Bubble tea is trending – here’s how to make it (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Google has challenged users to make the perfect cup of bubble tea and we are here with the ultimate recipe.
After all, at Metro we never back down from a challenge.
The Taiwanese tea made with tapioca pearls or bubbles has become a popular phenomenon and for good reason.
Each pearl or bubble provides a juicy burst of flavour with each sip with delicious choices like melon, jasmine, mango, coffee (pictured above) and many more.
Also called boba tea, the drink has our mouths watering – so we’ve got a step-by-step guide from Sorted Food on how to make your own bubble tea at home.
The base recipe easily makes two different flavours of bubble tea: jasmine or matcha (pictured left and centre below). Or, once you’ve got the core principles down, you can adapt the flavours to give you a little fruity number instead (picture right).
This recipe makes four glasses of each tea, but trust us, we think you’ll want to double up for this one. It’s too good.
One core recipe, with multiple bubble tea flavours (Picture: Sorted Food)
Ingredients:
Bubbles:
150 g white tapioca pearls
1.5 l water
Sugar Syrup:
200 g caster sugar
200 ml water
2 drops pandan extract
1 glug grenadine syrup
Tea:
2 l boiling water
4 jasmine tea bags
4 tbsp matcha powder
1 bowl ice
1 small jug almond milk
Bubble Tea pearls come in all sorts of different flavours (Picture: Getty Images)
Method:
Step one: Simmer the tapioca pearls.
Place the litre of water for the tapioca into a saucepan and bring to a boil.
Tip in the tapioca pearls and stir well. Simmer gently for 50-60 minutes, stirring occasionally, until only a tiny bit of each pearl is still translucent.
Step two: Make the syrup.
Simmer the 200g of sugar and 200ml of water in another pan to make the syrup.
Divide into two different bowls once the sugar has dissolved and mix the grenadine syrup into one and the pandan extract into another.
Leave to cool.
Step three: Add bubbles to the syrup.
Test a bubble by cooling it slightly and chewing through it, there should be no dry or hard centre.
Drain the pearls in a sieve and run under cold water to stop the cooking, wash off excess starch and cool.
Split the bubbles between the two syrups to store.
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Step four: Make the tea.
Place the matcha powder into one clear bowl or jug and the jasmine teabags into another.
Boil up 2 litres of water and pour half into each of the tea bowls/jugs, leave to steep and cool.
Step five: Pour and serve.
For the matcha tea: pour about 200ml of the cooled green matcha tea over ice in a serving glass, spoon in 3 tbsp of pandan bubbles and syrup, then finish with a drizzle of almond milk and stir before serving.
For the jasmine tea: pour 200ml of cooled jasamine tea over ice in a serving bowl, spoon in 3 tbsp of grenadine bubbles and syrup, then finish with a glug of almond milk stir before serving.
The final mandatory instruction is to enjoy it and savour the flavour.
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The juicy bubbles have our mouths watering.
