Milk Tea/Bubble Tea Popsicles

• Bubble tea is a popular drink in Taiwan and can be turned into refreshing popsicles in your kitchen! The "bubbles" are delicious tapioca pearls that are made of brown sugar and cassava root and are the size of marbles. For this recipe do not buy white/rainbow colored tapioca, because they are unflavored. You can find tapioca pearls in most Asian grocery stores or online. I bought mine from a shop in Chinatown. In this recipe the "bubbles" start out solid, but gradually thaw and become chewy. The black tea in these pops have caffeine so you can eat one (or two) for breakfast ;) I would not recommend giving these to young children because they could choke on the tapioca pearls.

Ingredients

For the tapioca pearls:

3 1/2 cups water

1/2 cup black tapioca pearls

1/2-2 cups white sugar (it depends on how sweet you want the tapioca to be)

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For the milk tea:

1 3/4 cups water

6 black tea bags

1 cup sweetened condensed milk (If you want to make a healthier popsicle, you can replace the condensed milk with plain milk.)

Tools

You will need...

a set of popsicle molds (I bought mine at Ikea)

a small saucepan w/ a lid

a colander

a spatula

a spoon

popsicle sticks (if your mold needs them)

Making the Tapioca

1. Cook the tapioca pearls according to the instructions on the packet. My pearls took about five minutes to cook after I added them to the boiling water.

2. Remove the pan from the heat and strain the pearls in a colander. Rinse the pearls with cold water until they are no longer hot.

3. Place the remaining 1/2 cup of water in a clean saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil. Add your white sugar and then reduce the heat to low and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Congrats, you've just made some simple syrup! Pour the syrup over the tapioca pearls, stir to combine, and let sit in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes, or until the mixture has cooled down. While the mixture is cooling, feel free to start making your milk tea base.

Making the Milk Tea Base

1. Bring 1 3/4 cups of water to a boil over medium-high heat in a small saucepan. Cut the string and label off of the tea bag, being careful to not damage the pouch filled with the tea leaves.

2. Then add all 6 tea bags to the water, stir to combine, and then lower the heat. Steep the tea until it is very strong (5-10 minutes depending on your tea) and then remove the tea bags and let the mixture cool for 10 minutes.

3. Once the mixture has cooled, add the condensed milk and stir until the tea and milk is completely combined.

Now here comes the fun part... Assembly!

To Assemble the Pops

1. Scoop up some of the tapioca pearls in the syrup you made and divide them among the molds. Then fill the remaining space in the molds with the milk tea base, being careful to not overfill the molds.

2. Depending on your mold you can either stick a popsicle stick in or snap the top of the mold on. Then freeze until the pops are solid, at least 6 hours. I usually let them freeze overnight.

3. Take the pops out of the molds and eat them!

Pro tip: Running your popsicle molds under hot water for a few seconds can help the pops easily slide out.

Enjoy!

Enjoy your delicious popsicles! They will last about 2 weeks in the freezer. If you enjoyed this Instructable please take a second to vote for me in the Frozen Treats Contest, it would mean a lot to me!