Use your Instant Pot to make Iced Boba Tea the easy way! Learning how to make Bubble Tea isn't difficult, and you're going to love having it at home.
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What is Boba?
Boba is a little sphere of sugary goodness made from tapioca pearls. It's usually used to add flavor and texture to drinks like teas and coffees.
What is Bubble Tea?
Boba Tea is simply tea that's been filled with cooked, sugary tapioca pearls. They add great flavor and texture to a drink, and make ordinary tea magical!
How Do You Make Bubble Tea in the Instant Pot?
- Place the boba pearls, water and sugar in the inner liner of your Instant Pot. It is important to use sugar in this recipe, as the boba need to rest in a sugar syrup in order to stay chewy and pliable.
- Cook at high pressure for 2 minutes. Allow the pot to sit undisturbed for 5 minutes, and then release all remaining pressure.
- When you open the lid, you will see some mighty big boba floating around. These will settle down to a much more manageable size as they cool. Do not refrigerate the boba. Allow them to cool in the liner, or pour them out into a mason jar and let them cool, about 15-20 minutes.
- The boba can be kept in the refrigerator in this sugar syrup for a few hours, but they really don't store very well. Which is a great excuse for eating them all up actually, so that works out.
- Meanwhile, mix together the tea, sugar, milk and ice cubes and shake to chill the tea.
- Divide the boba amongst four glasses, cover with tea and serve.
Where Can You Buy Boba Pearls?
You can normally find the large boba or tapioca pearls at Asian Food Markets, or when in doubt, do what I do and shop on Amazon for boba pearls.
These were the boba pearls that I bought. It saves me an unnecessary trip, and I know they will have them in stock and be on my doorstep in 2 days.
How Long Can You Store Instant Pot Bubble Tea?
- Storing. Boba doesn't store all that well. You can increase their lifespan a little by storing them in the sugar syrup, and then draining the syrup afterward. But the best thing to do is to only make enough for one day.
- Refrigerating. The other thing I found out the hard way is that they don't refrigerate all that well. They get a little weird and chewy--and not in a good way.
- Single Batches. What works for me is to just make enough for one day and given how fast it is to make Instant Pot Boba tea, it's not a hardship to make it again. And again.
Tips and Tricks for Making Instant Pot Bubble Tea
- Refrigerating. Don't cool them after cooking in the refrigerator, or store them there. The texture gets weird and chewy.
- Amazon. Find Boba Pearls on Amazon for the easiest method of purchasing.
- Sugar. Don't skip the sugar in this recipe, as the boba pearls need the sugary syrup to stay at the right consistency.
- Alternative. You can use coconut milk with vanilla or pandan as your base liquid for the pearls rather than tea.
Want Some More Awesome Drinks You Can Make In Your Instant Pot?
- Instant Pot Masala Chai - SO good when you make it in the pressure cooker!
- Instant Pot Iced Tea - I PROMISE you'll never make it another way once you have it in the Instant Pot!
- Lemongrass Tea - one of my all-time favorites!
- Instant Pot Horchata - sweet cinnamon milk that I can never get enough of!
- Hibiscus Tea - this is my favorite kind of iced tea!
Now that you know how to make Bubble Tea at home, you can have it any time you feel like having Boba Tea! Save this recipe by pinning it on Pinterest or sharing it on Facebook!
★ Did you make this recipe? Don't forget to give it a star rating below! Just click on the stars in the recipe card to rate. Don't forget to pin this recipe for later!
Equipment
Ingredients
FOR THE BOBA
- 1 cup (152 g) large Boba or Tapioca Pearls
- 2 cups (375 g) Water
- 1/4 cup (50 g) Sugar Or Other Sweetener Equivalent
FOR THE TEA
- 4 cups (944 g) strong brewed tea
- 1 tablespoon (1 tablespoon) Sugar Or Other Sweetener Equivalent
- 1/2 cup (122 g) Whole Milk
- 1 cup (14 g) ice cubes
Instructions
- Place the boba pearls, water and sugar in the inner liner of your Instant Pot. It is important to use sugar in this recipe, as the boba need to rest in a sugar syrup in order to stay chewy and pliable.
- Cook at high pressure for 2 minutes. Allow the pot to sit undisturbed for 5 minutes, and then release all remaining pressure.
- When you open the lid, you will see some mighty big boba floating around. These will settle down to a much more manageable size as they cool. Do not refrigerate the boba. Allow them to cool in the liner, or pour them out into a mason jar and let them cool, about 15-20 minutes.
- The boba can be kept in the refrigerator in this sugar syrup for a few hours, but the really don't store very well. Which is a great excuse for eating them all up actually, so that works out.
- Meanwhile, mix together the tea, sugar, milk and ice cubes and shake to chill the tea.
- Divide the boba amongst four glasses, cover with tea and serve.
Tips and Tricks for Making Instant Pot Bubble Tea
- Refrigerating. Don't cool them after cooking in the refrigerator, or store them there. The texture gets weird and chewy.
- Amazon. Find Boba Pearls on Amazon for the easiest method of purchasing.
- Sugar. Don't skip the sugar in this recipe, as the boba pearls need the sugary syrup to stay at the right consistency.
- Alternative. You can use coconut milk with vanilla or pandan as your base liquid for the pearls rather than tea.
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Nutrition
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Cindy
Does this apply for pearls made from scratch, as opposed to store bought?
Pep
Recipe ingredient list should say instant boba pearls.
Evanthe Salisbury
The method to cook the type of tapioca pearls used for boba tea that is in this recipe works correctly!!
Be careful to not confuse “large tapioca”, pearls that are just slightly larger than the instant stuff used for pudding, with boba pearls!!
I make boba tea regularly. In fact, I cut the recipe in half, and it still works. My 6Q instant pot comes to pressure with only 3/4 cups pressure. I would not try a half recipe with an 8Q.
Yuki
It's work well and doesn't take a long time, Thank you for the recipe 😊
Danniella
Burned mush. A waste of my tapioca peals. And a mess to clean up. Should have read the comments before trying this. Mine weren't instant pearls. 😢
URVASHI PITRE
I'm confused. You didn't use the ingredients specified but you're rating the recipe as 1 star? Or is something else the issue?
Gurmukh Panesar
Agree! It also went horrible for me too. Waste of boba and a pain cleaning up. I would encourage others to read the comments first.
URVASHI PITRE
Okay, I REALLY want to help but without specifics, I can't be of service. It has 2 cups of liquid in it. How could it possibly have burned? And you see mine in the picture, that's what happened with mine. you also see many five star ratings. So clearly it works. We need to troubleshoot yours before you shoot down my recipe. So please let me know what boba you used, did you change anything including the resting time, and what happened? was there no water left? Did they stick together? What exactly happened.
Niki
I can't rate the recipe because it didn't work and it's not your fault! I tried it with some large tapioca balls we had in the cupboard since we can't really go looking for the specific ones you used. Used proportions according to your instructions. Almost immediately the pot came to pressure I got a burn notice - opened the pot and found gloopy gush. Had coffee instead 😀
Kaye
This turned out great for me. I added some molasses to the instant pot for the brown sugar flavor. I like my boba a little softer so I was very happy. My 3 guests also thought they were perfectly cooked. I coated them in sugar once I took them out and they were warm enough to melt that instantly into a syrup.
**I did soak mine overnight so that may have affected the results. About 12hrs**
Lauren
Note: this recipe is NOT for the regular “non-instant” type of boba or tapioca pearls. If the package does not say that it can be cooked normally in 10 minutes or less, this method will not work.
It will end in a jumble of cooked/uncooked tapioca pearls and bits with quite a lot of mush in between.
And also sadness.
Alex
Ah, I wish I had read your comment BEFORE trying the recipe myself. A whole lot of sadness indeed!
Jessica
Yes, a pot of sadness, indeed!
URVASHI PITRE
Which is why I linked to the exact boba I used
Dawn
I've made this recipe numerous times in the last month and I'm so pleased! Absolute perfection every time. For what it's worth, I threw out the boba leftovers the first time. But the second time, I put leftover bobas (including cooking liquid) in a glass canning jar and stored in the fridge. The next day, I heated that jar (without lid, of course) in the microwave 1 min, stir, heated 1 more min... and the bobas were almost as good as new!
Also, our local Thai restaurant serves "tapioca freezes" which are fresh fruit slushies served with a scoop of bobas in the bottom of the glass. This recipe of yours saves me approximately $3 every time I want a treat, plus I can control the sugar levels a bit. So exciting!
Thank you!
Jennifer
What kind of tea did you use? Thanks, want to make this for my kids!!
URVASHI PITRE
Well I used plain old black tea with milk. But if you’re making for younger kids chocolate milk would be good too as would strawberry milk.
Bobbi
Can I half this recipe in my Instant Pot???
URVASHI PITRE
Yes you can!