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Pearls of wisdom: how to make bubble tea at home during the coronavirus lockdown

  • Learn about steeping the tea, choosing the best milk and even making your own tapioca pearls
  • You can experiment with the ingredients and choose whether to have your tea hot or cold

Reading Time:3 minutes
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Now you can make your own bubble tea at home. Photo: Nora Tam
On the night of April 21, hundreds of bubble tea lovers queued outside the many popular outlets for their last drink before Singapore’s strict circuit breaker measures forced all non-essentials to stop services for at least two weeks.
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If you love this refreshing drink, now is a good time to learn how to make it at home.

Originating in Taiwan, this sweet drink goes by many names, including “pearl milk tea” and “boba tea”.

Created by accident in the 1980s, it reached American soil in the ’90s and has been gaining popularity since.

Singaporeans rushed out to get their last bubble tea before government measures closed non essential businesses in the city in April. Photo: EPA-EFE/Wallace Woon
Singaporeans rushed out to get their last bubble tea before government measures closed non essential businesses in the city in April. Photo: EPA-EFE/Wallace Woon
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A combination of tea, milk and tapioca pearls, at its most basic form, there are multiple variations of this sweet drink.
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