Adding a unique twist to your usual boba tea will give you a new appreciation for the wildly popular drink. One flavor that will give it that tropical and refreshing vibe is passion fruit. Ready to learn how to make passion fruit boba tea? Curious about what is passion fruit tea is made from? You’re in for a treat! In this article, we’ll give you a drill-down of passion fruit milk tea and the ingredients you’d need.
Read on to learn everything you need to know about passion fruit boba tea!
What Is Passion Fruit BobaTea?
Passion fruit milk tea is a refreshing drink that brings a surprisingly bright taste to your milk tea. Traditional bubble tea is made of black tea mixed with tapioca pearls. The passion fruit boba tea brings the same base but with the additional tropical flavoring of passion fruit.
Passion fruit is the tropical fruit from the passion flower, Passiflora vine. Its outer rind is tough, but it’s compensated by its juicy center, filled with seeds.
Passion fruit has wide varieties, but the purple and yellow varieties are popular and widely available. It’s a highly nutritious food commonly used as a functional beverage ingredient for its high levels of antioxidants and vitamins.
One purple passion fruit has tons of fiber, and Vitamins A and C. It also serves as a good source of iron and potassium. Did you know that one fruit only has 17 calories? With its benefits, you can surely enjoy a guilt-free yet refreshing drink.
That said, passion fruit boba tea is a combination of milk, tea, and passion fruit.
What Does Passion Fruit Milk Tea Taste Like?
If you haven’t tried passion fruit before, you’d be surprised with how its taste blends well with the concoction of tea, milk, and boba pearls.
As mentioned, passion fruit is a tropical fruit. As such, it will give you that burst of tangerine-like flavor with the right amount of tartness and sweetness that perfectly complements the sweetness of boba pearls, the bitterness of the tea, and the nutritional taste of milk.
Passion Fruit Tea Ingredients
Yield: 4 glasses
Preparation Time: 10 to 15 minutes
Cooking Time (tapioca pearl): 20 to 30 minutes
Here’s what you need:
- Fresh Passion fruit (3 to 4 pieces): While you can get passion fruit puree from the supermarket, it’s still best to get fresh fruits. Your family will love the bright new flavor you will have by using fresh ones. Since passion fruit is a tropical fruit, you won’t have worries finding them. They’re always in season! The best choice is to get the ripe one, so it’s bursting with sweetness, not sourness! Check for its wrinkly skin! If it’s ready to sow its seeds, its skin will appear all wrinkly! They’re also heavier because they will contain more juice!
- Green or Black Tea (3 bags): You may choose to use either green or black tea to add that kick of tea for boosting your energy. If you want to make the taste of the passion fruit stand out, black tea is best to use.
- Milk (3 to 4 cups): Adding milk to your passion fruit boba tea helps in balancing the sweetness and sourness of your flavors. If you want to achieve that creamy flavor, use full-cream milk. However, if you want to have a boost of health benefits from your boba drink, almond milk won’t give you that many calories. If you’re keen on making almond milk from scratch, use less milk, so it’s creamier!
- Sugar (4 tbsps): Since passion fruit will still have its sour flavor despite the sweetness from its juicy center, you will need to amp up the sweetness with sugar. Rather than using granulated sugar, we suggest converting this to sugar syrup. To do this, you need to mix equal parts of water and sugar and allow it to boil until it becomes syrupy.
- Boba or Pearls (½ cup): You can enjoy your passion fruit milk tea without the boba pearls. However, it won’t give you the same experience. The chewy boba pearls are great for adding a different texture to your drink. Since you’re making passion fruit boba tea at home, you should also prepare the boba pearls from scratch using tapioca pearls. Uncooked tapioca pearls are available in most online shops or Asian grocery stores.
- Crushed Ice or Ice Cubes: It’s best to enjoy passion fruit boba tea cold. You can either use crushed ice or ice cubes.
How to Make Passion Fruit Boba Tea
Now that you have your ingredients let’s start making the best passion fruit milk tea! Here’s our tasty passion fruit bubble tea recipe.
Step 1: Get the Tea Ready.
One of the most important parts of preparing your passion fruit boba is preparing your tea. You’d want to get the most flavor out of them while making sure you’re not overdoing it. If you plan to use black tea (as recommended), infuse them in hot water for at least three minutes. However, if you want to get a caffeine boost, steep it for as long as five minutes. It’s best not to infuse it longer than that to prevent it from tasting bitter.
If you want to get a strong tea flavor, what you can do is infuse more tea leaves than water.
Step 2: Prepare the Boba Pearls.
While the tea is steeping, you can get started on the boba pearls. Since boba is made of tapioca flour, it doesn’t have any flavoring. When making your own at home, you need to boil the tapioca pearls and mix them with honey or sugar syrup to make them sweeter.
Cooking Boba Pearls:
Ideally, you should have a 1:7 ratio of tapioca pearls to water. Allow the water to boil before adding the pearls. Make sure to continue stirring them, so the pearls don’t stick to the pan’s bottom.
You will notice that the pearls will start to float when they start to cook. Cover the pan when they float. Allow cooking on high heat for at least 15 minutes more. Stir at least every five minutes. Once done, allow the pearls to rest before dousing them with cold water. Washing them in cold water while they’re still hot makes the pearls chewy. Transfer it to a clean container and add the sugar syrup or honey. Mix them well.
If you bought quick-cooking tapioca pearls, take note that they only have a five-minute cooking time. It’s best to follow package instructions on cooking. You don’t want to overcook them because you’ll end up with gooey boba pearls. But you don’t want them undercooked as well, in which you could still taste that raw flour on the inside.
Step 3: Scoop the Passion Fruit.
Set aside the boba pearls and get started on your passion fruit. If you’re using fresh fruit, you need to scoop them out. However, if you opted for the passion fruit puree, you can skip this part.
- Cut the passion fruit in half. Take note that its pulp may be liquidy when cut into. You’ll notice how the seedy center will ooze out of the fruit.
- Scoop them out.
- Make sure not to pop the seeds. You’d want them to be in your drink as you consume them.
- Set them aside as you assemble the passion fruit milk tea.
Note: Again, it’s best to use a ripe passion fruit for this recipe. Leaving them on the counter at room temperature will allow the passion fruit to ripen. If you buy too many ripe passion fruits, you can store them in the refrigerator for at least 30 days and on the counter for two weeks. Freezing a ripe passion fruit also preserves it.
Step 4: Assemble the Passion Fruit Boba Tea.
With your passion fruit boba tea ingredients ready, you can now start assembling them. Here’s how you should assemble your passion fruit milk tea:
- Put sugar syrup in your glass. If you want to add a little aesthetics to your drink, drizzle the sugar syrup on the sides of your glass.
- Add two scoops of the boba pearls.
- Pour the passion fruit juice or passion fruit puree.
- Add the tea and the milk to the mixture.
- Add the ice.
- Mix the passion fruit boba tea and see if the sweetness level is to your liking. Adjust the sweetness to your preference.
Notes:
- For pre-mixed passion fruit puree and milk tea, you may keep it refrigerated for up to three days. So make sure only to prepare what you’ll finish.
- If already mixed with the cooked boba, you should consume it immediately. Cooked boba will quickly turn mushy when left on the counter for at least two hours.
FAQs
What Is Passion Fruit Popping Boba?
The passion fruit popping boba is a pearl filled with the essence of passion fruit flavor. These popping boba pearls are usually store-bought. However, you can experience the same burst of flavor when you consume your milk tea with the passion fruit seed still intact. It will give you that refreshing texture to your fruit tea drink.
What Is the Best Boba Flavor for Beginners?
For beginners, it’s always best to start with basic black milk tea. It’s a straightforward combination of black tea, boba pearls, and milk. It will give you the right and balanced flavor of tea, the creaminess of milk, and the chewy goodness of tapioca pearls. It will also give you an idea of milk tea’s base flavor.
Once you know what a basic milk tea tastes like, you can have a better experience experimenting with other milk tea flavors.
Does Starbucks Have Boba?
Since Starbucks is mainly a coffee shop, they don’t have boba in their menu list. If you’re craving some boba tea, it’s best to get them from tea shops instead.
Do They Sell Boba at Dunkin Donuts?
As Dunkin Donuts aims to cater to a larger market, they now offer boba drinks in their select stores. You can try their strawberry-flavored “Popping Bubbles.”
