Tiger milk tea is a smooth, sweet, iced milk tea flavored with rich toffee-like muscovado brown sugar syrup and served with chewy black boba pearls. This bubble tea sensation needs no introduction. It might appear intimidating to make, but it is one of the most basic brown sugar boba recipes.
Let us learn more about it before getting into the recipe.
Introduction to Tiger Milk Tea
There are numerous variations of Bubble tea. Aromatic flower-scented bubble tea, fruity bubble tea, chocolate bubble tea, and whatnot. But this brown sugar boba is still the heart of boba culture.
What is tiger milk tea?
Tiger milk tea is nothing but bubble tea flavored with a dark brown muscovado sugar syrup. It gets its name from the tiger-like stripes formed on the glass when the syrup dunked boba is put into it.
The dark brown syrup dunked boba leaves dark stripes along the sides of the glass. When milk is poured into the glass, the stripes become more evident. That is how this bubble tea got its name.
Other Names
Though tiger milk tea is a pretty popular drink, it is called by different names, which usually causes confusion. Let us look into the other names that might be used to refer to tiger milk tea.
- Tiger boba tea. This name is more commonly used in the US.
- Brown sugar pearl milk tea. It uses brown sugar syrup.
- Black tiger milk tea. Such bubble tea uses black tea.
- Black sugar bubble tea. Black sugar ( Kokuto) is the Japanese unrefined brown sugar that is widely used in making tiger bubble tea.
- Green tiger milk tea. Such tea is made with green tea.
- Dirty boba. The dark syrup-smeared glass looks dirty and messy, hence the name, dirty boba.
- Mud flip tea. A popular Japan-based brand name for tiger boba served in sealed glasses, that need to be flipped to make the striped pattern, inherent to tiger boba tea.
- Tiger sugar milk tea. Tiger sugar is a Taiwanese boba chain that is credited with the popularization of tiger Bubble tea
- Other Names: Black bubble tea, Pearl bubble tea, Tiger milk boba, Tiger boba latte
Around the Asian countries and Canada, it is called tiger milk tea, brown sugar milk tea, brown sugar boba, or tiger bubble tea. Whereas in the US, it is usually called Tiger boba or tiger boba tea. This is because bubble tea is called boba in the US.
What does tiger milk tea taste like?
It tastes like a rich iced milk tea with a deep caramelized sweet flavor, coupled with chewy tapioca pearls. So, yes, it is nothing fancy, just a normal bubble tea, but the sugar does wonders here. Not just in terms of appearance. Non-refined sugar, muscovado is used to make a caramel-like syrup, along with the tea dominating the tiger milk tea flavor profile.
It also has a low-lying flavor of typical boba which comes from the black tapioca pearls. Overall tiger milk tea is a sweet iced milk tea, with a caramel-like flavor from brown sugar or muscovado sugar.
Tiger Milk Tea Ingredients
What do you need to make tiger milk tea or the brown sugar boba?
1 tea
You need two teabags for making this recipe. This recipe will yield 2 large or 3 medium-sized drinks. And two tea bags work perfectly for the recipe of this quantity. If you like strong tea flavor in your milk teas, then add one more tea bag.
If you are using tea leaves, 2 teaspoons of green tea leaves or black tea leaves will be sufficient.
I am using black tea for this recipe; hence you can call it a black tiger milk tea. But you can use any tea that you like.
2. Muscovado sugar
What is muscovado sugar? And What can I use to substitute it?
Muscovado sugar is brown-colored unrefined cane sugar that comes in brown and dark brown variants. It looks just like brown sugar, but unlike brown sugar, muscovado sugar does not undergo any kind of refining. Hence it contains natural molasses. It has a unique toffee-like flavor. Its texture is very similar to the Jaggery, crumbly and moist.
Muscovado sugar is the traditional choice for making tiger boba. But in case of non-availability, you can substitute it with other types of unrefined sugars. A few substitutions that should work just fine are jaggery (unrefined sugar from India), panela(unrefined sugar from Latin America), Black Sugar( Japanese unrefined sugar), or sucanat.
If you have none of these, go with dark brown sugar. Brown sugar is the most easily available substitute, hence this tea is often called brown sugar 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 tiger milk tea.
4. tapioca pearls/ Boba
If you are making tapioca pearls from scratch, this is going to be a tiring recipe. Trust me it is! In reality, it is nothing like those Gram or Tik-Tok videos. It is not easy to handle tapioca dough. Initially, it is too hot and sticky to handle, and once it becomes easy to handle, it hardens very quickly. It does need some practice. But doable. A post on that coming soon.
So, I am sticking to the store-bought black boba pearls.
I am obsessed with a black boa or black tapioca pearls. I think they make bubble tea a bubble tea. The popping boba, jelly boba, jelly cubes, etc. are all good from time to time but you cannot beat the classics. And this recipe is a very classical dirty boba recipe.
You can use tapioca pearls or the ones that come in pastel shades if you like.
Procedure: How to make tiger milk tea?
Step 1 Brewing the tea
First, boil water in a kettle or a pan to 2120F or 100 0C. That is when water starts to boil. Immediately turn off the heat and pour 1 cup of boiling water into a cup.
Put both the teabag of black tea in the cup and cover. Let the tea steep for 3 minutes and then uncover. Remove the teabag and chill the brewed tea until you are ready to assemble the tiger milk tea.
If you are using tea leaves, add the leaves to the tea infuser and pour them into the boiling water. Let the tea leaves steep for 3 minutes. Then strain the tea and keep it cool.
Step 2 Cooking Tapioca pearls/ boba
Bring about 5 cups of water to a boil. Then add the brown sugar boba to the boiling water. Let them cook at high to medium heat until they all start to float at the top.
I have used quick cooking boba. Mine started to float after 5 minutes of cooking. Then reduce the heat and let them cook for 5- 10 more minutes or until they become soft and chewy. You can cook for a few minutes more or less depending on the kind of texture you like on your boba.
I cook boba for 7 minutes at medium-low heat after they come floating on top.
Then, turn off the heat and keep them in the boiling water for 5 more minutes. Then drain the water and gather the cooked tapioca pearls.
Different types of boba will take different times to cook. Follow the package instructions for boiling the boba. But do not take the directions as a strict guide. So, before turning off the flame, check yourself by tasting one boba pearl to ensure that it is fully cooked to suit your liking.
Step 3 Making syrup for black tiger boba
Into a saucepan, add muscovado sugar or substitute sugar (read ingredients discussion) and add 3 tablespoons of water. Put the heat at medium and keep stirring it. Slowly the muscovado sugar will start to melt. At a point, when it starts to become bubbly, add the cooked black tapioca pearls. This whole process should not take more than 5 minutes. Mix well and turn off the flame.
If you add more water, you will have to cook it longer to reduce it to a thick syrup.
Step 4 Assemble brown sugar boba tea
Hold the glass horizontally and add the syrup boba using a long handle iced tea spoon. The key to getting tiger stripes is to drop the boba on the sides of the glass and then rotate the glass to smear it with the syrup.
They add the ice cubes, followed by the tea. Now, gently pour milk into the glass. Drop-in a boba straw and enjoy!
How to get stripes in your tiger boba that last?
When we make tiger boba at home, we often miss the contrasting stripes that we get in those served in boba cafes. Just after pouring the milk, the syrup stripes merge with milk and vanish! Where is the fun?
Well, the stripes will eventually dissolve into the tea, but for the sheer esthetics of it, we like them to stay for a few minutes, so that we can click some gram-worthy pics.
So, if you want lasting stripes on your boba, follow along.
It is all in the assembly. When you put the syrup dunked boba pearls into the glass, place them very close to the rim and let them slide down the glass by slowly straightening the glass. Cover all the sides of the glass. Usually, a glass would take 5-6 long handle iced tea spoons of boba. So, you will have enough coverage.
Then, let the glass rest on the counter for 2 minutes. This rest duration allows the sugar syrup on the glass sides to solidify so that when you pour in the milk, it does not dissolve immediately.
Hence it buys some time to gaze and admire your hard work and click a few images.
Pro tips for making brown sugar boba tea recipe that will have you wanting more
- The ideal water temperature to brew the tea is 212 Degree F or 100 Degree C which is just the boiling point of water. So just as the water starts to boil, you know that you reached the right temperature to steep the tea.
- Cook the tapioca pearls or boba right before assembling the tiger bubble tea. They taste best when made fresh.
- The syrup should be thick, and caramel-like inconsistency. If you add more water for making the syrup, you will end up cooking it for a long time until it reaches the right consistency.
- 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.
- To make vegan tiger bubble tea, just substitute the whole milk with the plant-based milk of your choice.
- To get perfect tiger stripes on your boba, let the syrup-smeared glass rest for 2-3 minutes before pouring in the liquids.
Storage brown sugar boba
Well, there is no point in storing it for long, the boba gets starchy and hardens. You can prepare the tea in advance and make the rest around the time when you want to serve.
The store-bought bubble teas have some sort of stabilizing powders added to them to stabilize the liquids. That is why they appear fresh for longer. Though we all know they are not fresh.
Frequently asked questions
Tiger milk tea was created over a decade ago in Taiwan. But it was popularized by Ming Tsung Tang. He combined brown sugar syrup with milk and tapioca pearls in his dessert shop in Taichung, Taiwan. It got its name from the appearance of tiger-like stripes in the drink. Ming Tsung Tang, the founder of Tiger Sugar 2017, played a vital role in getting it international fame.
If we pour milk over the hot syrup, it dissolves immediately. To prevent the stripes from instantly merging into the tea, make sure that the syrup is thick and after pouring the boba syrup down the sides of the glass, let the syrup cool and solidify. This way, the syrup will take time to merge into the tea.
Boba is made up of tapioca starch. And as we all know starch thickens on cooling. So, after the boba cools down, it is bound to become thick and hard. To prevent the boba from getting hard, try to keep it warm.
In boba shops they keep the brown sugar boba dunked in the warm brown sugar syrup. Usually, they are placed on an electric hot plate that keeps the boba warm and prevents it from hardening.
Refrigerating the bubble tea is something that I would never recommend but if you have no choice, then you can refrigerate it overnight. But a disclaimer that the boba in the tea will be hard. You can enjoy the tea though.
Other bubble tea recipes
- 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 tiger milk tea ( brown sugar boba recipe) recipe. Share your results and opinions in the comment section below. Also, subscribe to never miss a recipe.
Till then,
Make it delicious!
Tiger Milk Tea Recipe Card
Tiger milk tea
Ingredients
- 2 teabags of black tea (or 2 teaspoon of black tea leaves)
- 2 cups whole milk
- ½ cup uncooked black tapioca pearls
- ½ cup muscovado or brown sugar
- 1 cup ice cubes
Instructions
Step 1 Brewing the tea
- First, boil water in a kettle or a pan to 2120F or 100 0C. Turn off the heat and pour 1 cup of boiling water into a cup.
- Put both the black tea bags in the cup with boiling water and cover.
- Let the tea steep for 3 minutes and then uncover. Remove the teabag and chill the brewed tea until you are ready to assemble the tiger milk tea.
- If you are using tea leaves, add the leaves to the tea infuser and pour boiling water. Let the tea leaves steep for 3 minutes. Then, strain the tea and let it cool.
Step 2 Cooking Tapioca pearls/ boba
- Bring about 5 cups water to a boil. Then add the brown sugar boba to the boiling water. Let them cook at high to medium heat until they all start to float at the top. It will take 3-5 minutes.
- Then reduce the heat and let them cook for 5-7 more minutes or until they become soft and chewy. You can cook for a few minutes more or less depending on the kind of texture you like on your boba.
- Then, turn off the heat and keep them in the boiling water for 5 more minutes. Then drain the water and gather the cooked tapioca pearls.
Step 3 Making syrup for tiger boba
- Into a saucepan, add muscovado sugar or brown sugar (read ingredients discussion or notes for substitutes) and add 3 tablespoons of water.
- Put the heat at medium and keep stirring. Slowly the muscovado sugar will start to melt.
- At a point, when it starts to become bubbly, add the cooked black tapioca pearls. This whole process should not take more than 5 minutes.
- Mix well and turn off the flame.
Step 4 Assemble tiger milk tea boba
- Hold the glass horizontally and add the syrup boba using a long handle iced teaspoon. The key to getting tiger stripes is to drop the boba on the sides of the glass and then rotate the glass to smear it with the syrup.
- Then add the ice cubes, followed by the tea.
- Now, gently pour milk into the glass. Drop-in a boba straw and enjoy!
Notes
- You can substitute it with other types of unrefined sugars. A few substitutions that should work just fine are jaggery (unrefined sugar from India), panela (unrefined sugar from Latin America), Black Sugar( Japanese non-refined sugar), or sucanat. If you have nothing on hand, go with brown sugar.
- The ideal water temperature to brew the tea is 212 Degree F or 100 Degree C which is just the boiling point of water. So just as the water starts to boil, you know that you reached the right temperature to steep the tea.
- Cook the tapioca pearls or boba right before assembling the tiger bubble tea. They taste best when made fresh.
- The syrup should be thick, and caramel-like inconsistency. If you add more water for making the syrup, you will end up cooking it for a long time until it reaches the right consistency.
- 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.
- Different types of boba will take different times to cook. Follow the package instructions for boiling the boba. But do not take the directions as a strict guide. So, before turning off the flame, check yourself by tasting one boba pearl to ensure that it is fully cooked to suit your liking.
- To make vegan tiger bubble tea, just substitute the whole milk with the plant-based milk of your choice.
- To get perfect tiger stripes on your boba, let the syrup-smeared glass rest for 2-3 minutes before pouring in the liquids.
Nutrition Facts
Andrew Johansons
Lovely dense flavor! I am in love with this boba recipe. It is easy unlike other fruit-based recipes and still tastes the best. Highly recommend.
Khloe Greenberg
I used brown sugar instead of muscovado. I think I kept the syrup a little thinner, the tiger stripes dissolved very quickly. But loved the flavor and everything else about it. Highly recommend this recipe.