How to Make Boba

Do you love boba tea but hate spending money on it? Well, good news! You can make boba tea at home with just a few ingredients.

All you need is water, tapioca starch, brown sugar (or dark brown sugar), and a pot.

This recipe is super simple and easy to follow, so you’ll be sipping on your homemade boba tea in no time!

Recipe Notes

Tapioca starch is the most popular chewy boba pearls material.

You can get it on Amazon.

The best approach to keep all of the flour together and create a dough for further processes is to use part of the tapioca starch congealing. One of the most common failures reported is over-thickening, owing primarily to over-or lack of congealing.

If the starch is added straight to boiling water or cold water, it will produce a non-Newtonian fluid that prevents the dough from forming. To help the gelatinization process, we add a portion of the starch. However, if the starch is overcooked or heated excessively, the pearls will not maintain their spherical form and chewy texture after cooking. It becomes extremely soft and shapeless. As a result, I highly advise you to watch the video and read through the recipe before proceeding because we don’t have much time to think during this procedure.

The cooked pearls should be consumed as soon as possible. If you need to use them again, keep them frozen after shaping.

Let’s Make Some Boba

Step #1

In a tiny saucepan, warm the water and dissolve brown sugar (or dark brown sugar). Allow the liquid to boil fully on the slowest burner. Covering the pan can help to prevent excessive water loss. In with half of the tapioca starch and mix for 6-7 seconds before removing from heat or extinguishing the fire, then add in the rest of the tapioca starch and continue mixing until it is all combined.

Step #2

Using a scraper blade, combine the remaining flour with the smooth paste and knead it into the dough. With the aid of a scraper blade, work the smooth paste into a dough. It might be sticky at first. Dust the operation board with little amounts of powdered sugar during the kneading process until it is smooth and not sticky anymore but still soft. Divide each portion of dough into four parts and then shape one part into a thin and long log. Cut each piece into tiny cubes.

Step #3

Round each small square into little balls (be patient and don’t require precision). If you don’t need the shape, you can just skip this step. After being boiled, larger shaping will make the balls more durable.

Step #4

On a large plate, spread some flour and cover each ball with enough flour to keep it from sticking together. Then remove the extra starch from the mix. You may now package them in air-tight bags and freeze them for later use.

Step #5

In a small pot, melt 1 slice of brown sugar slab and 1 cup brown sugar with 100ml water over medium heat. Simmer until the mixture is melted. Set aside to cool before straining into a glass bottle or jar.

Step #6

How to prepare boba pearls is super simple: bring a big pan of water (at least 6 times the volume of the pearls) and cook the pears for 20 to 30 minutes. Then drain and combine with 2 tablespoons brown sugar syrup or honey to keep them from sticking together.

Step #7

Follow these steps to make your own boba pearls: Pour the milk into the serving cup and sprinkle with a little brown sugar syrup, then turn the cup upside down so that the syrup may form marbles on the cup wall. Place boba pearls in. To serve, add milk.

Time Needed:

Prep Time: 1 day 40 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Servings and Calories:

Servings: 6

Calories: 393kcal

Ingredients

For boba pearls

1 cup around 135g tapioca starch, + 2 tbsp. more for adjusting and coating

6 tbsp. water 90ml

60 g brown sugar

Add-In

4 cups of milk

Brown Sugar Syrup

1 cup brown sugar

1 brown sugar slab (Around 70g brown sugar can be used in its place.)

100 ml water ⅓ cup + 1.5 tbsp.