Homemade Boba Recipe

I have some delicious boba drink recipes for you today and am so excited to share it with you! Boba drinks are also known as bubble tea or tapioca drinks, it is originated from Taiwan in the 1980’s. The real original boba drink consists of Taiwanese black tea, small tapioca pearls, condensed milk, and syrup or honey. Many variations have been created since then such as fruit milk teas, which is basically a fruit smoothie but with tapioca balls added in. This is the drink I order when I go to boba shops or such as the one you see in the pictures below, because being LDS, I choose not to drink tea such as black tea or green tea. But I have added in some original boba drinks with tea in it for those of you that want to try it out!

Cook the tapioca balls

Drain the tapioca balls

Add to your drink cup

Cut a square size Glad Press’n Seal

Seal it and poke the straw in. Now you have your boba!

What you’ll need:

Glad Press’n Seal
Tapioca balls
Big straws(to fit the tapioca balls through)
Smoothie or milk tea recipe(shared below)
(*optional) Bubble tea flavor powder

I got the Glad Press’n Seal from Walmart, the tapioca balls from a local Asian grocery store, I ordered the straws on Amazon. You can purchase the Tapioca pearls

, boba straws

, and bubble tea flavor powder

all on Amazon. There are many different kinds of tapioca balls of colors and sizes, my favorite is lychee jelly! Okay, that’s not considered to be tapioca balls, but it’s an option many boba shops have and I always order it if they have it.

In order to make boba, you need to first know how to cook the tapioca balls:

How To Cook Tapioca Pearls:

Ingredients:

6 to 8 cups water

1 cup tapioca pearls

Preparation:

1. In a large pot (Make sure the pot is big enough so boiling tapioca water will not spill over) over high heat, add water and bring to a boil.

2. Slowly stir in the tapioca pearls so that they do not stick together (after 1 minute, the tapioca pearls should float). Reduce heat to medium and let boil, covered, for approximately 15 minutes; turn the heat off and let the tapioca pearls sit, covered, for an additional 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove from heat, rinse the tapioca pearls in cold water, and drain.

NOTE: The cooking time above is a general guideline. If you shorten the cooking time, you will get chewier tapioca balls. Cook longer and you will get less elastic tapioca balls.

Add the cooked tapioca pearl to your favorite Bubble Tea recipe.

This recipe below for sugar syrup is totally optional, you can just use sugar or honey or xagave but it tastes better to add the sugar syrup in my opinion than just plain white or brown sugar. But it’ll taste good either way!

How to cook Bubble Tea Sugar Syrup:

Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups water

Approximately 32-35 sixteen ounce servings

Preparation:

Mix sugar and water in a large pot.
Cook at medium to high heat.
Once the mixture boils remove from stove immediately.
Let cool and serve.
*Refrigerate any excess

Then use any of these recipes below to make your boba! Note that most boba shops don’t use any fresh fruit and just use bubble tea flavor powder, milk and ice but there are some that uses a blend of fresh fruit and bubble tea flavor powder. I prefer fresh fruit added in and sometimes you have to ask them to add it in.

Boba Fruit Drink:

The best tasting fresh fruit drinks include strawberry, watermelon, mango, red bean (adzuki), papaya, and my favorite, honeydew melon.

Ingredients:
1 cup fresh fruit
1/2 cup milk
1 Scoop bubble tea sugar syrup(recipe above)
1 cup ice
2 fl. oz. cup of cooked Bubble Tea Tapioca Pearls

Preparation:

Put all ingredients except bubble tea tapioca pearls into a blender and blend well.
Make sure that the fruits are grinded into the milkshake.
Add bubble tea tapioca pearls to a cup, and pour your drink over.
Put in your big fat bubble tea straw and enjoy.

Bubble Tea Powder Fresh Fruit Drink:

Ingredients:

1 Scoop Bubble Tea Flavor Powder
1 Scoop non-dairy powder creamer
1 Scoop bubble tea sugar syrup(recipe above)
1/2 cup fresh fruit
1/4 cup crushed ice
2 fl. oz. of cooked Bubble Tea Tapioca Pearls

Preparation:

Put bubble tea flavor powder, creamer sugar syrup and fresh fruit into the blender for 20 seconds or until blended well.
Blend the drink less if you like little pieces of fruit.
Add tapioca pearls to a cup, and pour your drink over.
Put in your big fat bubble tea straw and enjoy.

Pearl Milk Tea

This can be made with black, green, oolong, chai, or jasmine. The most popular are black tea and green jasmine tea.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup tea
1 Scoop non-dairy powder creamer
1 Scoop bubble tea sugar syrup(recipe above)
1 cup ice
2 fl. oz. of cooked Bubble Tea Tapioca Pearls

Preparation:

Put hot tea, creamer and bubble tea sugar syrup in shaker and mix well.
Add in ice, cover shaker and shake for a nice froth.
Add tapioca pearls to a cup, and pour your drink over.
Put in your big fat bubble tea straw and enjoy.

*A much easier option is to use our Bubble Tea Milk Tea Powder.