This delightful Ube Bubble Tea combines the freshness of the famous Tawainese beverage with the color and flavor of Purple Yam, a staple of Filipino cuisine. It’s quick and easy to make, perfect for a sip on a hot day!
For those unfamiliar, bubble tea is a cold beverage that originated in Taiwan.
Also known as pearl milk tea, it consists of cold tea mixed with fresh milk and sugar syrup. This mixture is then poured into tall glasses with a base of cooked tapioca pearls (boba) and served with ice cream.
Our recipe contains all the classics Boba tea Ingredients: cold tea, milk, sweetener and tapioca pearls. But instead of using plain milk, we made them purple with Ube!
Purple yam, called Ube in Filipino, is a root vegetable with starchy purple pulp. It tastes sweet, nutty, and earthy and is used in Filipino cuisine to create colorful dishes, both sweet and savory.
When it comes to using ube in recipes, you have three options: fresh purple yams, ube halaya (purple yam), or ube extract. They should all be available at your local Asian grocery store or online.
Fresh purple yams are ideal for this ube boba tea, but you can also use ube extract. The extract isn’t as healthy and natural as fresh purple yams since it’s made with Ube flavoring and food coloring, but it will get the job done.
In the recipe below, we will show you how to make purple ube milk using either fresh purple yams or ube extract. No matter what you find, you will be able to make this wonderful bubble tea.
As a tea base, we chose white tea instead of classic Chinese black tea. That’s because white tea has a milder flavor and doesn’t overpower the flavor of purple yams.
Also, because white tea is lighter than black tea, it doesn’t change the color of the Ube milk, giving you a perfectly purple bubble tea.
Because we wanted our Ube Bubble Tea recipe to be healthier, lower sugar, dairy-free, and vegan, we swapped cow’s milk for coconut milk drink and powdered sugar for maple syrup.
And finally the tapioca pearls. Fun and deliciously chewy tapioca pearls make bubble tea one bubble tea.
Also called Boba, Tapioca Pearls are made from tapioca starch, which is extracted from the cassava plant. They are available in all sorts of colors at your local Asian grocery store or online.
They’re super easy to make and add to your bubble tea. Follow our recipe below and we’ll show you how. However, if you can’t find them or prefer not to use them, you can make Ube milk tea without tapioca pearls. It will be just as delicious!
Now get your biggest and most beautiful glasses out of the cupboard and let’s prepare this Ube Boba tea together!
And if you’re looking for another super colorful boba tea recipe, check out this Blue Butterfly Pea Blossom Bubble Tea!