There are certain staple items that every foodie needs in their life.
These items may differ from person to person, but for me, one of those key items is (fresh milk) milk tea which is considered to be the best tea with milk.
I could never live without it!
As someone who loves milk tea more than anything, I’ve taste-tested a lot of different places to find the best ways to enjoy this delicious drink and popular drink.
The best milk tea uses strong black milk tea or black tea, accompanied by whole milk, plant-based milk like almond milk, or non-dairy creamer.
Boba shops all over the globe prefer strong, full-bodied teas with fruity flavors.
With an explosion of bubble tea places worldwide, you can experiment with different flavors and find your favorite.
Here are some other popular options for classic milk tea (classic milk drink).
Alcoholic tea
Alcoholic bubble teas are usually made with hot water and liquor such as gin, tea leaves, vodka, rum, or other kinds of alcohol in addition to real tea, milk, and/or fruits.
When it comes to shaved ice tea, chewy tapioca pearls, maple syrup, or grass jelly are combined with fresh milk tea and shaved ice to make this shaved iced bubble tea.
Fruit tea
In fruit teas, purees or syrups of fruits are used.
Fruit juice is often used in regular boba tea or seasonal fruit drink.
This type of tea comes with black tapioca pearls (brown sugar pearls) or other inventive toppings like grass jelly or aloe vera.
You’ll find sweet drinks and fruity drinks like strawberry milk tea and mango milk tea in most cafes and boba shops.
What are Some Best Milk Tea Flavors?
Milk tea is a popular beverage around the world that is made with tea, milk, and sweetener. It is a versatile drink that can be customized with various flavors and toppings to cater to personal preferences. Here are some best milk tea flavors that you should try:
- Classic Milk Tea – This is the most popular flavor of milk tea, and it is made with black tea, milk, and sugar. Classic milk tea has a rich, creamy, and slightly sweet taste.
- Thai Milk Tea – Thai milk tea is a blend of black tea, condensed milk, and spices like cinnamon, star anise, and cardamom. It has a unique orange color and a sweet, spicy, and creamy flavor.
- Matcha Milk Tea – Matcha milk tea is a Japanese-inspired drink made with matcha powder, milk, and sweetener. It has a unique grassy and earthy flavor and a vibrant green color.
- Earl Grey Milk Tea – Earl Grey milk tea is made with Earl Grey tea, milk, and sweetener. It has a fragrant and floral taste that is perfect for those who love a unique and sophisticated flavor.
- Taro Milk Tea – Taro milk tea is made with taro powder, milk, and sweetener. It has a nutty and sweet flavor and a vibrant purple color.
- Jasmine Milk Tea – Jasmine milk tea is made with jasmine tea, milk, and sweetener. It has a delicate and floral taste that is perfect for those who prefer a light and refreshing flavor.
In conclusion, milk tea is a delicious and versatile drink that can be customized with various flavors and toppings. With so many options to choose from, you are sure to find the perfect milk tea flavor for your taste buds. The milk can be fresh milk options, coconut milk, almond milk, rice, oat, and soy milk. To sweeten, use condensed milk instead like Thai tea, or add white or brown sugar syrup. If you are considering making milk tea from different kinds of green teas, then Jasmine green tea (Green Milk Tea), Gunpowder green tea, and Makaibari Estate green tea are the best choices. If you are going to make boba tea (boba drink), Assam black tea, Ceylon black tea or breakfast blends are the best black tea types to use.
Best milk tea brand
With companies jumping on the bandwagon and targeting the explosive popularity of milk tea, several manufacturers have started to deliver classic milk drink and bubble tea to the world.
Fanale Drinks, CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice (fresh fruits), Fokus, Chatime, Bubble Tea Supply, and MilkTea are among some of the biggest and most popular drinks.
Fanale Drinks
Located in California, this American bubble tea brand delivers quality bubble tea to its consumers.
In the beginning, it was a small shipping company in Hayward that now offers products and educational services across the nation.
Along with ingredients, the company provides services like logo design as well as custom-printed cups.
Taiwan is the birthplace of Coco Fresh fruits, with its first store opening in Taipei in 1997.
Coco Fresh (fresh fruits) now has more than 3,500 stores around the world.
A wide variety of beverages are offered, including pearl milk tea, black milk tea, fruit tea, yogurt drinks, fresh fruit juice, and coffee.
Fokus
The Fokus Corporation was founded in Taiwan in 2009 and supplies a wide range of bubble tea supplies, ingredients, and equipment to multiple bubble tea shops across more than 14 countries in APAC, EMEA, and North America.
Chatime
The brand of bubble tea Chatime does not lay claim to being the oldest, but it is one of the best-known.
Founded in 2005 in Taiwan, it expanded to Australia in 2009 before spreading worldwide within the year.
Over 1,000 locations are now operating in over 100 countries, and the company offers a wide variety of drinks and customization options.
Bubble Tea Supply
The brand was founded in Hawaii in 2001 to bring Taiwanese bubble tea to the United States, designing products specific to Americans and serving the needs of the market.
Customers can get recipes and support as well as ingredients, supplies, and equipment from this bubble tea company.
What toppings can you put in milk tea?
The explosion of milk tea shops across the globe has led to some truly inventive recipes with different flavors and toppings.
While the main ingredient remains tea, many other additions like boba pearls and fresh fruit make each tea drink interesting.
Following are some of the best bubble tea toppings:
Tapioca Pearls
The fact that tapioca pearls (white pearls, boba pearls) rank high should not be a surprise. It is one of the best milk tea toppings.
These white pearls are what make boba tea lovers go crazy about this sweet drink (popular drink).
The pearls should give the sense that their mass is bouncy and soft, yet not at the expense of being slimy.
Pearls are available in many varieties, but tapioca pearls remain a classic.
Tapioca pearls (white pearls) or special drinks can also be made into ‘brown sugar boba’, which is a delicious variation.
Lychee Jelly
Lychee jelly is on this list because lychee jelly (herbal jelly) is one of the few toppings that can be made at home.
However, there is one disadvantage to lychee jelly.
Its fruity flavor is often incompatible with milk tea, so lychee jelly does not rank as highly as other toppings.
Pudding
The topping of pudding can be somewhat of a contentious issue.
The topping is usually a large chunk cut up into very small pieces with not much texture at all.
Compared to grass jelly, the size of the pudding (mango pudding) is comparable to that of milk tea.
A pudding is an addition to milk tea without changing its taste but rather adding to the surprise element when a big piece of it is suddenly sucked up the straw from the bottom of the cup.
The slight sweetness of this pudding as well as its richness from the eggs place it among our ranking.
Red beans
Also known as adzuki beans, red beans are sweet toppings with a powdery texture.
Not overpowering but subtle, red beans are a healthy, delicious addition to many desserts and drink all over the world.
Aloe Vera
Harvested from the aloe vera plant, drinking aloe vera has numerous health benefits like acting as a natural detoxifier, meaning that it helps the body get rid of toxins.
It also helps to improve digestion and can reduce inflammation in the body.
Aloe vera is commonly added to milk tea, giving it a healthy, jelly-like texture.
Grass Jelly
Grass jelly is a type of tea drink that is made with Chinese herbs.
The drink(herbal jelly drink) is usually black or green in color and is made with a variety of ingredients that can include things like jasmine tea, Green Milk Tea, lily petals, and chrysanthemum flowers.
Some people also like to add milk and sugar to their grass jelly drinks for a sweet and refreshing taste.
Which country makes the best bubble tea?
Which country makes the best bubble tea is the topic of hot debate, especially between some Asian countries like Taiwan, Japan, and Singapore. Of course, the birthplace of bubble tea, Taiwan, has made bubble tea part of its national culture and a symbol of national pride.
The bubble tea of Taiwan has become more than just a beverage; it has become a symbol of Taiwan’s culture and food history with them considered to have the best tea for milk tea.
Towards the end of 2020, Taiwan’s government recognized April 30 as National Bubble Tea Day, with the image of bubble tea proposed as an alternative passport cover design.
There is significant social media coverage heatedly debating the best places to drink bubble tea.
There is no doubt that bubble tea has become synonymous with Taiwan, but is also considered an important symbol of Taiwan’s national identity, both locally and internationally.
Japan
Despite its entrance into Japanese markets in the late 1990s, bubble tea failed to make a lasting impression.
The bubble tea trend finally made its way to Japan in the 2010s.
The popularity of bubble tea grew as more and more shops in cities began to open, including those from Taiwan, Korea, and China, as well as local brands.
Bubble tea is still one of the most popular social trends today.
This is particularly true among teenagers.
In fact, bubble tea is so common among teenagers as British milk tea that they have invented a slang term for it: tapiru.
People were obsessed with tapioca tea to the point where they built a tapioca theme park in Harajuku, Tokyo in 2019 as a result of the popularity of tapioca tea in Japan.
Singapore
Bubble tea is loved by many people in Singapore.
The beverage with cane sugar was first sold in Singapore in 1992 and became notorious in 2001 after becoming wildly popular among the young.
Bubble tea or British milk tea lost its popularity in Singapore by 2003, when most of the bubble tea shops closed down.
Taiwanese chains such as Koi and Gong Cha only spurred short-term rises in bubble tea consumption in Singapore in 2007 and 2009.
With new brands such as The Alley and Tiger Sugar entering the market in 2018, the interest in bubble tea in Singapore once again rose at an unprecedented speed.
Social media also contributed to this renewed interest.
Where is bubble tea the most popular?
Asia leads the charge in the bubble tea market, but the trend is starting to catch on in the US in areas like Southern California.
The most popular places for bubble tea are Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
Among consumers, the Thais consume the most bubble tea per month, with an average of six servings per person, followed by the Filipinos with five servings.
Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia consume three cups per person per month.
Customers are encouraged to take aesthetic pictures of their quirky, unique drinks in bubble tea shops, resulting in a craze.
In contrast to other trends, bubble tea has sustained its popularity rather than fading away, as is the case with most trends.
The tea industry began to experiment with different flavors, toppings, and milk instead of just sticking to tea.
It was also more widely marketed once it gained mainstream popularity in the US.
Marketing was geared towards avid coffee drinkers and young adults, with constant innovations including bubble ice cream and new flavors.
Despite being more targeted than fads normally are, the trend has maintained its popularity and excitement for much longer than they usually do, and it is predicted to continue to grow for quite some time.
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