National Dishes of the World

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Bubble tea
Photo: Liwe-photos Photography, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, Wikimedia Commons

drink vegetarian

Bubble tea

珍珠奶茶 (zhēnzhū nǎichá)

Sweet milk tea with large, chewy tapioca pearls, sipped through a wide straw either iced or warm.

Eaten in: Taiwan

Prep
10 min
Cooking
30 min
Resting
30 min
Total
1 h 10 min
Servings
2

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About the dish

Bubble tea, zhenzhu naicha or ‘pearl milk tea’ in Chinese, was born in Taiwanese tea shops in the 1980s and went on to conquer Asia and the rest of the world. It is sweetened black tea with milk, shaken with ice and served with pearls – balls of tapioca cooked and soaked in brown sugar syrup until dark, soft and springy; Taiwanese call that texture QQ. It is drunk through a wide straw that lets the pearls through. Today there are hundreds of variations, with green tea and oolong, fruit, jellies, pudding or a salty cheese foam, and every shop lets you choose the sweetness and the amount of ice.

Main ingredients

  • black tea
  • milk
  • tapioca pearls
  • brown sugar
  • ice

More: Wikipedia (pl) Wikipedia (en)

Recipe

Bubble tea

https://foodmap.ominuvo.com/dish/bubble-tea

Ingredients

2 servings

2 servings

Method

  1. Brew the tea in the boiling water for 5–6 minutes, strain and chill.

  2. Bring plenty of water to the boil, add the pearls and cook according to the packet (usually 15–25 minutes), stirring at first so they do not stick, then leave them covered for 10 minutes.

  3. Meanwhile boil the sugar with 60 ml water into a thick syrup.

  4. Drain the pearls, rinse briefly in cold water and soak them in the warm syrup for at least 10 minutes.

  5. Spoon the pearls and syrup into two tall glasses, tilting them so the syrup streaks down the sides.

  6. Add ice, pour in the tea and milk, stir and serve at once with wide straws.

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