Bubble tea

What it tastes like

Sweet, creamy and tea-forward when made well; the tea has to be brewed strong or it disappears entirely behind the milk and sugar. The pearls contribute texture rather than flavour.

What it is built on

Teas

• Assam — Thick and malty with a firm astringent grip. The second flush is the one worth seeking: it carries a rounder, almost stewed-fruit sweetness under the malt that the first flush has not yet developed.
• Tie Guan Yin — Creamy and intensely floral, with essentially no astringency. The aroma in the empty cup after pouring is part of the experience and is often more striking than the liquor itself.

Brewing method: Western brewing (teapot or mug) — A small amount of leaf in a large volume of water, steeped once for a few minutes and then strained off. The approach most English-speaking drinkers already know, and the one most teas sold in the West are made for.

Ingredients

• 200 ml Strong brewed black or oolong tea
• 60 g Tapioca pearls, cooked
• 80 ml Milk or non-dairy alternative
• Sugar syrup, to taste
• Ice

Preparation

1. Step 1. Boil the tapioca pearls until chewy through, then rest them in sugar syrup. (30 minutes)
2. Step 2. Brew the tea at roughly double normal strength and cool it completely.
3. Step 3. Combine tea, milk and syrup, then shake hard with ice.
4. Step 4. Pour over the pearls and serve with a wide straw.

Serves 1. About 45 minutes from start to finish, including anything that has to simmer or cool.

Equipment

• Western teapot — A mug and a fine strainer does the same job. What matters is that the leaf has room to open and that you can separate it from the water when the steep is done — a cramped infuser ball fails both tests.

There is no single correct version

Enormous. Fruit versions use no milk, cheese-foam versions add a salted topping, and the pearl is often replaced by grass jelly, popping boba or pudding. Sugar and ice levels are customarily ordered by percentage in Taiwan, and that convention has travelled with the drink.

The steps above are one workable account of how this is made, not the authoritative recipe. Households and regions differ on proportions, on order and sometimes on what counts as the drink at all.

Common mistakes

• Brewing the tea at normal strength, so milk and ice dilute it to nothing
• Cooking the pearls ahead and refrigerating them, which turns them hard
• Assuming one recipe — the drink has been localised almost everywhere it has gone

Sources