose extract can be used. But the rose milk tea made with the rose extract will not have any rosy color. Plus it is not the same thing. I highly recommend the rose syrup.

If you do not have rose syrup, you can easily make it at home.

How to make rose syrup at home?

Ingredients for homemade rose syrup

• ½ cup of dry rose petals
• 1 cup water
• 1 ½ cup sugar
• 2 tablespoon corn syrup
• ½ cup Rosewater
• 3 dry hibiscus flowers petals
• Red food color (optional)

Process for making rose syrup at home

You can make rose syrup at your home using some dried rose petals (or dried rose buds), rose water, sugar, and dry hibiscus petals.

Rose petals and rose water give a profound rose flavor to the syrup. Sugar gives it syrup-like consistency and sweetness. Hibiscus flower enhances the color and the flavor. It not only gives a pinkish color to the syrup but also adds to the floral flavor of the rose milk tea or rose milk latte.

In a pan boil 1 cup of water. Then add a half cup (loosely filled) of rose petals and 2-3 hibiscus flowers. Let them simmer for 15 minutes. Then drain the solution to discard the petals and collect the rose-scented water. Put it back into the pan and heat. Now add one and a half cups of white sugar and let the solution boil. Then add ½ cup of rose water and boil the syrup till it becomes syrup-like thick. It should take 5-6 minutes. You can add some red food coloring if you like. Also adding 2 tablespoons of corn syrup is great to prevent the syrup from crystallizing.

Let the syrup cool before storing it in an airtight bottle.

If you have only rose water with you and you want to make rose bubble tea. Brew the tea in rose water. It means, taking 1 cup of rose water and brewing the tea in that water.

How to make rose bubble milk tea at home

Step 1.  Cooking boba

Let us start our recipe for the rose milk tea by cooking the boba according to the package instructions. If you are using popping boba or jelly boba, you do not need to cook them. But if you are using tapioca boba pearls like me, you will be cooking boba in boiling water.

To cook ⅓ cup of brown sugar or black boba, bring 3 cups of water to a boil. Then add the tapioca pearls to the boiling water. Let them boil for 4-5 minutes or until they come floating to the top.

When boba starts to float, cook them for additional 10 minutes at medium heat. Then, turn off the heat and cover the pan and let the boba soak for 5 more minutes. Strain the water and gather the cooked boba.

 Transfer them into a bowl. Then add some brown sugar syrup or some simple syrup to dunk the tapioca pearls. It sweetens the boba pearls and prevents them from sticking to each other until you are ready to assemble the rose bubble tea.

Step 2. Brewing tea.

To brew the tea, I boiled 1 cup of water. When the water started to boil, I turned off the heat and poured the water into the cup. Lift the tea bag 2-3 times in the cup to allow movement of tea leaves to ensure maximum tea flavor extraction. Then cover the cup with a plate and steep the tea bag in the boiling water for 3 minutes of total time. Uncover the teacup and remove the teabag.

You want to do this in advance so that you have enough time to chill the tea. After brewing the tea, refrigerate it for at least 2-3 hours.

 

Step 3. Making rose milk

Here we want to make rose scent based milk. Simply add 3 tablespoons of rose syrup, to the milk and mix well.

Step 4. Assembling the rose milk tea boba

Add cooked boba pearls, followed by the ice cubes, equally in all the glasses. Then, pour in the brewed tea and rose-scented and flavored milk. Put in the wide boba straws and garnish with some dry rose petals.  Use the boba straws to mix and enjoy the rose milk tea.

Pro tips

• You can make rose syrup at your home by using some dry rose petals (or buds), rose water, sugar, and dry hibiscus flower petals. (Find the complete recipe in the post)

• The ideal water temperature to brew the tea is 212 ⁰F or 100 ⁰C. So just as the water starts to boil, you know that you reached the right temperature to steep the tea.
  
• Make the tea in advance and chill it in the fridge.
  
• Cook the tapioca pearls or boba right before making the rose bubble tea. They taste best when made fresh. The exact time needed to cook boba will vary with the type of boba you use. But look for them to come to the top. It is better to use quick-cooking boba.
  
• If you have only rose water with you and you want to make rose bubble tea. Brew the tea in rose water. It means, taking 1 cup of rose water and brewing the tea in that water.
  
• If you replace the rose syrup with rose extract, increase the amount of brown sugar syrup or add 2 tablespoons of sugar to compensate for the sweetness that rose syrup adds.
  
• You could make hot rose milk tea by using the same steps and skipping the ice in the recipe.
  
  
  

Frequently Asked Questions

More boba recipe

• Tiger Milk Tea: Classic Brown Sugar Boba Recipe
  
  
• Chocolate Boba: Homemade Chocolate Milk Tea
  
  
• Strawberry Milk Tea: Boba Tea with fresh Strawberries!
  
  
• Lychee bubble tea: An easy lychee boba tea recipe
  
  
• Mango Bubble Tea: Homemade Mango Milk Tea
  
  

I hope you liked the rose bubble tea recipe. Share your results and opinions in the comment section below. Also, subscribe to never miss a recipe.

Till then,

Make it delicious!

Rose milk tea recipe card