A Brown Sugar Milk Tea from Gong Cha shows up at the warehouse with an $8.40 price tag. Duff reckons he can make the same drink for $1.20 a cup, so he heads to the kitchen to prove it. Three ingredients later, the homemade cup is ready, and once the pearls are cooked it takes less than five minutes to put together.
What ingredients do I need for brown sugar boba milk?
- Brown Sugar Syrup (40g, or up to 60g if you like it sweeter and stronger)
- Tapioca Balls (30g dry, which comes out at about 60g once cooked)
- Milk (about 300ml)
- Ice (enough to fill the cup)
How do I cook the tapioca pearls?
This is the only part that takes time, so do it first. Bring water to the boil using 6 parts water to 1 part Tapioca Balls, add the pearls and cook for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the pot covered for another 20 minutes.
Strain the pearls, rinse them under cold water, then mix them through some Brown Sugar Syrup. Use them while they're fresh, because cooked pearls harden as they sit and lose their chew.
How do I make brown sugar boba milk?
1. Coat the cup with brown sugar. Pour the Brown Sugar Syrup into the cup and turn the cup on its side as you pour, so the syrup runs down the inside walls. Those streaks are what give the drink its look.
2. Add the pearls. Spoon the cooked brown sugar pearls into the bottom of the cup.
3. Fill with ice.
4. Pour in your milk. Fill the cup with about 300ml of milk and give it a stir before you drink it.
Which milk works best?
Duff uses fresh milk in the video, and low-fat fresh milk works just as well. If you're lactose intolerant, pick whichever milk you'd normally drink instead. The one we'd skip is condensed milk.
Does it really taste like the shop version?
That was the whole point of the taste test at the end. With the $8.40 cup and the homemade one side by side, the verdict was "Tastes the exact same." To see how home costs compare with shop prices across other drinks, have a look at our cost per cup breakdown.
