Mango Boba Milk Tea (Mango Tapioca Pearls / Popping Pearls)

Mango boba tastes tropical and sweet, with a subtle earthy base from the green tea. The tapioca balls or popping pearls add a fun chew to the drink. It's one of the most refreshing and moreish fruity bubble tea drinks.

Yet, surprisingly, it's not hard to recreate at home, either. In our recipe, we'll teach you how to make this fruity bubble tea, mango boba balls, and mango-popping pearls.

We'll also share some fun variations of this bubble tea and helpful tips for making pearls in different sizes at home. We've got you covered from testing recipes and lots of personal experience drinking this delicious boba pearl drink.

Jump to:

• What Is Mango Boba Made Of?
• Mango Boba Milk Tea Ingredients
• Mango Boba Recipe (Mango Boba Balls or Popping Pearls)
• Cooking Tips
• How to make mango boba milk tea
• How to make mango tapioca pearls
• How to make mango popping pearls
• How to make mango bubble tea without milk
• Variations

What Is Mango Boba Made Of?

Mango boba refers to the bubble tea drink with mango, tea, syrup, and black tapioca pearls or the boba pearl topping made from mango, tapioca starch and brown sugar.

If you order this in stores, you may be served the traditional drink. That version is a mango fruit drink with black tapioca pearls. The other popular variation is adding mango popping pearls.

It's rare to find a shop that uses mango tapioca pearls in its drinks, as manufacturers don't typically mass-produce the topping.

Mango Boba Milk Tea Ingredients

To make mango boba milk tea, you'll need mango, green tea, tapioca pearls, milk, and simple syrup.

Mango 

You'll need either fresh or frozen fruit for our drink recipe.

If you're using fresh ones, ensure they're fully ripe for the best flavour. During the summer months, fresh will typically taste much sweeter than frozen. Depending on your taste, you might not even need to add sugar.

If you're using frozen ones, ensure they're thawed slightly before using them.

You can also use fruit juice for our recipe, but we recommend using concentrate with no added sugar. In addition, using fruit juice will give your final drink a thinner consistency than fresh or frozen.

Tea

Bubble tea is traditionally made with black tea, which you can get at most grocery stores. However, we'll make our mango boba using green tea as a base. Green tea's flavour is more delicate and balances the fruit's natural sweetness better than a malty, strong black, loose-leaf blend.

You can also try Jasmine or Oolong. We generally don't recommend black tea, as it interferes with the fruit’s taste. If you love the fruit's taste, you can also omit the tea entirely to make it more apparent. It just depends on your taste.

Pearls 

Black tapioca pearls are the classic topping for this drink. You can order them online or follow our boba pearls recipe to make them at home.

A great twist is to make homemade mango boba pearls. You would use the same recipe but add fruit puree to your tapioca starch and brown sugar. Mango-popping pearls are the fun alternative we like to add to our drink. We'll list the detailed steps for both of these variations below.

Milk (optional)

You can choose between adding milk or making it a fruity bubble tea without milk. Adding milk adds creaminess to your drink and thickens the overall consistency. It also helps to make your bubble tea more filling.

On the other hand, mango bubble tea without milk is lighter in texture, allowing the base to shine through better.

Generally, we think full-cream milk works best for our recipe. If you want to use a plant-based alternative, we suggest using coconut milk. It adds thickness and creaminess to the drink, but you'll also get a strong coconut taste, competing with the fruit’s flavour.

Simple syrup (optional)

You can add sugar to sweeten your drink. However, we recommend making a simple syrup instead of adding it directly to your mango boba. Granulated sugar is difficult to dissolve in cold drinks, so using a simple syrup will ensure that your bubble tea is evenly sweetened.

Combine equal parts of water and sugar over medium heat to make simple syrup. Turn the heat off when you see all the sugar granules have dissolved, and let it cool.

You can also make sweet mango syrup by blending, pureeing, and adding the fruit to the simple syrup. Alternatively, you can use a store-bought fruit syrup instead of making your own.

Cooking Tips

Our recipe is quite simple, but here are some ways to make it easier and better.

• Chop your fruit into small cubes and squeeze as much juice from the peel as possible. This will give you the strongest fruit flavour.
• When you are straining the fruit, make sure to press down on the fruit to get the most intense flavour you can.
• Stir continuously when making a simple syrup to dissolve it more quickly and keep it from scorching. Do not turn the heat too high to make it go faster. Take it low and slow.
• We recommend steeping the tea for a more robust flavour for up to 15 minutes. Ideally, brew the leaves under hot water at 80-85 degrees Celcius (175-185 degrees Fahrenheit). Avoid brewing it using boiling water, as it will burn the leaves, causing a bitter aftertaste.

How to make mango boba milk tea

Here's how to make this tasty mango bubble tea drink:

1. Brew your tea for 5 minutes and let it cool before using it. If you want to avoid adding simple syrup, skip step 2.
2. (Optional) Make your simple syrup by boiling equal amounts of sugar and water. Once the sugar has completely dissolved, let it cool before pouring it into a sterilised jar. Put your syrup in the fridge to cool while you make the rest.
3. Cook your tapioca balls (or another topping of choice) and let them cool in an ice bath before using them.
4. Add your tea, chopped fruit and optional syrup to a blender until well blended.
5. Pour your toppings, ice, and fruit tea mix into a glass. Finally, pour over your milk and add more boba toppings and fruit.

We purposely didn't add the milk into the blender for our steps as we wanted vivid yellow and white layers in our bubble tea drink and a chunkier consistency. However, this is optional; you can add the milk directly into the blender.

How to make mango tapioca pearls

Mango boba balls are little pearls made from tapioca starch. We'll also use white sugar instead of brown sugar to allow its natural yellow colour to shine.

Fruity tapioca pearl balls can be made with fruit juice or puree, but we love using fresh fruit. Fresh fruit will make the boba pearls more fragrant and naturally sweet, giving them a light yellow colour. Handmade tapioca balls infused with fruit flavours will level up your bubble tea game.

Mango tapioca pearl ingredients

If you're using fresh fruit, here are the mango boba ingredients you'll need to make 1 cup of this topping.

• 100 g tapioca starch
• 50 g white sugar
• 45 ml (3 tbsps) water
• ¼ cup of fresh fruit to make about 45ml puree. 

Meanwhile, if you're using fruit juice, the ingredients are similar. However, you'll need to adjust the amount of water used. Using less water to account for the juice's liquid content is important.

Here are the adjustments to make for mango tapioca pearls using juice:

• 100 g tapioca starch
• 50 g white sugar
• 30 ml water
• 60 ml mango juice

Method

1. If you're using fresh fruit, cut it into small cubes and add them to a blender with the water. Blend until there are no clumps. Then, pour the puree through a sieve to remove any remaining clumps of fibre. If you're using juice, skip to step 2. 
2. Combine mango puree or fruit juice with water and bring to a boil.
3. Once this has boiled, turn off the heat and add tapioca starch. You'll want to mix in the tapioca starch in small 2 tablespoon increments until it's fully incorporated before moving on to the next steps. You should get a slightly sticky dough.
4. Roll your boba dough to 1.5cm or 1cm thick and cut into small squares. Roll your small squares into little balls. Cover them with more starch and set them aside until you're ready to cook them.
5. To cook your mango tapioca pearls, add them to a pot of boiling water for 8-10 minutes. For a softer texture, you can cook these for up to 15-20 minutes. Then lower the heat and let it simmer for 5 minutes.
6. Take them out of the hot water and into an ice bath for 1-2 minutes.

And there you have it. Mango tapioca pearls are so easy to make. Watch our YouTube video on how to make tapioca pearls from scratch.

How to make mango popping pearls

Mango popping pearls are small spheres filled with juice that burst into your mouth when you bite them. The popping sensation and cute round shape make them a popular alternative to mango boba pearls.

Making these at home is like doing a fun science project. Here are the ingredients you'll need to make about 1 cup of fruity popping pearls:

• 150 ml mango juice
• 5 g sodium alginate
• 50 ml drinking water
• 6 g calcium lactate
• 1 litre distilled water
• 2 cups clean water for rinsing
• food colouring of choice (optional)

The combination of sodium alginate and calcium lactate is what makes these.

Method

1. First, dissolve the calcium lactate powder in a big bowl of distilled water. Let it cool in the fridge for about 4 hours.
2. While waiting, dissolve the sodium alginate powder in 50 ml of drinking water. Once completely dissolved, add fruit juice to the mixture and combine well. Add food colouring to the mixture here if you want to use food colouring. Let it cool for at least 2 hours. 
3. Once both mixtures are ready, use a dropper to suck some of the fruit juice mixes and slowly drip it into the calcium lactate solution to make mango-popping pearls. Repeat this step until you've used up all the fruit juice mix.
4. Rinse the popping pearls with water before using them.

How to make mango bubble tea without milk

Here's how to make a mango bubble tea without milk. The recipe below will serve 1 person of 250ml.

Ingredients

• ½ cup green tea bag. (rew 1 cup using 1 tea bag, then only use ½ cup)
• ½ cup mango to blend and puree
• 3 tablespoon simple syrup (optional)
• 2-3 tablespoon cooked boba
• Ice to serve

Steps

1. Brew green tea for 5 minutes, then let it cool. We will brew 1 cup of green tea but only use half.

2. Next, blend the cubed fruit with simple syrup until there are no more clumps. You can reduce or omit the simple syrup if you find your mangoes sweet enough. Pour the fruit puree through a fine mesh sieve to remove any remaining fibrous clumps.

3. Cook the instant tapioca pearls and let them cool in an ice bath. 

4. Add tapioca pearls, ice, fruit puree, and the base to assemble.

If you prefer a lighter tea with a thin texture, use mango syrup instead and completely omit the step of pureeing and adding fresh fruit. This will result in a lighter bubble tea, but the mango flavour will also weaken.

Variations

There are lots of variations to mango bubble tea. Mango slush and smoothies are some of our favourites. You'll need frozen fruit, milk, and boba balls for a mango boba smoothie. Blend the frozen fruit and milk until smooth, and pour over your ball toppings. Bubble tea smoothies typically don't contain tea, but you can add some if you like.

Like this boba recipe? Make sure to check out our collection of bubble tea recipes that you can try at home. Also, remember to subscribe to our YouTube Channel for video recipes.