How To Make Taro Milk Tea: A 4-Step Recipe

When you know how to make taro milk tea, you do not have to wait until you can get by the specialty tea shop for this delicious beverage. Let’s start brewing!

Taro Milk Tea Recipe

Print Recipe

Prep Time 35 minutes mins

Equipment

• Kettle
• Mug
• Whisk
• Tall glass
• Colander
• Boba straw
• Bowl

Ingredients

  

• 2 tbsp taro powder
• 1 green tea bag
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp half-and-half or heavy cream
• 1/3 cup boba pearls
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• Ice

Instructions

 

• Fill a large pot with water and add the uncooked boba pearls.
• Simmer them to ten to 12 minutes.
• Take the pot off of the stove, put the lid on it, and let it sit for two or three minutes before using a colander to strain the pearls. Put the pearls in a bowl with cold water.
• Add the brown sugar and stir until dissolved.
• Store the boba in the fridge.
• Brew the green tea. Allow the tea bag to steep for two minutes, then remove it and allow the tea to cool for ten minutes.
• Add the taro powder to the tea and whisk.
• Add the boba and ice to a tall glass.
• Pour in the tea.
• Top with half-and-half or cream.
• Serve with a wide straw.

 

Where Taro Milk Tea Comes From

Boba pearls should be prepared ahead of time

Taro is one of the most popular versions of boba tea. Taro is a plant that is similar to the sweet potato, and it adds a nutty, subtly vanilla flavor to classic boba tea. The roots of this plant are what make the taro powder that you can buy to make your own taro milk tea. Taro root is cooked, dried, and ground to make the powder that is commercially available.

Taro powder has a lovely purple color that makes taro milk tea a beautiful and popular beverage everywhere that boba tea is sold.

Origins Of Taro Milk Tea

Taro milk tea is a version of the popular bubble tea, also called boba tea. The story of taro milk tea started when boba tea was invented.

Teas with milk have been around for centuries, but sometime in the late 1980s, Tu Tsong He, a Taiwanese businessman, was looking for a way to set his start-up tea shop apart from the others. He thought that adding some tapioca pearls to his green tea would create an interesting and marketable tea drink.

The tapioca balls looked like pearls in the tea drink, causing him to name his new drink “Pearl Green Tea.”

Later, Tu added black tapioca to a classic milk tea. This beverage was thick and rich with a chewy texture. Tu’s first few Asian customers had to spoon the tapioca balls from their tea drinks, but it wasn’t very long before he worked with manufacturers to create extra-wide straws that made the drink sippable.

Tu opened his first bubble tea shop in 1986.

Soon, others began experimenting with making variations on the classic drink. Franchises were formed, and small shops sprang up all across the nation. The drink became very popular in Taiwan, and over the decades it has spread all across Asia, North America, and Europe. And this is where the taro comes in.

Taro is a starchy root vegetable that can be added to a bubble tea for a new and exciting flavor of bubble milk tea.

You might also be wondering what does iced milk tea taste like.

Final Word On How To Make Taro Milk Tea

You do not have to wait to get to the specialty tea shop to make your very own taro milk tea. When you have the correct ingredients on hand, you can create taro milk tea for yourself at any time of day.

Additionally, making a batch of boba pearls and brown sugar syrup and storing it in the fridge will allow you to prepare taro milk tea for your next party or game night. 

In just a few minutes, by following our step-by-step directions, you can enjoy this special, appealing treat any time of day.

FAQ About How To Make Taro Milk Tea