Pandan Milk Tea (Homemade Jelly Boba Drink)

This pandan milk tea recipe makes super yummy pandan infused milk tea with natural pandan jelly boba. It's all homemade and easy!

If you love milk tea (or bubble tea), this pandan milk tea is a must try. Made with a black tea and milk base, this refreshing and cooling drink is sweetened with homemade pandan sugar syrup and chewy pandan jelly boba. Served over ice cubes, it makes a perfect glass of super yummy chilled pandan milk tea.

❤️Why you will love this recipe

• It's delicious and refreshing and is easy to make with only 6 simple ingredients.
• It is all natural, made using fresh pandan leaves.
• A great variation to the typical tapioca pearls based milk teas.

📋Ingredients

For the milk tea:

• Black Tea - I used tea bags, they are easy and do not require straining.
• Milk - use whole milk for a creamy and delicious milk tea.
• Water - use drinking water or filtered water to steep the tea.
• Pandan syrup - this can be made in advance and kept refrigerated.

For the pandan jelly:

• Konnyaku powder - this makes jelly with a lovely chewy texture.
• Pandan leaves - use fresh pandan leaves for best results.
• Sugar - white sugar works best as brown sugar might result in the green color of the jelly to be brownish.
• Water - use filtered water.

*Refer to the recipe card below for full list of ingredients and exact quantities. For best results, use a digital kitchen scale where applicable*

🧾Substitution and Variations

• Tea bags can be substituted with loose tea leaves. Use one teaspoon of loose tea leaves for every tea bag. I used regular black tea for this recipe. You can replace it with other types of tea like oolong tea or Earl Grey tea.
• If you do not wish to make the pandan syrup, simply replace it with simple syrup or gula melaka syrup (palm sugar syrup) in the exact same quantity or use normal white sugar or brown sugar. For 120ml syrup, replace with 4 tablespoons of sugar. Do note that replacing the pandan syrup with simple syrup or sugar means your tea will be missing the pandan flavor. To compensate, simple knot one pandan leave and add it to the water when boiling it to steep the tea. Discard along the with tea bags afterwards.
• If you cannot find fresh pandan leaves, you can also use the frozen ones. And if those are also not available, you can use store bought pandan extract or pandan paste. These are often very concentrated and you will need very small quantities (⅛th of a teaspoon to make the jelly). Do note that these are often green in color and will impact the color of your tea.
• Konnyaku jelly powder can be replaced with regular agar agar powder in the exact same quantity. Do note that konnyaku has a chewier texture compared to normal jelly (agar agar) but the latter will still work fine for this pandan milk tea recipe.
• Whole milk can be replaced with skimmed milk. Other options include oat milk and almond milk.

This recipe has not been tested with other substitutions or variations. If you do try, please let me know in the comments section below!

👩‍🍳How to Make

Making the pandan jelly

1. Wash and pat the pandan leaves dry. Cut them into 1-inch length. Add the cut leaves into a blender and add approximately half cup of water.
2. Process until fine.
3. Strain the pandan juice with a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth for the juice.
4. Squeeze the pulp to release all the juice and discard the pulp. Add the pandan juice into a measuring jug. Top it with water until it reaches the required amount of liquid in the jelly recipe (ie 500ml).

1. Transfer the juice into a pot and turn on the heat to medium low. While the pandan juice is heating up, measure sugar in a small bowl.
2. Add the jelly powder and mix both to combine the powder thoroughly with the sugar. This is an important step and it helps spread the jelly powder which in turn is a great way of avoiding it from clumping when added to the water to cook.
3. Add the dry ingredients mix into the heating water and cook the solution for about 7 to 8 minutes on medium low heat, stirring and scraping the sides of the pot constantly.
4. Remove the solution from heat and pour it into an 8 inches square tin (or any other mold). The size of the mold does not matter as you will be cutting the jelly into small cubes after setting. Nevertheless, it is advisable to pour it into squarish or rectangle molds for easy cutting. I poured mine into an 8 inches square cake tin.

Cutting the Jelly

• Let the jelly set completely before cutting. To expedite the setting process, refrigerate it. It should take about 30 to 40 minutes to set in the fridge (for an 8 inches square mold).
• If you use smaller molds, the jelly will be thicker and would require more time to cool down and set. To test if it is ready for cutting, press it lightly with your finger. It should be firm when pressed. If it appears wobbly, give it more time to set.

1. Once the jelly is set, turn it out onto a plate or cutting board to cut it into cubes.
2. To remove it from its mold, run a thin flat spatula along the sides of the jelly and the mold. Gently push it away from the mold as you do this.
3. Place the cutting board over the mold.
4. Turn the mold over, holding the cutting board firmly attached to it. Tap the mold to remove the jelly into the cutting board. If it does not drop, lift the mold up slightly (while still facing down) and try to push the corner of the jelly away from the mold with your finger. It should drop out once a small section of it is pulled away from the mold.
5. Cut the jelly into small cubes, about the size of boba pearls (approximately 0.75cm).
6. Place them in a bowl and refrigerate until ready to assemble the pandan milk tea.

Mixing the milk tea

1. Add water into a small pot. Bring it to a boil.
2. Add the tea bags and let the tea steep in the hot water for 3 minutes. Cover the pot with a lid.
3. Squeeze the tea bags to remove all the tea and discard them.
4. Add milk into the tea and mix well.

Assembling the pandan milk tea

1. To assemble the pandan milk tea, start by dividing the jelly into the prepared drinking glasses.
2. Pour in the pandan syrup.
3. Pour in the milk tea.
4. Top with ice cubes and serve the pandan milk tea.

🍽️Serving & storage

• On its own (without being assembled into the milk tea), the pandan jelly can last for a good 4 to 5 days (refrigerated).
• Once assembled, the milk tea is best consumed immediately, cold. At most, you can keep it for 1 day, refrigerated.

💡Expert Tips

• When cutting the jelly, make sure they are small enough to go through the bubbles straws or you will have trouble sucking them through your straw.
• Another way to serve the jelly in the tea is buy cutting them into strips like in this pandan milk recipe and like how I have cut the grass jelly in this grass jelly milk tea recipe.
• Make the pandan tea in advance and keep it chilled in the refrigerator. That way, you need not add too many ice cubes when serving as ice cubes will dilute the tea.
• Given that this is an iced drink, it is best that the milk tea is made slightly more concentrated so that it does not get too diluted when added ice cubes.

💭FAQs

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📖Recipe

Pandan Milk Tea (Homemade Jelly Boba Drink)

This pandan milk tea recipe makes super yummy pandan infused milk tea with homemade pandan jelly boba. It's all quick and easy!

5 from 2 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Drinks

Cuisine: Asian

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes minutes

Chilling time (for the jelly): 40 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Yield: 4 glasses

Author: Priya Maha

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Metric - US Customary

For best results, use the metrics measurements. US customary measurements have not been tested and are only meant for guide.

Ingredients

Milk Tea

• ▢ 550 ml water
• ▢ 500 ml milk (cold)
• ▢ 120 ml pandan syrup
• ▢ 4 black tea bags

Pandan Jelly

• ▢ 5 g konnyaku jelly powder
• ▢ 500 ml water
• ▢ 100 g sugar
• ▢ 2 pandan leaves (30 cm each)

Pandan Syrup

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Making the Pandan Jelly

• Wash and pat the pandan leaves dry. Cut them into 1 inch strips.
• Place the cut pandan leaves into a food processor. Add 100ml water and process them until fine.
• Strain the processed leaves to extract the juice. Use a cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer to ensure all the pulp is strained out. Squeeze the pulp to remove all the juice and discard the pulp.
• Measure the pandan juice in a jug. Top it with water until it reaches 500ml.
• Pour the pandan juice into a medium sized pot. Turn on the heat to medium low.
• In a separate small bowl, measure the sugar. Add the jelly powder to it and mix well. Mixing well will avoid the powder from clumping when added into the pandan water.
• Add the sugar-jelly powder mix into the pandan water. Stir to mix.
• Let the jelly cook until the sugar and the jelly powder is completely dissolved. This should take approximately 7 to 8 minutes.
• Once cooked, pour the jelly into an 8 inches square mold. Let is set completely at room temperature or in the fridge. It will set quicker as it cools down.
• Once completely firm, remove it onto a cutting board. To release the jelly from the mold, run a thin spatula along the sides of the tin. Place the cutting board over the mold and holding both intact, turn the mold over. Tap it lightly to release the jelly.
• Cut the jelly into small cubes (approximately 75mm in size). Chill under ready to assemble the milk tea.

Making the milk tea

• Add water into a pot and boil it.
• Once boiled, turn off the heat. Add 4 tea bags and let the tea steep in the hot water for 3 minutes with the lid on.
• Remove the tea bags (press out all the tea with a spoon) and discard them.
• Pour milk into the tea. Mix well and chill under ready to be assembled.

Assembling the pandan milk tea

• Divide the pandan jelly boba cubes into 4 drinking glasses.
• Add 2 tablespoons of pandan syrup into each glass.
• Pour in the milk tea.
• Finally, add the ice cubes and serve.

Notes

• Tea bags can be substituted with loose tea leaves. Use one teaspoon of loose tea leaves for every tea bag. I used regular black tea for this recipe. You can replace it with other types of tea like oolong tea or Earl Grey tea.
• If you do not wish to make the pandan syrup, simply replace it with simple syrup or gula melaka syrup (palm sugar syrup) in the exact same quantity or use normal white sugar or brown sugar. For 120ml syrup, replace with 4 tablespoons of sugar. Do note that replacing the pandan syrup with simple syrup or sugar means your tea will be missing the pandan flavor. To compensate, simple knot one pandan leave and add it to the water when boiling it to steep the tea. Discard along the with tea bags afterwards.
• If you cannot find fresh pandan leaves, you can also use the frozen ones. And if those are also not available, you can use store bought pandan extract or pandan paste. These are often very concentrated and you will need very small quantities (⅛th of a teaspoon to make the jelly). Do note that these are often green in color and will impact the color of your tea.
• Konnyaku jelly powder can be replaced with regular agar agar powder in the exact same quantity. Do note that konnyaku has a chewier texture compared to normal jelly (agar agar) but the latter will still work fine for this pandan milk tea recipe.
• Whole milk can be replaced with skimmed milk. Other options include oat milk and almond milk.
• When cutting the jelly, make sure they are small enough to go through the bubbles straws or you will have trouble sucking them through your straw.
• Another way to serve the jelly in the tea is buy cutting them into strips like in this pandan milk recipe and like how I have cut the grass jelly in this grass jelly milk tea recipe.
• Make the pandan tea in advance and keep it chilled in the refrigerator. That way, you need not add too many ice cubes when serving as ice cubes will dilute the tea.
• Given that this is an iced drink, it is best that the milk tea is made slightly more concentrated so that it does not get too diluted when added ice cubes.

Nutrition

Calories: 257.2kcal | Carbohydrates: 52.1g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 4.1g | Saturated Fat: 2.3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 12.5mg | Sodium: 76.5mg | Potassium: 188.3mg | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 45.3g | Vitamin A: 202.5IU | Calcium: 159mg | Iron: 0.3mg

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