Use black tea for milk tea and green tea for fruit tea. That is the whole rule, and it holds because black tea is robust enough to stand up to milk, ice and sugar without vanishing, while green tea is lighter and more floral and blends beautifully with fresh juice or fruit syrup. Both want to be brewed strong, because everything that happens afterwards dilutes them. Loose leaf is the right format for both, and the kit teas are loose leaf with no artificial colours or flavourings, so what you taste is the tea rather than an approximation of it.
Why black tea for milk tea?
Because milk is a bully. Add milk and ice to a delicate tea and you get a glass of faintly tea-flavoured milk; add it to a strong black brew and you get milk tea, which is a different and much better drink.
Black tea also carries the flavours that make Taiwanese milk tea recognisable: malt, a bit of tannin, a faint edge of bitterness that stops the sugar taking over. That backbone is doing real work. Take it away and the sweetness has nothing to push against.
Brew it stronger than you would for a cup of tea in a mug. A good rule is to brew to a strength that tastes slightly too much on its own, because the milk, the syrup and the melting ice will all pull it back. If your finished glass tastes milky rather than tea-like, the brew was the problem, not the milk.
Why green tea for fruit tea?
Green tea is lighter, grassier and more aromatic, and those qualities sit alongside fruit instead of competing with it. Blended with fresh juice or a fruit syrup it gives you something bright and refreshing that still tastes of tea rather than of squash.
Green tea is also more sensitive to heat than black. Water straight off a rolling boil scalds it and pulls out bitterness, so let the kettle sit for a minute or two before you pour. If your green tea is coming out harsh, that is almost always the reason.
Fruit tea is the half of bubble tea that British drinkers tend to discover second and then stick with, particularly in summer. It takes exactly the same tapioca pearls, so nothing else about the method changes.
Can you use tea bags?
You can, and it will make a drinkable glass. But loose leaf is genuinely better here, for two reasons that both matter more in bubble tea than in an ordinary cup.
The first is room. Loose leaves expand and circulate, extracting evenly, which is what you need when you are brewing strong. A bag holds the leaf packed tight, so a strong brew often means a stewed, tannic one instead.
The second is leaf quality. Loose leaf is usually a larger, less broken leaf, and it gives a cleaner flavour with less of the dusty bitterness that shows up when you push a bag hard.
Our Bubble Tea Kit, Black and Green Tea with Fruit Syrups includes both loose leaf black and loose leaf green tea, along with mango and strawberry syrups, tapioca starch for making your own pearls and ready-made pearls. It makes about eight large glasses as milk tea or fruit tea, and is best made two glasses per batch.
What other teas work?
Plenty, once you have the two basics under your belt. Earl Grey works really well if you want to be adventurous: the bergamot sits surprisingly happily against milk and sugar and gives you something close to a London fog with bubbles in it.
Thai style is the other one worth knowing. Add two cloves and one star anise per cup to the tea as it brews and you get a flavour very close to the Thai iced tea sold in restaurants. What you will not get is the bright orange colour, because that comes from added colouring, which we leave out. It tastes the part even if it does not look it.
Oolong and jasmine are both worth experimenting with too, sitting between black and green in character. The principle stays the same whichever leaf you pick: brew strong, sweeten while hot, cool before the milk goes in.
How should you brew the tea?
Four habits cover it.
- Brew strong. Concentrated enough to taste slightly assertive on its own, because milk, syrup and ice are all about to dilute it.
- Mind the water temperature. Full boil for black tea, slightly off the boil for green, which turns bitter if scalded.
- Sweeten while it is hot. Sugar and syrup dissolve properly in hot tea and barely at all once it has chilled.
- Cool it before the milk. Pouring hot tea straight onto cold milk, especially a plant milk, is the usual cause of a split, curdled looking glass.
Made-up milk tea keeps in the fridge as it is for up to a day, so brewing ahead is genuinely useful. The pearls are the part that does not wait: cooked pearls last about four hours covered in sugar syrup, honey or agave in the fridge and are much better fresh. Brew ahead, boil the pearls last.
When you want to carry on making it, tapioca starch is in the gluten-free section of most supermarkets, and Asian supermarkets stock loose black tea, fat straws and ready-made pearls. Every ingredient is listed on the pack; if you have an allergy question, email hello@sandyleaffarm.com before ordering.
Bubble tea FAQs
What tea is used in traditional bubble tea?
Black tea for the classic Taiwanese milk tea, brewed strong so it holds its own against milk, sugar and ice. Green tea is used for the lighter fruit tea versions.
Can I use tea bags instead of loose leaf?
You can, though loose leaf gives a cleaner, less stewed brew because the leaves have room to expand. That matters more here because bubble tea needs a strong brew.
Why is my green tea bitter?
Almost always water that was too hot. Let the kettle stand for a minute or two after boiling before you pour it over green tea, and do not over-steep it.
Can I make Thai style milk tea at home?
Yes. Add two cloves and one star anise per cup to the tea as it brews. It tastes very close to the original, though it will not be bright orange, since that colour comes from added colouring.
Which kit includes both black and green tea?
Our black and green tea kit includes both loose leaf teas plus mango and strawberry syrups, and makes about eight large glasses as milk tea or fruit tea.
Fancy brewing your own properly? Take a look at our bubble tea kits.
