Delicious Strawberry Milk Tea Recipe

Strawberry Milk Tea is a sweet refreshing drink that is made with Strawberry syrup, cooked tapioca pearls, black tea and milk. Depending on where you live, milk teas may also be known as boba tea, pearl milk tea, tapioca tea and bubble tea.

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The Benefits of Making Milk Tea at Home

If you search online, one of the key concerns about bubble tea is the high sugar content in most milk teas. In the article from Free Malaysia Today, it was noted that one cup of milk bubble tea can have as much as 18.5 teaspoons of sugar.

This alone is an excellent reason for you to make your milk tea at home. This way, you can control the amount sugar in your milk tea.

So instead of using store-bought strawberry milk – which has a lot of sugar – you can make the strawberry simple syrup at home and combine it with plain milk. This way, you get to decide how much sugar to add to your homemade strawberry milk

Milk Tea Flavors

There are many flavors of milk tea! In its most basic form, milk tea is made up of tea, milk and boba pearls.

Like this strawberry milk tea recipe, you can change up the flavor by adding a fruit puree or fruit simple sugar syrup . Some popular milk tea fruit flavours are coconut milk tea, lychee milk tea, mango milk tea and peach milk tea.

About Tapioca

Tapioca pearls are made from starch which has been extracted from cassava root which is native to Brazil.

Tapioca is high in carbs but low in a lot of other nutrients. However, you could choose to improve the nutritional value of your drink by complementing the tapioca pearls with healthty smoothies.

How to Cook Tapioca Pearls

When you first bring the tapioca pearls out of the packaging, you will notice that the dry/uncooked tapioca pearls are hard in texture and look whitish. Tapioca pearls need to be hydrated

For the brand of tapioca pearls that I used, the best way to cook the tapioca was long and slow with a lot of water. For example, if you plan to make 2 glasses of bubble tea, you would need to simmer about 1/2 a cup of boba pearls in 2 cups of water for about 30 mins. Make sure the water is already simmering before you add the boba pearls.

Once the boba is done cooking, let it sit in the hot water for a few more minutes before straining the pearls into a bowl of cold water. You can add some white granulated sugar or brown sugar to the cold water if you want to sweeten the tapioca pearls.

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Cooked tapioca pearls look translucent, become chewy and take on the taste or flavor of the liquid in which they are submerged.

If you will be using a different brand, make sure to follow the manufacturer’s instruction for how to cook the pearls.

How to Make Strawberry Syrup

As noted above, making your own strawberry simple syrup is one of the best ways to control the amount of sugar in your drink.

Making strawberry syrup is really easy. All you need are some strawberries, sugar and water which you simmer over medium heat until the strawberries soften and the liquid thickens slightly.

The standard ratio of sugar to water for a simple syrup is typically 1:1. Which means that for every part of sugar used you will need an equal part of water.

However, in this recipe I reduced the ratio of sugar to water. Instead of once cup of sugar, I used 3/4 cup of sugar. You could reduce the quantity of sugar further if you prefer.

Here are the Steps Required for Making Strawberry Syrup.

1. Rinse and hull the fresh strawberries (You can skip this step if you will using frozen strawberries)
2. Quarter the strawberries and put them in a pot.
3. Add the granulated sugar and water to the strawberries
4. Place the pot on medium-low heat and let the strawberries cook until they soften. It takes me about 10 mins to cook about 1lb of strawberries with 3/4 cup sugar and 1 cup of water
5. Once the strawberries are done cooking, turn off the heat and let the strawberries sit in the pot for 5-10mins. Then strain out the syrup using a sieve or strainer
6. Let the syrup cool completely. Then you can use it in any of your homemade drinks – such as this strawberry milk tea

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You can store you home made strawberry syrup in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

How to Make the Black Tea for Milk Tea

Making the black tea for the boba milk tea is really straightforward.

1. Boil some water
2. Steep 2 bags of black tea in one cup of water for about 5 minutes
3. Squeeze and remove the teabags from the water
4. Leave the tea to come to room temperature

You could leave the teabags in the water for longer than 5 minutes. The tea will become stronger and may take on a slightly bitter taste

Types of Milk that can be used for Strawberry Milk Bubble Tea

You have a lot of flexibility when it comes to the type of milk that can be used for milk tea. Especially for those with dairy sensitivities or those who do not want to use regular milk, you can use milk alternatives. Here are some different types of milk that can be used for milk tea:

1. Full fat milk
2. Skim milk
3. Soy milk
4. Coconut milk
5. Almond milk
6. Cashew milk
7. Oat milk

How to Make the Strawberry Milk Tea

1. Add the cooked tapioca pearls to a tall glass such as this
2. Add some strawberry syrup
3. Add your preferred milk
4. Top up with some black tea
5. Stir and enjoy the strawberry milk tea using a bubble tea straw.

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Make sure to check out the strawberry milk tea video tutorial below.

Frequently Asked Questions

I hope you make and enjoy this strawberry milk tea recipe. Let me know in the comments section if you do so. If you enjoyed this recipe, you will also enjoy this easy Guava White Tea Lemonade recipe.

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