Bubble Tea

I feel this recipe may have been unfairly rated by some -- don't confound a distaste for boba/bubble tea itself with an unsuccessful recipe. You can find boba, black large-pearl tapioca, at most Asian food stores and in the Asian aisles of some more commercial food places. In my experience, it isn't necessary to cook them for a full 45 minutes; bring the water to a full boil, add the boba till they float, then reduce to a simmer for 25 minutes, covered. Then remove from heat and allow to stew for about 20 additional minutes. Rinse them with cool water and store them in the fridge, covered, with sugar or honey dissolved in water to keep them hydrated. My bag of boba directs that you use roughly 6x the volume of water as boba while cooking. Of course you can use whatever type of tea, with sweetener of choice and milk added to preference.

I've tried making my own bubble tea on several occasions, and it's never quite as good as buying it from the popular local bubble tea shops. A few things that help make it close are 1) using frozen large tapioca pearls instead of the dry ones 2) using Lipton black tea and 3) sweetening the tea with condensed milk. It's a hard thing to make, and your recipe was nice shot at it.

Wonderful!!! You either like bubble tea or you don't. Don't let the other reviews scare you away from trying it! It's very time consuming but very worth it.

Doesn't taste like the bottled stuff at all.

Such a neat drink idea! I could only find small tapioca pearls but I used the chai tea mix from this site BUT I was not able to find powdered, unsweetened tea mix so I just brewed some regular tea and mixed the chai mix and tapioca in. Lots of fun. I can see how this would be good with bigger pearls and a big straw.

Definately not my thing, the chewy tapioca pearls were just too odd for for me. But if you are a tea lover, you may want to try it.

Yeah, just like someone else said on here, you either like it or dont like it so dont be scared to try. this is actually a pretty good base recipe, i flavored mine with coconut and used green tea :] and for some people, they just dont like the chewy tapioca pearls but thats just preference. try it, and its not authentic without the pearls but still is yummy :]

I was skeptical, but thought I would give this a go. I really wish I hadn't.

Honey dew bubble tea is my favorite. I buy it from a Japanese tea lounge, and it is the most delicious thing for a hot summer day.

I love chai tea and i love tapioca pudding...and I'll try anything twice. The texture was just strange. Maybe if there was a way to flavor the tapioca pearls to make them sweeter?? It was just okay. LOVED the chai tea recipe, though, and even made this again, just without the tapioca pearls.

This is great! I've been looking for a place to find a good recipe for this!

This recipe was fine, except I add sugar to the boiling water so it cooks into the pearls (haven't tried this with honey yet). Also, I think it's worth noting that though this doesn't taste quite like your local bubble tea spot, your local spot probably sells a powdered mix. This is healthier, and certainly not limited to the chai mix. Black tea and earl grey are two of my favs.

Not that great