Boba milk tea, also known as bubble tea, is a popular drink that originated in Taiwan in the 1980s. It is a refreshing and drink that’s made by combining tea, milk, and tapioca pearls, which give the drink its distinctive chewy texture.
While you can buy boba milk tea at many bubble tea shops, making a cannabis-infused version at home is easy and delicious. In honor of AAPI Heritage Month, this week’s cannabis-infused boba milk tea recipe is in collaboration with my friend and Mogu Magu co-host Wendy Zeng.
Introducing new recipe features:
printable PDF
low dose + high dose amounts, with photo reference
double-check your math with a free edibles potency calculator
how to personalize your dose
If these make you feel excited and more confident to make edibles, please share and tell a friend who loves to cook and bake. You’re currently reading the free edition, consider upgrading your subscription to support my work and hungry cats.
PRINTABLE PDF
Boba Milk Tea Recipe
RECIPE BY WENDY ZENG + CHRISTINA WONG
A cannabis-infused bubble tea with your choice of milk. Best type of tea leaves to for milk tea are ones with strong, robust flavor such as Assam, Darjeeling, Ceyon, or Pu’er. But feel free to experiment with Jasmine, Hōjicha, Earl Grey, and Matcha.
DOSING:
Makes 2 servings. Double-check the math if your % THC is different.
Low Dose // 5mg THC per serving: You’ll need a total of 10mg THC in the entire recipe. Slightly less than 0.1 grams of ~20% THC cannabis flower.*
High Dose // 100mg THC per serving: You’ll need a total of 200mg THC in the entire recipe. Approximately 1.5 grams of ~20% THC cannabis flower.*
INGREDIENTS:
Cannamilk
1 ¼ cup choice of milk (whole, 2%, oat, almond, soy, coconut — not skim)
[ * ] grams of cannabis flower
Brown Sugar Syrup
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup water
Boba Pearls
6 cups water
½ cup tapioca pearls
Tea
1 tablespoon loose leaf black tea or 2-3 teabags
1 cup water
Boba Milk Tea:
½ cup tapioca pearls
¼ cup brown sugar syrup, or less to taste
1 cup brewed black tea
1 cup cannabis-infused milk*
½ cup ice
DIRECTIONS:
1. Make Cannamilk*: Preheat the oven to 240°F. Place 0.45 grams of coarsely ground cannabis flower into a pint-sized 16 oz. mason jar, seal with the lid to reduce smell, and heat for 40 minutes in the oven to decarboxlyate, which activates the THC. Remove from the oven and let cool until the mason jar is safe to touch. The ground flower will look lightly toasted.
Reduce the oven temperature to 165 degrees F. Pour milk into the mason jar, close the lid and shake or stir to combine. Place the sealed jar back into the oven to infuse for 2.5 hours. After 2.5 hours, remove from the oven and cool until the mason jar is safe to touch. Pour the mixture through a fine mesh sieve and into a clean container, discard the ground flower. Cool the infused milk to room temperature, or store in the fridge until ready to use.
2. Make Brown Sugar Syrup: In a small saucepan over medium heat, stir together 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup water until the sugar is dissolved. Take off heat and set aside to cool.
3. Boil Boba Pearls: In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring 6 cups of water to a boil. Add boba tapioca pearls and stir, until the pearls float to the surface. Place a lid on the saucepan and boil for 5 minutes.
Use a slotted spoon to remove the boba from the pan and transfer to a bowl of cold water for a few minutes to cool. Pour out the cold water and mix brown sugar syrup with cooked boba in the bowl. Set aside.
4. Brew Black Tea: In a small saucepan, heat cup of water over low-medium heat until it bubbles. Steep tea leaves in the water for several minutes until strong and flavorful. Strain out the tea leaves, and cool to room temp.
5. Make Boba Milk Tea: In two tall glasses, pour in desired amount of boba pearls and brown sugar syrup. Add ice, and pour half black tea and half the milk in each glass, and stir together.
How to Personalize Your Dose
Moving forward each recipe will include the amount and type of cannabis to use for low dose (5mg THC per serving) and high dose (100mg THC per serving).
These numbers are easy multipliers to increase or decrease the potency and amount of THC per serving. For example:
10mg THC per serving — double the amount of low-dose cannabis flower
25mg THC per serving — multiply the amount of low-dose cannabis flower 5x.
50mg THC per serving — divide the amount of high-dose cannabis by half.
300mg THC per serving - multiply the amount of high-dose cannabis by 3x.
PLEASE NOTE: The amounts provided makes average assumptions about % THC and efficiency loss to calculate potency. Actual amount of THC in the final end product will vary depending on the ingredients you’re using and technique used. It will not be exactly 5mg or 100mg THC. However, when weighed accurately with a digital gram scale, you can feel confident that the variation is small enough there’s a much lower risk of accidental over-consumption. If your variables are different, double-check your math.
Questions? Feel free to ask!
Learn more about the step-by-step by process in the DIY Edibles section (for paid subscribers). As always, please enjoy responsibly.
XOXO, Christina W.