Strawberry Boba (aka Strawberry Milk Tea) (2024)

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Strawberry Boba (aka Strawberry Milk Tea) pairs sweet and tangy strawberries with creamy coconut milk and chewy brown sugar boba pearls for a drink that’s fun, fruity, and refreshing.

Boba lovers, get ready for a new favorite! If you’re like me and enjoy making boba at home, you’re going to want to bookmark this strawberry bubble tea. It will be your go-to spring and summertime drink!

But don’t worry if you’re new to bubble tea. I guide you through the whole process and you’ll see how easy it is to make delicious café quality boba drinks at home.

What is Strawberry Boba?

Also called strawberry bubble tea or strawberry milk tea, strawberry boba is a combination of strawberries, milk, tea, a sweetener, and tapioca pearls (aka boba).

There are a ton of different ways that you can make this drink!

Strawberry and Tea Components

For starters, the strawberry component. You can use strawberry tea (instead of green tea, black tea, or white tea) for the most intense strawberry flavor.

A lot of strawberry teas on the market are fruity infusions (known as a tisane) that blend a variety of fruits, herbs, and/or spices. And many of them include hibiscus, which turns the tea a really vibrant shade of pink.

In addition to strawberry tea, I like to add either dried strawberries or fresh strawberries to really bump up the strawberry flavor.

That takes care of the strawberry and tea components of strawberry milk tea boba. So let’s talk about the milk next!

Milk

You can use any type of milk (or plant based vegan milk) that you like to make strawberry milk tea. I like using coconut milk because its super creamy texture and light coconut flavor pair really well with sweet/tart strawberries.

My preference is canned full-fat unsweetened coconut milk because it’s the most rich and creamy, and I find that it floats really beautifully on top of the strawberry tea. It makes this drink absolutely gorgeous, and bonus, it keeps this drink vegan!

Sweetener

For the sweetener, I like to use simple syrup, which is a mixture of sugar and water that’s brought to a boil to dissolve the sugar and create a syrup. This type of sweetener is easy to make and dissolves really well in cold beverages, such as bubble tea.

If you want to use regular sugar, I recommend stirring it in while the tea is still hot so the sugar fully dissolves.

Boba vs Popping Pearls

And last but not least, let’s talk boba!

I’m not a fan of popping pearls, which are essentially little spheres filled with juice or flavored sugar syrups, and have a transparent thin skin that frequently contains extracts from seaweed or algae. I find that the flavor of popping boba is usually way too sickly sweet for me!

Instead, I like to use traditional boba, which are chewy little balls made from tapioca starch. Brown sugar boba is my favorite; the intense caramel and molasses notes of brown sugar pair really well with the black licorice notes of boba.

Combining strawberry tea with fresh strawberries, coconut milk, and boba yields a perfect strawberry bubble tea that’s sweet, tangy, and fruity, rich and creamy, and fun with chewy tapioca pearls!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Gorgeous color. This pink boba tea is bright and cheerful! We use strawberry tea (which is actually a fruity infusion known as a tisane because there’s no real tea in it), and typically has hibiscus as an ingredient. This is what lends the stunning color to this drink.
• Creamy coconut. The creamy richness of coconut milk perfectly rounds out the flavor of sweet and tangy strawberries. Plus it keeps this drink vegan! And last but not least, it floats on top of the tea, which makes this boba drink even more special.
• Save money by making boba at home! If you’re a regular boba drinker but you’ve never made it at home, get ready to be surprised at how easy it is. And you’ll save a ton of money!

The Best Strawberry Milk Tea (Strawberry Boba) Recipe

Strawberry Boba Ingredients

In this section I explain the ingredients. For the full recipe (including ingredient amounts), please see the recipe card below.

Brown Sugar Boba:

• Water – for boiling the boba
• Black tapioca pearls – aka boba
• Dark brown sugar – to sweeten the boba

Strawberry Milk Tea Ingredients:

• Hot water – this is for brewing the tea
• Strawberry tea bags – in the recipe, I give a ton of different options you can use, including a fruity infusion, green tea, white tea, black tea, or rooibos herbal tea
• Fresh strawberries – or you can use dried strawberries
• Simple syrup – this is the sweetener in our strawberry bubble tea; you can use any type of sweetener you like
• Ice – strawberry milk tea is best served icy-cold
• Canned coconut milk – you can use light coconut milk, but I prefer full-fat for the creamiest texture and richest flavor

How to Make Strawberry Milk Tea

Step 1: Make the Brown Sugar Boba:

Boil the tapioca pearls for 20 minutes, and then rinse and drain them (reserving some of the cooking liquid). Transfer them to back to the pot they cooked in along with the reserved cooking liquid and some brown sugar, and let them steep for 20 minutes. Drain the boba except for 2 tablespoons of the liquid. It’s ready to use!

For step-by-step pictures showing how to make boba, take a look at my post How to Make Bubble Tea (Easy Boba Tea Recipe).

Step 2: Make the Strawberry Tea:

Steep the tea bags in the hot water until it’s brewed how strong you like it. If you’re using dried strawberries, add them now and they can steep along with the tea bags.

Let the tea cool to room temperature. At this point, you can either strain out the dried strawberries or leave them in.

If you’re using fresh strawberries, now is the time to add them; you can lightly mash some of them with a fork if you want, but leave some of the slices intact.

Step 3: Assemble the Strawberry Boba Drinks:

To each of 4 glasses, add the following in this order: 2 tablespoons simple syrup, 1/2 cup prepared boba, 1/2 cup strawberry tea (including the strawberry slices if you’re using fresh strawberries), and 3/4 cup ice, and then pour 1/2 cup coconut milk on top.

Serve immediately.

Strawberry Milk Tea FAQs

What Type of Tea Can I Use for Strawberry Bubble Tea?

There are quite a few different types of tea that work well for making strawberry milk tea. You can use true tea – green tea, black tea, or white tea – or you can use an herbal tea (also known as a tisane or an infusion).

But the options don’t end there! You can also use a strawberry flavored tea or tisane.

Here are a few good tea and caffeine-free herbal tea options for making this drink:

• Wild Strawberry Infusion – Like the name says, this is an infusion and not a true tea, which means it doesn’t contain caffeine. This is one of my favorite tea brands, I find their flavors are crisp, clean, and true to description. This blend contains the following: hibiscus, apples, elderberries, strawberries, sweet blackberry leaves, flavoring (strawberry and vanilla), and orange peels. Because of the hibiscus, this herbal tea will brew up to be a gorgeous shade of pink. (This is my top choice of tea for this recipe.)
• Green Tea with Strawberry – If you like green tea, the flavor of strawberry is a really delicious pairing with it. This is a great tea brand, and this particular product is a blend of green tea with strawberry and vanilla flavors.
• Black Tea with Strawberry – This is another great tea company from London. This blend contains black tea with strawberry and vanilla flavorings.
• White Tea with Strawberry – This is a blend of organic white tea, organic hibiscus, organic safflower, and natural strawberry flavor. Because of the hibiscus, it’ll have a bright pink color, and I really like the crisp, clean, almost floral flavor of white tea paired with strawberry.
• Red Rooibos Tea with Strawberry – Rooibos isn’t actually tea; rather, it’s an herb that you steep like tea that brews up to be a reddish-brownish drink. This blend contains rooibos, as well as strawberry and vanilla flavors.

No matter what tea you use, brew it on the strong side because it will be diluted with milk and ice.

Does Strawberry Milk Tea Have Caffeine?

That depends on the type of tea that you use to make it. If you use an herbal tea (or infusion or tisane) or a decaffeinated tea, your strawberry milk tea will be caffeine free.

What Type of Milk Can I Use to Make Strawberry Milk Tea?

The sky is the limit here! You can use any type of milk that you like or have on hand, including vegan milks.

However, I recommend using an unsweetened, unflavored milk because we add our own sweetener and flavorings to this drink.

My favorite type of milk to use here is canned full-fat coconut milk. Its thick, rich, and creamy, and floats beautifully on top of the strawberry tea.

What Kind of Sweetener Can I Use in Strawberry Boba?

You really can use any type of sweetener you like.

If you want to keep this bubble tea vegan, make sure to use a vegan sweetener. Additionally, if you want to keep the carbs as low as possible, use a keto friendly sweetener.

I find that simple syrup works well because it dissolves easily, even in cold drinks. However, if you don’t have simple syrup and don’t feel like making it, you can add a granulated sweetener to the tea while it’s still hot and stir until it’s fully dissolved.

More Strawberry Recipes to Make

• Fresh Strawberry Cookies Recipe – these taste like a strawberry Danish pastry
• Strawberry Grilled Cheese – part sweet, part savory and completely delicious
• Strawberry Coffee Cake Recipe – great for brunch, dessert, or a snack with coffee or tea

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I’m the writer, recipe developer, photographer, and food stylist behind this blog. I love finding the human connection through something we all do every day: eat! Food is a common ground that we can all relate to, and our tables tell a story. It’s my goal to inspire you to get in the kitchen, try something new, and find a favorite you didn’t know you had.

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