Thai Milk Tea with Brown Sugar Boba

Welcome to Foodie Friday! If you know me, you’re probably at least partially aware of the fact that there are really only two things (astronomical student loans + not wanting diabetes) stopping me from having milk tea every other day. The plus side is that I now know how to make it at home! Read on to find out how to make Thai Milk Tea with Brown Sugar Boba!

If you live closer in or close to any bigger towns, there’s probably someplace near you that sells boba/milk tea. For me, the first one I recall ever going to was back when I was in junior high. It was located just 0.5 miles from my house so you could say this curbed addiction started young. Milk tea to me is what coffee may be for others, but I generally limit it to <3-4/month so all things considered, I think I’m doing pretty well.

Muffin of course had to investigate!

It was Yelp‘s 16th birthday yesterday so they had a bunch of virtual events all across the country. I happened to have the afternoon off, so I spent it learning a bunch of things (stay tuned for future recipes and next week’s coffee date post)!

There’s a dessert/drink shop in Manhattan called New Territories + their mission is to bring Hong Kong-style foods/drinks to New York–I sadly didn’t know of them while I was still living on the east coast, but I ordered a boba making kit from them and learned how to make it via a Zoom lesson with them yesterday!

Thai Milk Tea with Brown Sugar Boba

Print Recipe

5 from 6 votes

Thai Milk Tea with Brown Sugar Boba

Make your own boba at home with just 5 ingredients!

Prep Time5 minutes mins

Cook Time50 minutes mins

Course: Drinks

Cuisine: Asian

Servings: 1 serving

Calories: 107kcal

Ingredients

Brown Sugar Boba

• 1/4 cup tapioca pearls (boba)
• 1/4 tbsp dark brown sugar
• 2 tbsp sugar syrup (1 tbsp sugar + 1 tbsp hot water, combined)

Thai Milk Tea

• 1 3/4 cups water
• 1 1/2 tbsp Thai tea leaves
• 3/4 tbsp dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup whole milk (or your choice of milk substitute)

Instructions

Brown Sugar Boba

•  Bring 3 cups of water to a boil, then add the tapioca pearls, stirring constantly to prevent them from sticking. Continue stirring until they're floating, then turn the flame down to medium low.
• Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring every ~5 minutes.
• Turn off the flame and add 1/2 tbsp dark brown sugar to the tapioca, stirring until the sugar has melted. Replace the lid and let sit for 25 minutes.
• Strain the tapioca and rinse with cold water, then mix boba with the sugar syrup.*

Thai Milk Tea

• Bring the water to a boil for ~2 minutes and add in Thai tea leaves.
• Let boil on medium low heat for 5-7 minutes, then turn off the heat and replace the lid, letting the tea steep for an additional 5 minutes.
• Strain the tea into a cup, then add the sugar + milk.

Notes

*The longer the boba sits in the syrup, the sweeter it'll get!

P.S. This is my take/variation on their recipe! I tend to order my milk tea at 25-30% sweetness though, so the level of sweetness may not be to your liking as this definitely does not taste like what you’d typically order at a shop. (Mostly because I cannot bring myself to add that much sugar, hahaha.) Adjust to your taste, and if the tea is too strong, you can always dilute it with more water or milk.

End-of-Week-ish Recap!

• Follow along with me virtually on my road trip from last year! Check out the Hickman Bridge Trail with me in Capitol Reef National Park!

• Have you ever had boba or milk tea?
• What’s your favorite type of tea?