STRAWBERRY JASMINE TEA FRESCA
This is an ideal early summer drink. It’s floral and light and market-fresh. If the Strawberry Matcha Latte is like a hoppy IPA, this is like a refreshing Kölsch. When the berries start to show up at the farmer’s market in the late spring, we recommend getting a flat. You’ll be drinking a lot of these as the days grow long, from Memorial Day through the dog days of August.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: FRESCA KONJAC JELLY, MANGO PUDDING
⅓ cup Strawberry Puree (make as on this page, but puree until fully smooth)
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
5 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
⅓ cup Iced Jasmine Tea (recipe follows)
⅓ cup cold filtered water
Pour the strawberry puree into a glass. Add the toppings, if using, and the ice. Gently pour in the tea, aiming for the ice to layer the tea above the puree. Then gently pour in the water, aiming for the ice to create another layer.
iced jasmine tea
MAKES 1 CUP
2 tablespoons jasmine tea leaves
5 ounces (½ cup + 2 tablespoons) filtered water, heated to 170°F
4 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
Steep the tea leaves in the hot water for 4 minutes.
Fill a glass with the ice cubes and strain the tea over the ice. Allow the ice to fully melt.
RASPBERRY PINEAPPLE TEA FRESCA
Tropical but hefty, floral and refreshing, this tea fresca is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: FRESCA KONJAC JELLY
⅓ cup Raspberry Pineapple Puree (recipe follows)
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
5 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
⅓ cup Iced Jasmine Tea (this page)
⅓ cup cold filtered water
Pour the puree into a glass. Add the toppings, if using, and the ice. Gently pour in the tea, aiming for the ice to layer the tea above the puree. Then gently add the water, aiming for the ice to create another layer.
raspberry pineapple puree
MAKES 3 CUPS
1½ cups filtered water
1 cup raw cane sugar, preferably turbinado
1 cup fresh raspberries
1 cup diced pineapple (preferably fresh, but frozen—and thawed—will do)
In a blender, combine the water, sugar, raspberries, and pineapple. Blend until fully pureed and smooth.
Store the puree in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week.
MANGO MATCHA FRESCA
We feel that with the long association of Japanese and Hawai’ian cultures, we couldn’t have been the first to mix mango and matcha. This drink is sweet and tangy, and since we are using fresh mango, it has that creamy texture, too. The matcha brings an astringency and a grassy quality that plays the perfect foil to the out-and-out mango attack. This drink is guaranteed to brighten your day, even if you live in the sunny climes of Southern California.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: FRESCA KONJAC JELLY
½ cup Mango Puree (this page)
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
5 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
7 ounces Matcha Cold Brew (this page)
Pour the puree into a glass, and add the toppings, if using, and then the ice. Gently pour in the matcha cold brew, aiming for the ice cubes to help layer the matcha cold brew at the top of the drink.
STRAWBERRY CALI-PICO
Calpico is a Japanese drink that we say is like a yogurt soda, but that doesn’t come close to capturing how delicious it is. The sourness and fattiness of the yogurt make it next-level as a soda. It’s sweet and tart. It should be as iconic as Coke, and it is in lots of Asian communities. We used to sneak it into our parents’ grocery baskets at the local 99 Ranch Market. Couldn’t get enough. That was 25 years ago, and none of our non-Asian friends drank it. Of course, now that fermented things and gut health are catching on in the West, we’re seeing Calpico more and more.
We use kefir, basically a drinkable yogurt, to make our version of Calpico, and we mix it with jasmine tea, fresh berries, and sparking water. You may have to go to an Asian supermarket to find Calpico, but you can make this version from ingredients you can find at any conventional grocery store in the U.S., no matter where you are.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BOBA
⅓ cup Strawberry Puree (this page)
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
5 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
⅓ cup Iced Jasmine Tea (this page)
⅓ cup sparkling water
⅓ cup kefir or drinkable yogurt
Pour the strawberry puree into a glass. Add the toppings, if using, and the ice. Gently pour in the jasmine tea, aiming for the ice cubes to help layer the tea above the puree. Repeat the layering process with the sparkling water. Then layer in the kefir, aiming for the ice cubes to create an even layer.
CHAMANGO OR WATERMELON CHAMOY
This drink is all about the irresistible Mexican combination of spices, chile, and seasonings with fresh fruit. It’s salty, it’s spicy, it’s got acidity from the lime, herbaciousness from the shiso, and the bright freshness and sweetness of mango or watermelon (take your pick).
Tajín is the chile-lime powder that’s omnipresent in the corner stores of pretty much any neighborhood where there is a Mexican community. It’s a brand, actually, but also a catchall term for the spicy-tart mixtures commonly sprinkled on top of fresh-cut fruit sold on the street, and it adds an unmistakable flavor to a michelada—the tomato/spice/beer shandy from Mexico.
Chamoy is another Mexican ingredient. It comes in lots of forms, from a paste to a candy to a sauce, and is basically a salted, pickled, sour fruit thing, often made from plums. It’s used commonly in chamoyada, which is a Mexican shaved-ice dessert. So, you know we’re all about bridging cultures, and we right away saw a bridge from chamoy and chamoyada to Japanese fermented ume plums (see this page) and Asian shaved ices. You can also find chamoy drinks in grocery stores all over California.
It turns out, though, that food historians think that chamoy actually came to Mexico with Chinese immigrants, and is from the same family tree as pickled ume! So it’s a full-circle bridging cultures thing. And this drink is our homage to all that deliciousness: a Tajín and chamoy-spiked limeade, blended with shiso and mango or watermelon. It’s sweet, sour, spicy, and it feels like our home in the Mission District of San Francisco.
MAKES 2 GLASSES
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: SAGO, FRESCA KONJAC JELLY
1 pound mango or watermelon flesh, coarsely chopped
7 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
½ cup Limeade (recipe follows)
1 tablespoon Tajín seasoning (chile-lime powder)
½ cup apricot chamoy sauce (available at Latin groceries)
2 to 4 tablespoons (per glass) toppings of your choice (optional)
In a blender, combine the mango or watermelon, ice cubes, limeade, and ½ tablespoon of the Tajín seasoning. Blend until the ice is crushed and everything is mixed.
Coat the inside of 2 glasses with some of the chamoy sauce. Carefully layer each glass with half of the blended drink, the toppings, if using, and the remaining chamoy sauce on top. Garnish the top of each drink with the remaining Tajín powder.
limeade
MAKES 5 CUPS
1 cup fresh lime juice (from 6 to 8 limes)
2 or 3 fresh shiso leaves (or 6 to 8 mint leaves), shredded (optional)
1 cup white sugar
4 cups filtered water, room temperature or slightly warm
In a pitcher, stir together the lime juice and the shiso or mint leaves.
In a small mixing bowl, combine the sugar with the water, stirring until all the sugar is dissolved. (If the sugar doesn’t all dissolve, you can heat the mixture in a large saucepan over low heat and whisk until it’s fully dissolved. Allow it to cool to room temperature.)
Add the sugar water to the pitcher and stir. Set the limeade aside or store it in the fridge for up to a week.
LI HING MUI PINEAPPLE MANGO COCONUT DRINK
Li hing mui, another salted, dried plum product, is a popular seasoning used in Hawai’i and across Asia. It’s a little sweet and salty and sour. It’s good with tropical fruits especially, like pineapple and guava—the saltiness balances their sugars and the added tanginess makes the flavors pop, like fruit in HD. It’s perfect. You can find li hing mui at most Asian markets, and at local “crack seed” stores in Hawai’i.
Li hing mui is super potent and salty. You don’t want to use more than, say, the salt you would use to rim a margarita glass. In this drink, we use it to flavor mango and pineapple, and the coconut gives it all a delicious richness. We’ve been seeing it show up in fancy cocktails in the U.S. beyond Hawai’i, which we love. We’d love to see it in more places, like in spice rubs for meat.
Pro tip: You can also make this puree without the sugar and use it as a drizzle on ice cream. That’s really good.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: SAGO, BOBA, FRESCA KONJAC JELLY
1 tablespoon li hing mui powder (dried salted plum powder), or as needed
¼ cup Li Hing Mui Pineapple Mango Puree (recipe follows)
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
5 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
1 cup coconut beverage (you can find this at stores like Trader Joe’s; it’s essentially coconut milk thinned down to a drinkable consistency)
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mango
Put the li hing mui powder in a small dish. Wet the rim of a glass and dip it into the li hing mui, as though you’re salting the rim of a margarita glass. (Reserve the excess for another use.) Coat the inside of the glass with some of the pineapple mango puree (see this page). Fill the bottom of the glass with the remaining puree. Add the toppings, if using, and the ice. Slowly pour the coconut beverage over the ice, aiming for the ice cubes to create a layering effect. Garnish the top of the drink with the chopped mangoes.
li hing mui pineapple mango puree
MAKES ABOUT 2½ CUPS
1 cup diced fresh mango
1 cup diced pineapple (preferably fresh, but frozen—and thawed— will do)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup filtered water
½ tablespoon li hing mui powder
In a blender, combine the mango, pineapple, sugar, water, and li hing mui powder. Blend until everything is smooth.
This will keep in the fridge for up to 1 week.
PINK DRINK
On Wednesdays, we drink pink.
This drink was made for Instagram. It’s that “millennial pink” look…and it slays. It drips…literally. Okay, we have no idea what we just said, but pink drinks have been all the rage over the last few years, so we had to slip one in here like a Post Malone feature.
We took inspiration from our friends at Alfred Tea, a local Southern California chain. They get a deep pink color from beets. We opted for a berry base as we prefer a fruitier drink profile for this. We figure if you’re going to ‘Gram this drink for fifteen minutes, you need something refreshing after you’re done! (In the old days, we used to serve this with a shot of matcha on top. It’s delicious!)
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BOBA
¼ cup Strawberry Raspberry Puree (recipe follows)
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
5 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
¾ cup almond milk Horchata (see this page), made with high-quality, extra-rich almond milk like Califia Farms or Elmhurst Milked Almonds instead of dairy milk
Pour the puree into a glass, and add the toppings, if using, and the ice. Pour in the horchata, aiming for the ice cubes to create a layering effect. Mix before drinking.
strawberry raspberry puree
MAKES 2 CUPS
5 fresh medium strawberries, hulled
½ cup fresh raspberries
½ cup white sugar
1 cup filtered water
Combine the strawberries, raspberries, sugar, and water in a blender, and blend until smooth.
The puree will keep, refrigerated, for up to 1 week.
UBE HALAYA SMOOTHIE
There’s a famous Filipino dessert called halaya. It’s super delicious, almost like a pudding, and it’s made with mashed purple yams. We have a lot of Filipino staff members at Boba Guys and we worked really hard to make a drink that honors the tradition of halaya. We think this does it—it’s creamy and rich, coconutty and vanilla-y, and has the sweet, nutty taste of ube.
Ube, the purple yam in halaya, and taro, the sweet-potato-like root in lots of Chinese dishes and desserts, are common flavors in boba shops. But they’re almost always represented by powders and dyes. We make our drinks with the real ingredients, and ube might amaze you with its bright, brilliant purple color, no dyes needed. Nature is enough!
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BOBA, GRASS JELLY, EGG PUDDING
¼ cup Ube Jam (recipe follows)
¾ cup coconut beverage (you can find this at stores like Trader Joe’s; it’s essentially coconut milk thinned down to a drinkable consistency)
5 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
Combine the ube jam, coconut beverage, and ice in a blender, and blend on medium speed until there are no visible clumps.
Spoon the toppings, if using, into a glass, pour in the ube shake, and serve.
Alternatively, you can serve the drink “on the rocks”: Put the ube jam, toppings if using, and ice in a glass. Gently pour the coconut beverage over the ice, aiming for the ice cubes to help it layer evenly. Stir with a spoon before drinking.
ube jam
MAKES ABOUT 1½ CUPS
⅓ pound ube (purple yam)
⅓ cup filtered water
⅔ cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Using a fork, puncture the length of the ube(s) on two sides. Microwave the ube for 8 to 10 minutes, until soft, and then allow it to cool until you can handle it. Remove the skin and put the flesh into a small saucepan. Add the water and turn the heat to high. Using a wooden spoon, mash the ube in the water until a thick mashed-potato-like paste forms. Stir in the sugar and vanilla extract, and mix until everything is well incorporated and there are no visible clumps. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the jam to cool. (For maximum smoothness, you can blend the jam in a blender.)
The jam will keep in the fridge for up to 1 week.
HAW FLAKES TEA
It’s hard for us to think of childhood without thinking of Haw Flakes: the sweet, tangy, pink-colored fruit candy disks. When we were kids, they came in tiny packs with dyed red wrapping and a label design that never exited the 1940s. A pack of Haw Flakes wasn’t much bigger than a stack of quarters, so you could easily stash one in your pocket or lunch bag. Most days if you did a pat-down on us, you’d find Haw Flakes somewhere. And they were a constant source of frustration—you could never eat that top disk in a Haw Flakes pack because the paper always stuck to it.
When you’re a kid in a Taiwanese/Chinese family, you’re used to being served bitter herb soups that some auntie says are supposed to be good for your health. That’s what the kam chou part of this drink nods to. It’s a root that’s similar in taste to licorice. It wouldn’t be the only element of these soups—kam chou has a mellow, sweet flavor that’s not bitter at all—but it was an unmistakable part. One of the best covert uses of Haw Flakes when you’re a kid is to chase your sips of bitter herbal soup with your private stash of Haw Flakes. And turns out that kam chou and Haw Flakes are a banging flavor combination. So this drink is a tribute to that childhood ritual.
MAKES 8 GLASSES
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BOBA
½ cup Haw Flakes
½ cup plum juice or filtered water
12 cups (3 quarts) filtered water
¾ cup kam chou (look for this in Asian markets with a Chinese focus)
1½ cups white sugar
Ice, for serving
2 to 4 tablespoons (per glass) toppings of your choice (optional)
In a small mixing bowl, soak the Haw Flakes in the plum juice for 20 minutes.
In a medium-size pot, bring the filtered water to a boil over high heat. Add the soaked Haw Flakes with their soaking liquid, and add the kam chou. Cook, covered, at a rolling boil, for 1 hour, adding some more water if necessary to keep it from getting too reduced.
Strain out and discard the Haw Flakes and kam chou. Add the sugar to the strained liquid and boil, uncovered, for another 10 minutes, or until it has reduced to about 8 cups (2 quarts). (Or, if necessary, add water to reach this level.) Remove the pot from the heat and allow the tea to cool. Serve the drink over ice, with toppings, if desired.
Store the tea in a pitcher in the fridge for up to 5 days.
BUTTERFLY PEA AKA BANTHA MILK
Chances are, since you are reading this in the English language, you probably have never heard of butterfly pea and bantha milk.
OK, so we kind of made up “bantha milk,” at least here on Earth, so you definitely haven’t heard of it. But butterfly pea tea is real.
Ever since we were introduced to the butterfly pea flower, we knew we wanted to work with it, because it makes drinks with a gorgeous blue color. (Very few edible things are naturally blue. Think about it!)
It tastes a little like a cross between chamomile and green tea. Or almost like a Thai tea base, somewhat earthy and floral at the same time.
In traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicines, butterfly pea is known variously for being an anti-anxiety aid, a memory enhancer, an aphrodisiac…it’s even purported to prevent hair loss! And while it has this long history in Asia, we didn’t start to see a lot of butterfly pea until Instagram. All of a sudden our feeds were crowded with these bright blue lemonades.
Of course, as nerds, we love Star Wars. So we were re-re-watching The Last Jedi one night together, and we saw Luke drinking “bantha milk,” which also has that same blue color. (Bantha, for those who are not nerds, is a fictional Star Wars animal that kind of looks like an elephant.) And we knew we had to make this fictional drink real. We mix the butterfly pea tea with a base of black tea and enrich it with sweetened condensed milk.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BOBA
1 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
5 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
1 cup Butterfly Pea Tea (recipe follows)
2½ ounces (¼ cup + 1 tablespoon) half-and-half
Coat the inside of a glass with the condensed milk (see this page). Add the toppings, if using, and the ice. Pour the tea over the ice. Then pour the half-and-half in slowly, aiming for the ice to create a clean layer. Stir to mix before drinking.
butterfly pea tea
MAKES ABOUT 8 CUPS
6 tablespoons Ceylon black tea leaves
6 tablespoons dried butterfly pea flowers (available online)
1 cup white sugar
6 cups filtered water, heated to 190°F
20 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
In a small mixing bowl, stir together the Ceylon tea leaves, butterfly pea flowers, and sugar. Steep the tea mixture in the hot water for 20 minutes.
Fill a pitcher with the ice and strain the tea over the ice. Set the pitcher aside to allow the ice to fully melt. Store it in the fridge for up to a week.
ICED PUMPKIN TURMERIC LATTE
OK, yes, the pumpkin spice latte is a cliché. So why are we doing one? Well, first of all, this isn’t a pumpkin-spice latte, which is really about the spice mix called “pumpkin spice.” Our version has real pumpkin in it for a natural, complex flavor, and a bunch of spices. But since we are doing “drinks of the world” here, we have to be real. Love it or hate it, PSL is one of the most iconic drinks of the world! So we just tried to spiff it up, Boba Guys–style. For this, we make a sweet-spiced pumpkin “jam,” boosted with the earthiness of turmeric, and turn that into a drink with coconut milk.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BOBA
¼ cup Spiced Pumpkin Turmeric Jam (recipe follows)
¾ cup coconut beverage (you can find this at stores like Trader Joe’s; it’s essentially coconut milk thinned down to a drinkable consistency)
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
8 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
In a blender, combine the pumpkin jam and the coconut beverage. Blend on medium speed until there are no visible clumps.
Put the toppings, if using, and the ice in a glass, and pour the pumpkin-coconut mixture over the ice.
spiced pumpkin turmeric jam
MAKES ABOUT 1½ CUPS
1 cup (8 ounces) canned pumpkin (or fresh pumpkin; see note)
1 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
In a large saucepan, combine the pumpkin, sugar, vanilla extract, turmeric, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, stirring until everything is well incorporated. Let it simmer over medium heat for a couple of minutes to infuse the flavors. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool.
The jam will keep in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Note:
If you’re using fresh pumpkin, dice 8 ounces of pumpkin into ½-inch pieces. Place the diced pumpkin in a microwave-safe dish and cover it with plastic wrap. Microwave the pumpkin for 3 to 5 minutes, until it is soft/tender. Puree the pumpkin in a blender, adding water as necessary to keep it moving, and proceed as instructed.
COFFEE TEA MINT MOJITO
This is our homage to Philz Coffee, the venerable S.F. coffee chain, and their iconic beverage, the Mint Mojito, a creamy coffee with mint. We love Philz drinks, and love what they’ve done in coffee, a little similar to what we want to do in tea and boba. In the tradition vs. remix debate, Philz is on the side that values remixing. Even today, a coffee mint mojito sounds like it’s from the future. So this is our version, in which we trade most of the coffee for tea, adding a subtle hit of fresh mint.
If you want to riff on this and add a warm spice note, almost like an eggnog spin, try simmering the syrup for a few minutes with a whole nutmeg and a couple of cardamom pods.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: FRESCA KONJAC JELLY, GRASS JELLY
Leaves from 1 sprig fresh mint
¼ cup House Syrup (this page)
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
5 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
6 ounces (¾ cup) Brewed Boba Guys’ Black Tea (this page)
2 ounces (¼ cup) Cold Brew Coffee (this page)
2½ ounces (¼ cup + 1 tablespoon) half-and-half or oat milk
In a large glass, use a muddler or a spoon to smash the mint leaves. Add the syrup, the toppings, if using, and the ice. Pour in the black tea, cold brew, and half-and-half. Mix before drinking.
CARAMEL ICED MILK
Our master recipe for Pandan Caramel Sauce (this page) as a topping makes a large quantity. This is one of the easiest, most delicious ways to deal with your extra caramel sauce—just mix it with cold milk and drink away!
We first fell in love with this drink at Half and Half Tea House, which has a bunch of locations in the L.A. area. In fact, we’re in love with a lot of their sweet drinks. It seems simple, but their focus on flavoring sweetened milks inspires us—their honey milk drink is classic. And then we started seeing other iterations of this idea, like a “black sugar boba” drink in Taipei: no tea, just boba, syrup, and milk. So this is our version of that.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BOBA, MATCHA PUDDING, EGG PUDDING
¼ cup Pandan Caramel Sauce (this page)
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
5 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
1 cup whole milk
Coat the inside of a glass with the caramel (see this page). Add the toppings if using, the ice, and the milk. Stir before drinking.
COCONUT CHAI TEA
Be warned: Your house is going to smell very good when you’re making this—spicy like clove, cardamom, and allspice, nutty and warm. There’s nothing quite like these deeply aromatic flavors of India.
Like so many of the tea drinks from around the world that we take inspiration from, chai is typically served with milk. So we figured why not try a bulletproof riff, using coconut as the substitute? The coconut cream and coconut oil give the drink a lot of flavor and richness, and it froths and foams beautifully.
This recipe is also a chance for you to break out that mortar and pestle you got from your aunt three birthdays ago. But don’t worry about being too precise with the pulverizing—you’re going to be straining everything out before you drink. (You can also use a spice grinder or a food processor if auntie didn’t provide.) This is a classic conversation tea. Have friends over for a cup and they’ll ask you a lot of questions about how you did it.
MAKES 1 SERVING (HOT OR ICED)
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BOBA, EGG PUDDING
1½ cups brewed Chai Tea Blend (this page), hot
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 tablespoon unsweetened coconut cream
Sweetener, as desired
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
5 ounces (by weight) ice cubes (optional)
In a glass, combine the hot tea, coconut oil, and coconut cream. Sweeten, to taste. Stir thoroughly with a spoon so the oil is incorporated into the hot mixture.
Serve this hot or iced, with toppings as desired. If serving it iced, allow the tea to cool to room temperature before pouring it over the ice.
“DIRTY” HORCHATA
Boba Guys came up in the Mission District of San Francisco. We had our first pop-ups in the Mission and it’s still our favorite store of all. The Mission District is a historically Hispanic neighborhood that has gentrified, but there is still a really strong presence of the old Mission—great taquerias and street food along with the newer businesses and restaurants. We met as employees at Timbuk2, the awesome S.F. bag company that’s based there. And as many times as we left the office for boba breaks together, we also were crushing super burritos with spicy salsa verde and washing it all down with cinnamony, nutty, rice-milky horchata.
But, of course, right alongside those taquerias now are new-school coffee shops. So this drink is our love letter to the Mission: the one that used to be and the one that’s there today. It’s a classic well-made horchata. And it’s dirtied up with a hit of new-school coffee.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BOBA, GRASS JELLY, BLACK STICKY RICE, COCONUT ALMOND JELLY
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
5 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
¾ cup Horchata (this page)
¼ cup Cold Brew Coffee (recipe follows)
Put the toppings, if using, in a glass and add the ice. Pour in the horchata, and then gently pour the cold brew over the ice, aiming for the ice cubes to layer the cold brew on the top of the drink.
cold brew coffee
We’re not just a boba shop—we’re a café, too. And to be a good café, you have to have a good cold brew. For the uninitiated, cold brew is like hot-brewed coffee with the acidity zapped out of it. It’s a totally different representation of the bean. And it’s super easy to make. You just need beans, water, refrigeration, and time. We use cold brew in a bunch of recipes, but you can also just drink this on its own. And if you love the flavor of it, you can even heat up your cold brew and enjoy it hot!
MAKES 8 CUPS
8 ounces coffee beans of your choice
5 cups filtered water, room temperature or cold
4 cups cold filtered water
Grind the coffee beans on the French press setting—i.e., a coarse grind. Put the grounds and the 5 cups water into a large container or bowl, and stir. Let steep at room temperature for 12 to 18 hours.
Pour the steeped coffee into a pitcher, straining out the grounds. The liquid is your concentrate. Add the 4 cups cold filtered water to this coffee concentrate, or dilute it to taste.
You can store the cold brew in the refrigerator for up to 7 days. You can also store the concentrate and dilute it to order.
SOUL MATÉ
We love maté, the South American tea that’s traditionally drunk out of a dried-out gourd with a bombilla, a pipelike straw with a metal lip. It’s a cool ritual. Maté is very strong, astringent, and vegetal, leaning toward bitter, earthy, and highly caffeinated. It should be as big around the world as matcha, but it hasn’t quite caught on…yet.
We really wanted to make a milk tea from maté. We think it works on very much the same level as matcha. Maté’s stronger flavor, though, means that we like to use half-and-half instead of milk to help balance the flavor.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BOBA
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
5 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
2 ounces (¼ cup) House Syrup (this page)
8 ounces (1 cup) Brewed Yerba Maté Tea (recipe follows)
2½ ounces (¼ cup + 1 tablespoon) half-and-half (or substitute other milk options like oat milk, almond milk, etc.)
Fill a glass with the toppings, if using, and the ice. Add the syrup and pour the tea over the ice. Add the half-and-half and stir until everything is mixed.
brewed yerba maté tea
MAKES ABOUT 1 CUP
2 tablespoons yerba maté tea leaves
½ cup + 2 tablespoons filtered water, heated to 190°F
4 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
Steep the tea leaves in the hot water for 4 minutes.
In a glass, strain the tea over the ice, and set the glass aside to allow the ice to fully melt.
CRÈME BRÛLÉE MATCHA LATTE
We look at a lot—a lot—of pictures of drinks on Instagram; so honestly, it takes something pretty special to wow us. The first time we saw a post of a crème brûlée matcha latte definitely qualifies. We never saw one in person, though, until we went to a great drinks shop in downtown L.A. called Little Fluffy Head Café. Theirs is fantastic—a milky cold matcha swirled through with rich egg-custard sauce. This is our homage to that drink.
MAKES 1 GLASS
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BOBA, CHÈ BA MÀU JELLY, EGG PUDDING
1½ teaspoons matcha powder
4 tablespoons filtered water, heated to 170°F
¼ cup Crème Brûlée Sauce (recipe follows)
1 tablespoon Vanilla Syrup (this page)
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
8 ounces (by weight) ice cubes
¾ cup whole milk
Place the matcha powder in a bowl and add 1 tablespoon of the hot water. Whisk vigorously to make a paste. It should have the consistency of peanut butter with no clumps. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons hot water and whisk vigorously until any remaining clumps disappear. Set the matcha aside.
Coat the inside of a glass with a good amount of the crème brûlée sauce. Layer the bottom of the glass with the remaining crème brûlée sauce. Add the syrup. Add the toppings, if using, the ice, and the milk. Then gently pour the matcha over the milk, aiming for the ice cubes to keep the layers cleanly separated. Mix before drinking.
crème brûlée sauce
MAKES ABOUT 2 CUPS
3 large egg yolks at room temperature
¼ cup white sugar
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ cups heavy whipping cream
½ cup whole milk
In a medium-size mixing bowl, prepare an ice bath by filling it with cold water and ice
In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract until the mixture thickens to a ribbon consistency; you’ll see the distinct trails the whisk leaves behind for a moment before the mixture comes back together.
In a small saucepan, heat the cream and milk together over medium-high heat until steaming hot but not boiling. Remove the pan from the heat and slowly pour about a third of the hot cream mixture into the egg yolk mixture, whisking as you pour. When well mixed, whisk the contents of the bowl back into the saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 6 minutes or until the contents thicken into something like a custard—thicker than condensed milk but thinner than frosting. Remove the pan from the heat, and using a strainer to catch any overcooked egg bits, pour the contents into a bowl. Place the bowl in the ice bath to cool the sauce.
You can store the cooled sauce in the fridge for up to 3 days.
LONDON FOG
London Fog is a perfect name for what this drink is: a cloudy milk tea seasoned with vanilla. But by making this drink with Earl Grey tea, you get a whole new flavor, too. Bergamot oil gives Earl Grey its flowery citrus notes along with the Assam or Ceylon black tea base. There’s nothing like it.
For the best flavor, use a small paring knife to slit open a vanilla bean and scrape out the tiny seeds. You can use the rest of the bean to steep and flavor other things, or submerge it in sugar to make vanilla sugar.
MAKES 1 LARGE CUP HOT TEA
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BOBA
2 tablespoons Earl Grey tea leaves
7 ounces (¾ cup + 2 tablespoons) filtered water, heated to 190°F
6 ounces (¾ cup) whole milk or almond milk
2 to 4 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
¼ teaspoon seeds from a vanilla bean, or ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon House Syrup (this page), or to taste
Steep the tea leaves in the hot water for 4 minutes.
Meanwhile, using the steam wand of an espresso machine, steam the milk until it begins to foam. (If you don’t have a steamer, you can cook the milk in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring, until the milk starts frothing, about 3 minutes.)
Place the toppings, if using, in a large cup or a mug, strain the hot tea into it, and add the frothed milk. While the tea is still hot, add the vanilla. Add the syrup and stir.
MATCHA COFFEE
We based this drink on the famous “military latte” at Sawada, a Japanese café with locations in Chicago and New York. The military latte is a beautiful drink of espresso, matcha, and milk, so named because the colors come together to almost look like military camo. Hiroshi Sawada, the renowned latte artist, popularized this drink in his cafés, and they are definitely a modern classic.
For a perfect version of this drink, you’ll want to use a coffee that has berry notes and a sweet roasted flavor, to match the matcha’s vegetal-ness and the smooth milk. This has the flavor benefits of both coffee and tea. It’s having your coffee—and drinking your tea, too!
MAKES 1 LARGE CUP HOT LATTE
RECOMMENDED TOPPINGS: BOBA, EGG PUDDING, BLACK STICKY RICE
½ tablespoon matcha powder
4 tablespoons filtered water, heated to 170°F
1 to 2 tablespoons toppings of your choice (optional)
2 ounces freshly pulled espresso
6 ounces whole milk
1 tablespoon Vanilla Syrup (recipe follows)
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
Place the matcha powder in a bowl and add 1 tablespoon of the hot water. Whisk vigorously to make a paste. It should have the consistency of peanut butter with no clumps. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons hot water and whisk vigorously, until any remaining clumps disappear.
Strain the matcha into a large cup or a mug. Add the toppings, if using, and the espresso. Steam or heat the milk to 140˚F, and gently pour the warm milk into the espresso-matcha mixture. Add the syrup and sift the cocoa powder over the latte. Mix together before drinking.
vanilla syrup
MAKES ABOUT 2½ CUPS
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste or extract
1¼ cups filtered water, heated to 190°F
Combine the brown and white sugars and the vanilla in a heatproof bowl. Whisk in the hot water until the sugars have dissolved.
You can store the syrup in the refrigerator for a few weeks.