We absolutely love boba tea here at Joy to the Food! There's nothing better than sipping on a tall tea with refreshing fruit flavors and chewy tapioca balls. There are so many different flavors to choose from, how can you possibly choose which one to have? If you're looking for a guide about bubble tea for beginners, you've come to the right place. In this post, we'll review the best boba tea flavors in our opinion!
Whether you want to make your tea at home or hit up one of your local bubble tea shops, there are a ton of great flavors to choose from. You have the fresh fruit purees such as honeydew and strawberry, the floral flavors such as jasmine and lavender, and even the starchy root flavor such as taro and ube. We'll go over all of them!
Common Questions
Before we get into our list of the best boba tea flavors, let's go over the basics and answer the common questions:
What is Boba Tea?
Boba tea is simply tea with milk and boba, also known as tapioca pearls. This combination of tea and milk is called milk tea, and when combined with boba it's called bubble tea or boba tea. On top of these three key ingredients, a syrup or puree of many popular flavors is often added.
What does boba taste like?
Most boba is made from tapioca starch, which you can buy here. When the pearls aren't added to syrup, they often don't have much flavor and they stick together. However, when they're mixed in syrup or sugar they take on whatever flavor they're cooked in. Some of the best boba flavors include brown sugar, coffee, and mango. They're hard when dry and become soft with a chewy texture when cooked!
What flavor is the purple boba tea?
The purple boba tea is flavored with taro root, which gives it a distinct purple color. Taro root is a starchy purple root vegetable with a mildly sweet flavor (source). Ube is another purple boba tea, but is, debatably, not as popular as taro, so if you see a purple boba tea it's a good chance it's taro and not ube. Ube and taro are both root vegetables and are often confused for one another.
What are the best boba tea flavors?
Flavors are a personal preference, but in our opinion, the best bubble tea flavors are strawberry, taro, honeydew, thai, jasmine, coffee, and brown sugar.
What's the best flavor of bubble tea for kids?
Any fruit flavored boba teas are the best for kids. This includes strawberry boba tea, mango, peach and dragon fruit. If they're not into fruit, then brown sugar or salted caramel are also great boba tea flavors for children!
Best Boba Tea Flavors
Okay, now that you know a little more about boba, milk tea, and bubble tea, we can get into the good stuff. Below is our list of our favorite boba tea flavors, enjoy!
1. Strawberry Milk Tea with Boba
Strawberry is a classic drink flavor - think strawberry milkshake or strawberry ice cream! Strawberry milk tea blends milk and fresh strawberries (or fruit juice) with black tea. Throw some boba and ice in there and you have yourself a drink with refreshing fruity flavor and a nice creamy texture!
2. Taro Milk Tea
Taro may be one of the most popular bubble tea flavors. Not only does taro milk tea taste delicious, but it also looks super cool! That's because it's made from taro root, which is a purple-colored root plant. This makes the drink a bright purple color.
3. Honeydew Milk Tea
Honeydew is a sweet melon that makes a great flavoring for a boba milk tea. If you're looking for a sweet drink this is the flavor for you! Our recipe uses fresh honeydew melon and jasmine green tea.
We puree the honeydew and strain it to extract the fruity taste. It's the best way to make a quick drink and can be used for any watery fruit you like such as passion fruit, dragon fruit, pineapple, and more!
4. Thai Milk tea
Thai Milk Tea is another great option to make at home or get from many boba shops. It originates from Thailand and features black tea, milk, sugar, and often other ingredients such as star anise, cardamom, or tamarind (source). We love to make our Thai Tea with coconut milk as opposed to cow's milk. You can get Thai Tea blends from places such as Arbor Teas.
5. Jasmine Boba Tea
Jasmine flavor is thought to be calming and smooth. Our Jasmine Milk Tea recipe features honey and oat milk in addition to tea and boba. This drink is lower in sugar than most milk teas which means it doesn't have a very sweet taste. It's a unique beverage that can be enjoyed any time!
6. Coffee Boba Tea
Coffee Milk Tea is the ultimate midday pick-me-up. It's basically a cafe latte with added tea and boba. With cozy black tea, bold coffee, chewy tapioca pearls, and creamy half and half, you can’t help but smile when drinking it! In our opinion, this is the best milk tea flavor.
7. Brown Sugar Boba Tea
Are you looking for dessert in a glass with boba pearls? If so, this drink is for you! Brown sugar tea features brown sugar syrup and has a creamy, sweet flavor that will satisfy any sweet tooth.
Bonus: Boba Smoothie
If you're not into tea but still want to enjoy boba, try a boba smoothie recipe!
We hope you're better able to pick a boba tea after reading this post. And if not, just give them all a try to see which one is your favorite!
drop us a note!