If you didn’t know, Hokkaido is the second largest island in Japan. What makes Hokkaido milk tea so special is due to the rich and creamy milk that is produced here in Hokkaido, Japan’s dairy farms and facilities.
Hokkaido milk has a smoother texture than most dairy around the world. Making it a must-try and unique dairy you cannot get elsewhere.
Many of those who tried it characterize Hokkaido milk tea to be rich, creamy, and “mouth coating.” This is due to its higher nature in fat content compared to other dairy products.
Now that you know a bit about why Hokkaido milk is so popular around Japan’s regions. Let’s dive right into how to make Hokkaido milk tea. If you’re familiar with traditional Hong Kong milk tea, this is very similar.
Prep Time
1 Minutes
Cook Time
5-7 Minutes
Total Time
7-8 Minutes
Yield
1 Servings
Ingredients you'll need
for making
Hokkaido Milk Tea
- 1-1.5 cup Strong black tea
- ¼-½ cup Hokkaido milk
- 2 Tbsp Sweetener
- Tapioca pearls (optional)
How to Make Hokkaido Milk Tea
Step 1
To start, boil a pot of water so that it makes roughly 1-1.5 cups of black tea. We usually like to use our favorite loose leaf black teas but for convenience, you may use tea bags as well. The cooking time doesn’t change much with either, but taste and flavor can be a huge difference.
Learn more about the differences between tea bags and loose leaf tea.
As the water comes to a boil, continue to steep the tea however long you’d like for your preferred flavor (bolder or less bold). While you’re in the steeping phase of making your tea, add your Hokkaido milk into the pot as well. This way you can steep both your tea and milk at the same time.
We find that steeping our tea and milk for another 2-4 minutes is the sweet spot for our taste buds. It comes out creamy and rich, with tons of flavor embedded into the drink. But of course, steep your tea to your preferred liking.
Step 2
Set your tea and Hokkaido milk mix aside once you’re satisfied and let it cool.
While your tea mix is cooling, you can grab your serving cup and begin to add your sweetener into the cup. Using brown sugar syrup adds a great malty element to the drink. You can also use other popular hot drink sweeteners like honey, syrup, or traditional sugar.
Step 3
Is your tea mix room temperature? Perfect!
Now all that’s left to do is add everything together. Grab a handful of ice and add it to your serving cup. Top it all off with your Hokkaido milk tea that you recently steeped and stir everything together.
Once your sweetener is well incorporated, take a sip, and say “ahhh.”
Optional Tapioca Pearls Add On
If you’d like to add tapioca pearls to the mix is just as simple as the recipe. You can either add homemade tapioca pearls or buy a bag of ready-made tapioca pearls for convenience.
You can learn how to make tapioca pearls from scratch right here.
If you have store-bought tapioca pearls, read the instructions on the back for cooking directions. Generally, store-bought tapioca pearls will cook in 5-10 minutes depending on the brand you buy. This is great because it makes things so much easier.
To spice it up, we like to soak our tapioca pearls in a brown sugar syrup bath for roughly 5-10 minutes before serving. This gives the already delicious boba pearls an additional element of flavor.
Nothing wrong with that right?
If you’ve made it to the very end of this recipe, thank you! We hope you enjoyed this really simple recipe for making Hokkaido milk tea at home. Please let us know how your Hokkaido milk tea turned out and if you added anything different to change it up (maybe cinnamon).
Feel free to share this recipe with your friends and family, have a great day! You can also read other dairy and milk articles we have below.
