Ube Milk Tea (Ube Bubble Tea)

5 from 2 votes

This ube milk tea is a deliciously creamy, vibrant purple, ube flavored bubble tea with chewy boba pearls. It's easy to make and totally satisfying.

Prep Time15

Cook Time20

Total Time35

Course: Drinks

Cuisine: Asian

Servings: glasses

Calories: 653.8kcal

If you are making your own ube halaya, refer to the recipe here. This can be made in advance and kept refrigerated.
Add milk into a saucepan and bring it to a boil (see Note 1) . Turn off the heat and add the tea bag. Cover and let the tea steep for 3 minutes. Remove the tea bag, press to extract as much tea as possible and discard the bag. Strain the milk to remove any milk skin.
Add the ube halaya and ube extract into the warm milk and mix well. You can use a hand whisk or a hand-held electric drink mixer. Set aside to cool down and place in the refrigerator to cool further (see Note 2).
In a separate saucepan, measure water to cook boba. Turn on the heat to medium high and let the water boil. Add the boba pearls into the boiling water and stir to prevent them from sticking. As soon as the pearls start floating to the top, reduce the heat to medium low or low and cover the pot. Let the boba cook for 15 minutes (see Note 3).
After 15 minutes, turn off the heat and let the balls soak in the hot water for another 15 minutes before straining. Run the cooked pearls through cold water to prevent them from sticking. Strain completely and mix the boba pearls with ube syrup. Set aside.
To assemble the milk tea, divide the cooked boba pearls in syrup into 2 drinking glasses along with the syrup. Top with ice cubes and pour the chilled ube milk tea. Serve chilled.

Milk will overflow as it boils. Keep close watch as it heats up to prevent spills.
For quicker cooling down, heat only half of the milk to steep the tea. Let the other half of the milk chill in the fridge. Mix both once the tea is steeped to help the hot milk cool down quicker.
If your boba pearls come with cooking instructions, follow the package instructions instead.
This recipe makes mildly sweetened milk tea. Add more syrup to the drink if you wish to make sweeter milk tea.
Without the ube extract, the drink will be of a pastel purple color. The extract helps to add a move vibrant color to the drink. Adjust the amount of extract used accordingly to suit your liking.