This Brown Sugar Syrup for Boba is thick, sticky, and has a deep and rich caramel flavor! It's made with 2 basic ingredients and ready in 5 minutes!
This brown sugar syrup recipe is delicious and aromatic, with hints of caramel and toffee.
It's great to flavor any drink including dairy-free matcha latte and hot chocolate without milk, but it's especially good when making bubble tea!
Use it in my chocolate boba, oreo bubble milk tea, boba smoothie, hot boba tea, or any other drink.
For similar recipes, check out my matcha simple syrup.
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Quick and easy to make. This recipe comes together in less than 10 minutes and requires minimal effort.
- Inexpensive and made with 2 simple ingredients only! You don't need any fancy ingredients or equipment.
- Delicious. This syrup has a deep and rich flavor, with a caramel tone.
- Versatile. You can use it in SO many recipes! Not only in boba and coffee, but you can also use it to flavor oatmeal and yogurt bowls or pour it over pancakes and waffles.
What is Boba?
Boba is a tea-based drink that originated in Taiwan in the early 1980s. It's most often served cold, and it consists of chewy tapioca pearls coated in thick brown sugar syrup and served with milk.
Tapioca pearls are made from tapioca starch (also known as tapioca flour or cassava flour) and they don't have a strong flavor, which makes them perfect to pair with a variety of drinks.
Ingredients You'll Need
- Brown sugar: You can use either light brown sugar or dark brown sugar. I recommend using dark brown sugar, since it has more molasses it will give you a richer caramel flavor. Hack: if you don't have any brown sugar on hand, you can use white sugar and 2 tablespoon of molasses instead.
- Water: This recipe uses a 1:2 ratio of brown sugar to water. Use filtered water if possible.
- Tapioca pearls: You'll need the pearls in case you want to prepare the boba milk tea right away. I like to use black tapioca pearls because they're flavored with brown sugar.
See the recipe card below for the full list of ingredients and exact measurements.
Types of Sugar Used for Boba Tea
- Taiwanese brown sugar: This is a type of brown sugar popular in Taiwan, it has more molasses than regular brown sugar but is less sweet.
- Muscovado sugar: This is what I usually use when making brown sugar syrup for boba. It's easy to find and inexpensive and has a deep caramel flavor thanks to a higher percentage of molasses.
- Japanese black sugar (Okinawan Kokuto sugar): This type of sugar is black because it's cooked for a long time at low heat, hence why the name. It's high in molasses and has a deep and very rich flavor.
- Turbinado sugar: It's a type of raw sugar that is minimally processed. It has a golden brown color, large crystals, and a small amount of molasses.
Flavor Variations
If you want to elevate this recipe, there are some optional ingredients you can add:
- Molasses: If you want to add even more caramel flavor, you can stir 1-2 teaspoon of molasses into the syrup.
- Vanilla extract: You can stir 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract when the syrup is done cooking if you want to add more flavor and aroma.
- Fruit zest: You can infuse the syrup with orange zest or lemon zest for a delicious twist. Add the zest at the beginning of the cooking so it has time to simmer and release its flavor.
- Spices: Adding a pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg, or star anise at the beginning of the cooking can add a great kick.
- Herbs and flowers: You can infuse the syrup with lavender, hibiscus, and even herbs like thyme or rosemary.
How to Make Brown Sugar Syrup for Boba
Step 1: Add 1 cup of brown sugar and ½ cup of water to a small pot or a saucepan. Using a whisk, mix until the sugar has semi-dissolved into the water. Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer, over low heat, and cook for 5-7 minutes, or until the sugar has dissolved and the syrup has thickened slightly.
Step 2: If you have a thermometer, it will be useful here. The temperature should reach between 228°F and 234°F (109°C - 112°C) before removing the saucepan from the heat. Carefully pour the syrup into a heat-proof bowl or mason jar and let it cool while making the boba. It will continue to thicken as it cools.
Prepare the tapioca pearls by cooking them in boiling water over medium heat as per packaging instructions. Then, drain and add to a bowl, and coat with a few tablespoons of the syrup.
Use your brown sugar boba pearls right away in chocolate boba milk tea or other boba drinks.
Expert Tips
- Don't let the syrup boil. If the syrup boils, it will thicken too much and turn into caramel. Make sure to keep it to a gentle simmer and remove it from the heat once it reaches a maximum temperature of 234°F (112°C).
- To prevent the syrup from crystalizing, don't stir while cooking. This creates air bubbles which can make it crystalize. If you want to be 100% sure that your syrup won't crystalize, add 1 tablespoon of corn syrup.
- Let it cool completely to room temperature before storing it in a clean jar. This will further prevent the syrup from crystallizing.
- Keep in mind that the syrup will thicken as it cools. It may seem thin when you take it off the heat, but it will thicken quite a bit when it cools down to room temperature.
- After you cook the boba, toss it with the syrup immediately. This prevents it from sticking and drying out, and it also infuses it will flavor.
- Be very careful when working with sugar syrups and caramel! When sugar is heated, it can reach very high temperatures, so make sure to work very carefully to prevent burning. To be safe, I recommend wearing long sleeves, an apron, and long oven gloves.
Recipe FAQs
Bubble tea is a blend of milk, bubbles (tapioca pearls), and boiled brown sugar syrup. This syrup is easy to make at home by cooking two parts dark brown sugar with one part water until it thickens.
No. Brown sugar syrup for boba is much thicker than simple syrup with a ratio of 1:2 (1 part water, 2 parts sugar). Simple syrup is made with a 1:1 ratio of water to sugar, resulting in a much thinner syrup.
If your syrup is runny, the first solution is to cook for 3-4 more minutes, or until it thickens slightly.
If that doesn't help, you may have measured the sugar incorrectly, in which case I suggest adding 1-2 tablespoons more brown sugar and heating the syrup until the sugar dissolves.
Add your crystalized syrup to a small saucepan alongside 1-2 tablespoons of water. Heat over medium-low heat, or until the crystals have dissolved in the water. If the syrup is too thick, add a few more tablespoons of water.
Yes, this recipe can keep for several weeks if stored in an airtight container or a mason jar, in a dry and cool place, away from direct sunlight!
How to Use It
The most popular use for this syrup is in brown sugar milk tea. You can make it by cooking tapioca pearls per packaging instructions, then tossing them with a few tablespoons of syrup.
Then, add them to the bottom of a large glass, and top them with ice cubes, steeped black tea, and your favorite milk of choice.
Having said that, you can use this recipe in many other ways such as:
- For preparing Tiger Milk Tea (a popular bubble tea flavor known for its characteristic "tiger stripes")
- In Coffee or iced cold brew, to replace your regular sweetener
- In oat milk matcha latte, to replace your regular sweetener
- In hot chocolate without milk, to add depth of flavor and richness
- Over Bisquick pancakes without eggs as a topping instead of maple syrup or honey
- Stirred into hot milk or tea as an afternoon drink
- In any hot or cold drinks where you need a liquid sweetener
Storage
Let syrup cool to room temperature, then refrigerate in a clean and sterilized mason jar (without boba) for 2-3 weeks (and sometimes longer).
Once you coat the tapioca pearls with the syrup, you need to serve them right away and you can't store them for later.
Boba Tea Recipes
If you tried this Brown Sugar Syrup for Boba or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it goes in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting today!
📖 Recipe
Brown Sugar Syrup for Boba
Ingredients
- 1 cup brown sugar unpacked
- ½ cup filtered water
Instructions
- Add 1 cup of brown sugar and ½ cup of water to a small pot or a saucepan. Using a whisk, mix until the sugar has semi-dissolved into the water.1 cup brown sugar, ½ cup filtered water
- Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer, over low heat, and cook for 5-7 minutes, or until the sugar dissolved and the syrup has thickened slightly.
- If you have a thermometer, it will be useful here. The temperature should reach between 228°F – 234°F /109°C–112°C before removing the saucepan from the heat.
- Carefully pour the syrup into a heat-proof bowl or mason jar and let it cool before you cover it with a lid. It will continue to thicken as it cools.
Notes
- Don't let the syrup boil. If the syrup boils, it will thicken too much and turn into caramel. Make sure to keep it to a gentle simmer and remove it from the heat once it reaches a maximum temperature of 234°F (112°C).
- To prevent the syrup from crystalizing, don't stir while cooking. This creates air bubbles which can make it crystalize. If you want to be 100% sure that your syrup won't crystalize, add 1 tablespoon of corn syrup.
- Let it cool completely to room temperature before storing it in a clean jar. This will further prevent the syrup from crystallizing.
- Keep in mind that the syrup will thicken as it cools. It may seem thin when you take it off the heat, but it will thicken quite a bit when it cools down to room temperature.
- After you cook the boba, toss it with the syrup immediately. This prevents it from sticking and drying out, and it also infuses it will flavor.
- Be very careful when working with sugar syrups and caramel! When sugar is heated, it can reach very high temperatures, so make sure to work very carefully to prevent burning. To be safe, I recommend wearing long leaves, an apron, and long oven gloves.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is a rough estimate calculated with third-party calculations without including the optional ingredients.
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