Sweetened milk tea with soft cooked tapioca pearls, drunk through a thick straw. The pearls must absolutely be soaked in sugar syrup after cooking, otherwise they stick together and taste like nothing. They are only good for a few hours, which is why bubble tea is a fresh drink.
Why this works
Tapioca is pure starch without protein or fat. When cooked, it gelatinizes and binds water, and when cooling, the molecules arrange themselves in a crystalline structure again and press this water out. The pearl becomes hard, and in the fridge this happens many times faster. The sugar syrup delays exactly this process because the sugar molecules place themselves between the starch chains and disrupt their rearrangement. Incidentally, it solves the second problem: pure starch tastes like nothing.
Step-by-step instructions
- 1
Brew the tea strongly
Pour hot water over the black tea and let it steep for five minutes, which is significantly longer than usual. The tea should deliberately be very strong and slightly tart because milk, sugar and ice will dilute it heavily later. Strain it and let it cool completely.
- 2
Cook the pearls
Bring plenty of water to a rolling boil and add the tapioca pearls as soon as it boils. Stir once so they do not stick to the bottom. Let them boil vigorously for five minutes, then remove the pot from the heat and let them steep covered for another five minutes until they are completely translucent.
- 3
Shock with cold water
Pour the pearls into a sieve and rinse them briefly under cold water. This stops the cooking process and washes off excess starch that would otherwise bind the pearls into a lump. They should now be soft but still have a noticeable bite in the center.
- 4
Soak in syrup
Briefly boil brown sugar and water into a syrup and add the drained pearls. Let them steep in it for at least twenty minutes. This step is not optional: without syrup, tapioca pearls taste like nothing and stick together within a few minutes.
- 5
Assemble
Distribute the pearls along with some syrup into two tall glasses and fill them with ice cubes. Pour the cooled strong tea over them and top up with milk. Stir vigorously once and serve immediately with an extra thick straw that the pearls fit through.
Our best tips
- Absolutely soak the pearls in sugar syrup. Without this step, they taste bland and stick together.
- Tapioca pearls are only good for about four hours. They become hard in the fridge and cannot be saved.
- Deliberately brew the tea too strong, otherwise the finished bubble tea tastes like sweetened milk.
Tasty variations
Matcha Bubble Tea
Replace black tea with whisked matcha, coconut milk goes particularly well with this.
Fruity Bubble Tea
Instead of milk tea, mix green tea with mango or passion fruit puree and add the pearls.
Nutrition facts
| Calories | 399 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 4 g |
| Carbohydrates | 89 g |
| – of which sugar | 45 g |
| Fat | 4 g |
| Fiber | 1 g |
Where the 399 kcal come from
per serving
Calculated from the ingredients – how we do it
We add up reference values for every ingredient and divide by the number of servings. These assumptions are baked in:
- Reference values per 100 g – for the raw ingredient, exactly as listed.
- Tinned goods count at drained weight, bone-in meat at purchase weight: you eat about 70 per cent of a chicken thigh and leave the rest.
- Water evaporates as you cook. The energy stays in the pot, the weight does not – so the figure is per serving, not per 100 g of finished dish.
- Anything listed without a quantity – “salt and pepper” – is not counted.
A guide value, not a lab measurement: no two onions weigh the same, and fat content varies from pack to pack.
Frequently asked questions
Why are my pearls hard?
Either cooked too short or they were in the fridge. Tapioca becomes irreversibly hard through cold, so always prepare fresh.
What are tapioca pearls made of?
From starch of the cassava root, usually colored with brown sugar or caramel. They are naturally gluten-free and neutral in taste.
Can I prepare them in advance?
Only to a limited extent. Freshly cooked and stored in syrup, they stay good at room temperature for about four hours. After that, it is no longer worth it.
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