Mango Boba Recipe with Pearls or Popping Boba

If you’ve tried mango boba, chances are you’re enamoured with it. It’s hard not to be! In this article, we are going to teach you how to make this fruity bubble tea, as well as mango boba balls and mango popping pearls. 

We'll also share some variations of this bubble tea, and helpful tips for making it at home. From testing recipes and lots of personal experience drinking this delicious tapioca pearl drink, we’ve got all the information you could need.

Jump to:

• What is mango boba made of?
• Popularity
• Where can you find it?
• Taste
• Mango boba balls
• Mango boba pearls
• Alternatives to bubble tea
• Calories
• Ingredients
• Substitutes
• How to make mango boba
• Cooking Tips
• Variations
• How to Store
• Mango Boba Recipe (Mango Boba Balls or Popping Pearls)
• What to Serve it With

What is mango boba made of?

Mango boba is made of mangoes, tapioca starch, syrup, and tea. It's a deliciously refreshing drink that has mango flavoured tapioca pearls.

If you order this in stores, you may be served the traditional drink. That version is a mango fruit drink with black tapioca pearls. Our recipe features mango boba balls.

Boba balls are just tapioca pearls. They are commonly used in bubble tea but are found in desserts, too. 

Popularity

Mango boba is so popular because it is a tasty, fruity twist on bubble tea. 

The bubble tea drink has increased in popularity since it was invented in Taiwan in the 1980s. Now it can be found all over the world, and both professional and lay baristas have continued making their own unique versions. Mango is just another fun take.

History

Bubble tea is a Taiwanese drink. It was born in Taiwan in the late 80s, but its origin is up for debate.

Hanlin Tea Room in Taiwan claims to have come up with the idea. Chun Shui Tang, another tea house in Taiwan, claims to have created it, too. 

The two restaurants filed lawsuits against each other for the title, but neither was able to trademark bubble tea. Instead, the origin remained debated. Other tea houses around Taiwan were able to make their own versions within 10 years of it becoming popular.

Over the years, many cooks have experimented with different flavours and toppings. Through natural evolution, today, you can find all sorts of fruity bubble tea drinks!

Where can you find it?

You can most probably find it at your nearest bubble tea shop! Today, bubble tea is easy to find all over the world. As mentioned, it’s gained popularity in recent years, and many tea shops make it now. If your local shop doesn’t make it, you should be able to order it from a chain.

It might be more difficult to find a cup that uses mango tapioca pearls though. You may have to search a little harder. If your local shop makes bubble tea, perhaps they will consider making mango bubble tea with mango tapioca pearls.

If you can’t buy it, thanks to this post, you can just make mango bubble tea at home!

Taste

Mango boba, the tapioca balls, is sweet and chewy. The drink, which includes the tapioca ball toppings, has an earthy flavour from the tea, but sweetness from the mango.

Mango boba balls

Boba balls are little pearls made from tapioca starch. Traditionally, they are made with cassava roots. They also contain brown sugar, giving them a dark colour.

Mango tapioca pearls balls are made with fruit. This gives them a sweet flavour, as well as a bright yellow colour.

You’ll like these fruit flavoured boba balls because they are a sweet take on traditional cassava pearls. If you’ve never tried regular tapioca pearls, but like mango, you’ll love these because of their chewy texture!

Boba balls are easy to make. Here’s how you can do it at home:

• Mix puréed fruit with water and boil.
• Once it comes to a boil, add potato starch and tapioca.
• Mix until combined.
• Form into little balls.

And there you have it! Mango tapioca pearls are so easy to make.

Irah Danielle on Youtube has a great instructional video on how to make these pearls from scratch using ripe fruit. We recommend you check it out!

How to make mango boba!

Mango boba pearls

You can also make boba pearls, which are similar to boba balls, but they have a different texture. They’re sometimes called bursting boba. 

You’ll like this difference in texture and find that the popping boba is also easy to make at home:

• In distilled water, dissolve calcium lactate.
• Let the mixture sit for at least four hours, then strain.
• Combine water with sodium alginate and stir until you have a thick and smooth texture.
• Add mango juice and stir until smooth.
• Refrigerate the juice for two hours. 
• Use a dropper to drop the juice into the calcium lactate solution. Be sure to go drop by drop so they turn into pearls.
• Let the solution sit for 10 minutes.
• Once pearls have formed, rinse them in water and serve with your favourite drink or dessert.

These are a fun alternative to the tapioca balls and are so easy to make.

What other fruits can you use to make boba?

You can adapt this recipe and use any fruit you want. Instead of mango, just substitute your fruit of choice. Here are some you might really like:

• Pineapple
• Strawberry
• Dragon fruit

Remember, there are tons of possibilities for this recipe. Make whatever sounds best to you. If you can make a simple syrup from it, you can probably make tapioca pearls.

Alternatives to bubble tea

If you don’t want to put your mango tapioca pearls in bubble tea, here are some other ways to use it:

• Tapioca pudding - Fruit based tapioca pearls would be perfect for tapioca pudding. They’ll give it a fresh fruity flavour.
• Sorbet - You could pour your tapioca pearls over sorbet for a delicious dessert.
• Ice cream - Tapioca pearls are also very tasty on ice cream. This is a creamier option than sorbet, and almost mimics the milkiness of bubble tea. It just has a different texture and temperature.
• Other tea - If you do not like milk tea, you can still put tapioca pearls in ice tea. Just leave out the milk.
• Alone - You could even eat these tapioca pearls on their own. They are that good.

However you decide to enjoy mango tapioca pearls, you will not regret making them.

Calories

There are about 250 calories in this mango tea drink.

Ingredients

The main ingredients you’ll need to make mango boba tea are mango, sugar, black tea, milk and tapioca pearls. Here's we'll go through the details below:

Mango 

You’ll of course need mango for this drink, and you can use fresh or frozen. It may be difficult to find this fresh fruit where you live, but frozen is available in most grocery stores. If using fresh, make sure it’s ripe to get the best flavour. If using frozen, make sure it’s thawed before using it. You can also substitute fruit juice.

Sugar 

You’ll be using sugar to make a simple syrup, so use white granulated sugar.

Black tea 

Bubble tea is traditionally made with black tea, and you can get that at most grocery stores. Feel free to substitute for your favourite tea, though. You can use green, Earl grey, or even English breakfast tea.

Milk 

Use any milk you’d like, or don’t use milk at all! It is totally optional.

Tapioca pearls 

For our recipe, we suggest you use your homemade mango boba, but you can use traditional tapioca pearls if you’d like. You may have to order them online, but you could also make them yourself. You would use the same recipe as above, but instead of mango, use cassava root and brown sugar.

Substitutes

Let’s cover what ingredients you can substitute for if you need them:

• Tapioca starch - If you don’t have tapioca starch, no worries. You can use plenty of substitutions. You can use cornstarch, but cut the amount called for in half. If you are using 1 tablespoon of tapioca starch, use ½ tablespoon of cornstarch. You can also use cassava flour, potato starch, or all-purpose flour in place of tapioca starch. Use 1:1 ratios for those. 
• Mangoes - You can use mango powder instead of fresh or frozen mangoes. The ratio may change from brand to brand, so make sure you read the instructions thoroughly.
• Syrup - You can always use a store-bought fruit syrup instead of making your own.

How to make mango boba

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

1. Make your simple syrup by boiling sugar, water, and chopped mango. Simmer it then strain the mango. Put your syrup in the fridge to cool while you make the rest.
2. Make your tapioca balls (or another topping of choice) and let it cool before using it.
3. Brew your tea and let it cool before using it.
4. Pour your toppings, ice, mango syrup, tea, and milk into a glass. Serve cool.

Cooking Tips

 You’ll find that this recipe is quite simple, but here are some ways to make it easier and better:

• Chop your fruit into small cubes and get as much out of the peel as possible. This will give you the strongest mango 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.
• Use higher amounts of leaves to have a stronger tea flavour.

Variations

There are lots of variations to mango bubble tea. Here are some of our favourites:

Mango green tea boba

To make mango green tea boba, you’ll need all the same ingredients as mango boba, but you’ll be using green tea. Just brew green tea and add it to the syrup, milk, and ice.

Mango slush boba

For mango slush boba, blend the fruit, milk, ice, and sugar until smooth. Pour it on top of your pearl toppings. You’ll have a delicious boba slush.

Mango boba smoothie

For a mango boba smoothie, you’ll just need frozen mango, milk, and boba balls. Blend the frozen fruit and milk until smooth and pour over your ball toppings. There typically isn’t tea in bubble tea smoothies, but you can add some if you would like.

How to Store

If you want to store mango boba, do so in parts. Keep your syrup, boba balls, and tea all separate, and combine when you want to drink it.

What to Serve it With

We love this tapioca pearl drink with a variety of sweet treats. Here are some of our favourites:

Pineapple shortcake 

Pineapple shortcake is a traditional Taiwanese dessert that is like a traditional shortcake, but better. It’s made with tasty pineapple and is the perfect sweet to accompany bubble tea. We can’t get enough of it, and you won’t be able to, either. You may not be able to find it everywhere, but Taiwanese bakeries may have some.

Wheel cake 

Wheel cake is another amazing traditional Taiwanese dessert that is similar to a pancake. Inside it is a creamy custard that you’re sure to love. This is the best dessert to have with boba tea because you can take it on the go along with your tea. These are available at Taiwanese night markets, but in other countries, you should be able to find them at Taiwanese bakeries.

Scones 

Unfortunately, there are not Taiwanese bakeries in all parts of the world, but there are scones in most places, or at least most bakeries. These are a great alternative if you can’t find a traditional Taiwanese dessert to go along with your tapioca pearl drink.

Croissants 

Croissants are another perfect dessert to have with tapioca pearl tea, and they might be easier to find than scones. These will be easy to eat, like wheel cakes, as they are perfect to hold in your hand.

Like this boba recipe? Make sure to check out our collection of bubble tea recipes that you can try at home! Also, don’t forget to check out and follow our Instagram @honestfoodtalks for video recipes!