Tiger Milk Tea

Cooking the pearls

1. Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil then add your pearls to the pot.
2. Boil the pearls till cooked i.e. till they start floating. My homemade ones started floating within 3 minutes but I continued boiling them for another 7 minutes to get them a bit softer and chewier. 
3. For shop bought pearls: Different brands take different amounts of time to cook- I recommend going for a quick-cook version! (Note: affiliate link)

Cooking the syrup

1. Whilst the pearls are boiling, you can start making the brown sugar syrup. Add brown sugar and water to a pot over medium heat and allow the brown sugar to melt. (It may bubble a bit.)
2. Alternatively: if you're using pre-made brown sugar syrup, you can just heat it in the pot whilst you wait for the pearls to finish cooking.Either way, be careful as melted sugar is VERY hot. Be careful not to let the sugar burn but try not to stir for now, as that can promote crystallisation (forming a grainy syrup.) You can add a bit of lime juice or lemon juice if you're concerned about crystallisation.
3. Once the pearls are cooked, add them to the syrup. Stir the pearls in the syrup, over medium heat, till the syrup is super thick. You will probably need to stir here to prevent it from burning.It took me about 5-10 minutes to get the brown sugar syrup the right consistency (thick enough to coat the walls of the glass.) You know it's thick enough when you stir the pot, and it takes a while for the syrup to fill the empty space you created (see photo above).Note: Do not be tempted to save time here- a runny syrup won't have the same effect!

Assembling the Tiger Milk Tea

1. Hold a tall glass horizontally and place the syrup coated boba near the rim/ top of the glass. Slowly straighten the glass to allow the pearls to slide down, and create "tiger stripes." Use half the pearls & syrup (about 5 tablespoons) per cup and make sure you coat a good portion of the walls.
2. Allow the syrup to rest for 2 minutes before adding the milk- this helps the stripes to harden a little so they don't just disappear into the milk! After the 2 minutes are up, pour the cold milk into the glass.
3. For iced tea (optional): you can add ice cubes but it may dilute the Tiger Milk Tea.