Thai Tea Bubble Tea

You don't need to travel to Thailand to enjoy this delicious beverage that may be know as Thailand's national drink. If you've tried Thai iced tea at your favorite Thai restaurant and were surprised by its delicious sweet taste or you've ordered Thai bubble tea at your favorite boba shop, then you may be happy to know you can make iced Thai Tea Bubble Tea right at home! I promise it is as good as any version you'd find on street carts or little shops along the busy streets of Bangkok. It's one of my favorite sweet drinks especially during the hot Summer months and I fell in love with it when I first travelled to Thailand almost 20 years ago. Since then, I've been back to Thailand more than 20 times and I've learned how to make bubble tea at home. It is so easy and inexpensive! Once you learn this, you will impress yourself and save a ton of cash.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS

• Easy to make - once you see how easy it is to make Thai bubble tea at home, you will make it all the time! You can even make the tea and syrup in advance to have it ready for a few days.
• Not too sweet - the great part about making homemade Thai tea is that you can control the sweetness level by adding more or less syrup and/or condensed milk.
• Soft and chewy boba - if you follow this recipe you will get the perfect boba! They are inexpensive and store for so long in the freezer so you can buy a pack and use them as you need them. Freezing them doesn't affect their quality and texture.

INGREDIENTS FOR THAI TEA BUBBLE TEA

• Thai tea - you will need a specific tea to make this and I only ever use ChaTraMue brand. It is a flavored black tea that has a signature taste with slight vanilla and rose undertones as well as a vibrant orange color. The orange color is what makes it stand out among other tea beverages. It is not natural though - this color comes from added coloring agents and it was originally included in the recipe for marketing purposes to make this drink stand out.
• Tapioca pearls (boba) - I only ever use this brand of tapioca pearls. These are instant boba that cook in about 5 minutes, although I always cook them longer for my taste since they will harden as they cool in the cold drink. You can find them in Asian supermarkets and they are also available on Amazon.
• Brown sugar - for the most rich and authentic flavor, use dark brown sugar to make the syrup. In Taiwan they use "black sugar" which is a type of unrefined can sugar similar to muscovado or turbinado sugar but with a higher molasses content.
• Sweetened condensed milk - this is a mandatory ingredient! It's what makes Thai tea so delicious. Condensed milk adds sweetness, rich milky flavor and also a lot of body to make the drink a bit thicker.
• Evaporated milk or light cream - when you order Thai tea on the streets of Bangkok, you'll notice that they will drizzle some milk over top at the very end. This is evaporated milk and it adds just a bit of extra creaminess. It is actually optional but it is very authentic.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS: HOW TO MAKE BUBBLE TEA

• STEP 1). Make the tea. Place 2 tablespoons of Thai tea leaves into a tea sock (or just place them in a tea pot or small sauce pan). Pour boiling water over top, bring to a gentle boil, then lower heat and simmer with the lid ajar for 5 minutes. Turn of the heat and let it sit, covered, for 10 minutes. Remove the sock and squeeze out the tea from the soaked tea leaves, or pour the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into another jug and set aside to cool enough that it is just slightly warm, but not hot. It needs to be just a touch warm so it can dissolve the condensed milk easily. You will have about 1 ½ cups of tea left at this point after straining.
• STEP 2). Make the syrup. Add ½ cup brown sugar and water to a small saucepan over medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 2 minutes until slightly thickened. Remove from heat and set aside. Keep it warm - there's no need to cool it before adding the pearls.
• STEP 3). Make the boba tapioca pearls. Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Add the instant tapioca pearls and wait until they float to the top, then boil for about 7 minutes until very soft. Turn off the heat and leave them in the pot for another 5 minutes, covered. They should be very soft to the point where you can push them to the roof of your mouth with your tongue and that alone is enough to break them up. They will firm up as they cool in the drink so it is important that they are very soft at this point.
• STEP 4). Drain the tapioca pearls in a fine mesh sieve and quickly rinse under warm water only for a few seconds. Add them back to the warm pot and add the remaining 1 tablespoon of brown sugar and stir until it dissolves. Then a ⅓ cup of the brown sugar syrup. I like to bring the boba in the syrup back up to a simmer for 30 seconds to cook the sugar into the boba for the best flavor, but this part is option. Turn off the heat, cover the pot and let marinate for at least 15 minutes or up to 30 minutes at most.
• STEP 5). Prepare the sweet tea. Combine cooled tea with condensed milk and stir well until evenly blended.
• STEP 6). Assemble the bubble tea. Add about ¼ cup of the tapioca pearls along with the brown sugar syrup to the bottom of each serving glass. It's best to use a tall narrow glass for bubble tea. Add as much ice as you want (I like to fill it up to the top). Pour in about ⅔ cup of the sweetened Thai tea. Add 1-2 tablespoons of evaporated milk over top. Stir to mix before drinking, then adjust the sweetness by adding more syrup.

EXPERT TIPS FOR MAKING BUBBLE TEA

• Brew very strong tea - bubble tea needs very strong tea that's more intense than how you would normally drink a regular hot tea. To do this, prepare very concentrated tea with a higher ratio of tea to water (i.e. less water per amount of tea).
• Mix the Thai tea with condense milk before adding ice - it is difficult for condensed milk to mix evenly with the tea when it is too cold, so mix it with the tea first then pour it over ice instead of adding it at the end.
• Make the brown sugar syrup in advance. You can make a double or triple batch of the syrup and store it in an airtight jar in the fridge for up to 1 month so you have it ready to make boba any time you'd like. Just warm up the amount you need in a saucepan and add the cooked boba to it to marinate when you're ready to make bubble tea.
• Use the tapioca pearls soon after they are ready. It's important that you do not make the tapioca pearls too early since they will get firmer over time as they cool. If you have extra boba that you want to use for another drink, you can leave them in the hot syrup for up to 2 hours maximum.
• Marinate the tapioca pearls in syrup - you may have noticed that the pearls in your bubble tea from your favorite shop taste sweet. Well, boba are not typically made with much sugar (if any at all) and don't taste sweet on their own. Instead, the pearls are soaked in warm sugar syrup so the pearls absorb some of the syrup and it also helps them stay soft and protects them from becoming firm too quickly.
• Do not refrigerate the tapioca pearls - tapioca is a type of starch derived from cassava. Once starch is cooked and cooled, it starts to crystallize and firm up. These tapioca pearls will harden over time especially if they are chilled and they will lose their nice soft texture.

TOOLS YOU NEED TO MAKE BUBBLE TEA

• Boba straws - I use these reusable boba straws and also love these stainless steel ones that come with straw brushes for easy cleaning.
• Tall glass or mason jar - these stylish glasses are perfect for bubble tea, these glasses with bamboo lids are great for taking out and these reusable plastic cups are nice and tall and great for take away.
• Small saucepan - you'll need a small pot to boil the boba. This is the one I use in the video - it's a 1-quart stainless steel saucepan.
• Pyrex jug - you can also use a teapot to steep the tea, but then you'll need to strain it into a pouring vessel, and I love these volumetric glass jugs.
• Tea sock - I have a traditional tea sock that I brought back from Thailand and you can also order one on Amazon. They are inexpensive, reusable and very durable so they will last a long time. It's great for straining any kind of tea or coffee and even making non-dairy milk alternatives (such as oat, almond milk or cashew milk).
• Sieve - a very fine mesh sieve is important to strain out the tea if you are not using a tea sock.

More Summer treats

Here are more cool and easy treats that don't require an oven: