Tiger milk tea
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 difficult to make, but it is one of the most basic brown sugar boba recipes to make.
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
Nutrition
Calories: 350kcal
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