How to Make Lychee Bubble Tea with Real Lychee

Talk Boba

You know what lychee is right? No not exactly. Well, let’s find out!

Lychee is a very delicious and sweet fruit native to Asia. It has recently been making a name for itself in other parts of the world.

Some of you may be familiar with it by drinking a lychee martini or another type of alcoholic beverage. Or maybe you’ve been familiar with the taste of lychee through these iconic lychee gummy candies as a kid!

Though it’s popular amongst alcoholic treats and candy, we’re here to talk about how lychee is made into bubble tea.

With its flavor profile being very close to a grape, it suits well in a sweet bubble tea! The outer shell of lychee doesn’t look anything like a grape. However, the inside of the lychee fruit is fleshy like a grape with a small seed in the middle.

The fleshy goodness of the lychee fruit is what we will be using in this lychee bubble tea recipe. Plus any of its juices that we can use.

Let’s not waste any more time, onto the lychee bubble tea full recipe guide below!

If you want to learn more about what lychee is you can read more about it here.

(This recipe does not use lychee bubble tea powder).

Prep Time

5 Minutes

Cook Time

25-30 Minutes

Total Time

30-35 Minutes

Yield

1-2 Servings

Ingredients you'll need
for making
Lychee Bubble Tea

Authentic black tea or green tea leaves
1/4 cup creamer (almond milk, soy milk, etc)
Handful of in-season lychee
1/4 cup boba pearls
1/2 cup lychee juice
1-2 tablespoons of brown sugar syrup
Handful of ice

How to Make Lychee Bubble Tea

Step 1

You’re in for some delicious lychee boba. Gather all your ingredients and let’s begin!

Let’s begin by getting 2 pots of water ready to boil, pot sizes similar to this will work just fine. One pot will be for our freshly brewed tea and the other will be for the delicious tapioca pearls.

For the freshly brewed tea, boil about 4-5 cups of water. We’ll only need about 3/4 cups of brewed tea afterward. Wait for the water to reach a rumbling boil, place your fresh tea leaves (black tea or green tea leaves) in the water, and bring the heat down to medium. Continue to steep for 4-7 minutes.

For lychee bubble teas we usually use green tea rather than black tea. The lightness of green tea compliments the sweetness of lychee juice perfectly.

In the other pot, bring the water to a rumbling boil too. Afterward, turn down the heat a bit so that it is medium-high and add your 1/4 cup boba pearls into the water to cook. It typically takes 10-15 minutes to get the right texture in your boba pearls.

If you bought your tapioca pearls from your local Asian market, be sure to check the back of the packaging for exact cooking details.

Step 2

While we play the waiting game to finish step 1, we will prepare the rest of the ingredients. Let’s start with the actual lychee fruit!

Grab your handful of fresh in-season lychee and begin to peel the outer shell so that the flesh is exposed.

It’s okay if you take a bite out of one during the process, they’re irresistible!

Don’t forget to take the seed out though.

Once you have all the flesh of the juicy lychee, grab your favorite blender or food processor. Any blender or food processor works fine. But if you ever want the Mercedes Benz of blenders, be sure to check this Ninja blender out.

From here we’ll add our prepared lychee into the blender along with your 1/2 cup of lychee juice.

Don’t forget the handful of ice too!

Blend up the lychee and its juice so that it’s a very smooth puree. You’re looking for a watery consistency more so than a lumpy texture.

Here’s a tip. If you get a spoonful of the blended mix and it runs off the spoon fairly quickly, you know you have the right texture. If it moves at a snail’s pace, you know you need to give it a few more pulses.

Step 3

Before starting step 3, check back on step 1 and let everything cool to room temperature. If everything is done is step 1 that is.

During this step we’ll make the brown sugar syrup, you can also buy this from a local store if you want too.

If you’d like to make brown sugar syrup from scratch, all you’ll need is a saucepan with brown sugar and water. Cook it at medium heat until you get a syrup-like texture. When your boba pearls are finished cooking, add it into your brown sugar syrup mixture. Stir and combine thoroughly until all boba pearls are coated.

Step 4

Now we can begin assembling our delicious lychee bubble tea. Here’s what we have after everything is complete.

Cooked boba pearls mixed with brown sugar syrup. Freshly brewed tea. A blend of lychee. And lastly, your choice of creamer.

For creamer, we really like using non-fat milk for this recipe.

Let’s add everything together!

Start with 1/4 cup of boba pearls, you can make those beautiful brown sugar designs in your cup if you’d like too! Next, we’ll add the 1/4 cup of creamer. Then 1/4 cup of your blended mix of lychee. And lastly, add 3/4 cup of the freshly brewed tea.

If you choose to have a lid, shake it all up and serve with your favorite boba straw.

If you have no lid, be sure to mix everything thoroughly and enjoy!

A cold refreshing lychee bubble tea or lychee boba tea right at home. Enjoy!