Enjoy your favorite fruity bubble tea at home! This recipe is an easy, healthier and 100% vegan alternative to traditional bubble tea.
Hey friends! I’ve got yet another drink recipe for ya this week. A few weeks ago I put out the recipe for my Vegan Iced Golden Milk Latte, and now we’ve got a fruity, feel good recipe for Easy Vegan BUBBLE TEA!
Bubble tea has always been something I’ve just never considered even attempting at home. But since transitioning to a vegan diet, I’ve found it a tad bit difficult to know for sure that the bubble tea I was getting from restaurants was vegan friendly. So in typical SLC fashion, I had to figure out how to make my own!
Now I will say right off the bat, this isn’t the “milk tea” kind of bubble tea. This is a recipe for the fruit based slushie kind that’s more in line with a smoothie. And it’s not necessarily an exact replication of what you’d get from a restaurant. But, I’d say it’s pretty darn close and does the trick when you’re feeling a craving! And since it’s fruit and juice based, you can pretty much make whatever flavor/combination of flavors you like!
Let me know down below what your favorite flavor of bubble tea is!
I was initially intimidated by the pearls, boba, bubbles, whatever you want to call them.. but to my surprise they were so SIMPLE to make! I hunted down some Jumbo Tapioca Pearls at a local Asian supermarket and followed the easy directions on the back.. and ta-da! A giant bowl of pearls magically appeared. After that everything else is even easier!
I omitted any sort of flavor powder or simple syrup in this recipe. I used frozen fruit and fruit juice, which gave me slush that was already at the perfect sweetness for my taste. You could easily add some sugar or maple syrup if ya like it super sweet! And if you’re in the mood from some creaminess, splash of dairy free milk takes care of that!
And that’s all there is to it! Easy. Vegan. Bubble Tea!
Enjoy, friends!
Ingredients
- Pearls:
- 1 package dry jumbo tapioca pearls
- 2-2.5 litres water for cooking
- 2 tbs maple syrup
- Slush:
- 2 cups frozen fruit of your choice (I used strawberries and mango)
- 1.5 cups fruit juice (I used a no sugar added fruit juice blend)
- Optional: Splash of dairy free milk, additional sweetener (sugar, maple syrup, agave – I would start with 1/2 tbs at a time and taste until satisfied)
Instructions
- Pearls: These are the instructions for the specific brand I used. Follow the instructions on your package to ensure proper cooking. Also see note below
- Into a large pot add 2-2.5 litres of water, and bring to a boil
- Add package of dry pearls to the boiling water
- Reduce heat to a rolling boil and cook for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes so they don’t stick to the bottom
- Turn the heat off, cover the pot and let the pearls sit for another 30 minutes
- Reserve 2 tbs of the water the pearls were cooked in
- Rinse the pearls in cold water
- Place the rinsed pearls into a bowl and add the 2 tbs of reserved cooking water and 2 tbs of maple syrup
- Stir until the pearls are evenly coated. Taste a couple of pearls and add a bit more maple syrup if you’d like them sweeter
- *Slush:
- To a blender, add frozen fruit and fruit juice and blend until smooth
- *Assembly:
- To two cups or glasses, add 1/3 cup of cooked pearls to the bottom of each
- Split the slush between the two cups
- Serve with extra wide straw
- Enjoy!
- *Pearls are best served immediately. I have stored pearls in a container in the fridge overnight but I wouldn’t store them longer than that. 1 package of the pearls I used made about 6-7 servings, so you may want to only use 1/2 a package at a time and reduce the cooking water by 1/2
If you make this recipe, snap a pic using the hashtag #sweetlikecocoa and tag me @sweetlikecocoablog on Instagram, I love seeing the deliciousness you guys come up with!
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