How To Make Black Milk Tea (SUGAR FREE!!!)

So , being a MAJOR Otaku (Anime/Manga/Videogame Addict), I must love the Asian tea sensation: Bubble Tea. (Or boba in some weird states) Not having cash, this is the tea part of bubble tea: sweet black milk tea.
This is the sugar free version, but you can substitute with whatever calorie-filled, cavity-inducing death powder you like.

Step 1 Ingredients

Ingredients:

1) 1 Tbsp Loose black tea leaves, or 2 black tea bags if you want a cheap yet tasteless alternative.
2) 2% Milk (Or half & half/ creamer/ skim/ soymilk)
3) Ice cubes
4) 2 Packets of Splenda/Equal/Sweet 'n Low OR 1 packet of Stevia, I prefer stevia and it is obnoxiously sweeter than sugar or its substitutes.

Equipment:
Mesh Tea brewing spoon
1 Mug
1 Glass
A teaspoon

Comments

[Mauigerbil]

I looked at this to see how to make boba. I was quite dissapointed to see that you do not include a recipie. Can you find me one?

[PKM]

I thought this was going to be how to make milk tea that is still black... and was understandably a little confused by that idea. On a side note, I love Stevia, but while trying to get some of my own went into two alleged "health food shops" on Oxford Street, and neither of them had ever heard of it, but suggested I go to a chemist for artificial sweeteners. Given my country's reputation for having a sweet tooth I can't believe Stevia hasn't made it this far (I had to beg a jar from my American friend).

[DeusXMachina]

Various agencies are still trying to determine if Stevia is mutagenic or not. Most of the reports have shown that it's harmless, but a few have shown that it's a weak mutagen. It's really funny. People freak out about Splenda because it's "chlorinated" and won't touch the stuff like it's arsenic, and go for Stevia because it's "natural," even though Splenda has a slightly better safety profile.

[suayres]

Yeah, I'm just so tickled with the American romance with the word "natural"--when I was going to Pharmacy Technician school. My Pharmacology prof went into a diatribe on "natural": he pointed out that, among other substances, arsenic, strychnine, and mercury are, every one of them, perfectly natural. And will, quite naturally, kill you dead, dead, dead!

[DeusXMachina]

Don't forget ricin! :P

[suayres]

I think you could reconstitute pearl tapioca fairly easily if you used a slow-cooker. From my limited experience with bubble tea, I don't think it contributes flavor, it's basically a texture thing. SOOOO, what I would do is place the soaked pearls in the cooker with a fair amount of water--much more than the recipe calls for--and put the cooker on low. Cook for am couple hours, stirring occasionally, until the pearls have assumed the parameters of tea bubbles. Now, this is just an hypothesis, I have not actually tried it. I'm just running it up the flagpole to see if anyone salutes it....

[nerdfighter73]

Your suggestion for cooking the bubbles sounds good. I usually put the tapioca in a pan with a little more water than the package calls for, boil it for about 5 minutes and then let it simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. I have made it by just letting it simmer for a few hours, but I am usually not patient enough to wait that long.

[Brozem]

Good instructable! I like to fill mine up with cavity-inducing (but at least not full of chemicals :)) death liquid, called honey What I wonder though, is why you say tea bags make a tasteless cup of hot water, when the tea you´re making has tons of milk (compared to the amount of tea) anyway. Anyway, thanks for the instructable!

[finfan7]

[pyro13]

hmmmmm could you do this with hot cocoa? =D

[KenGriffin]

I guess, then it would just be hot cocoa with milk. This is sweet and creamy black tea...delicious stuff, but as trebuchet03 said, there is NOTHING like some good bubble tea. It truly is a viable reason to go to chinatown. -Ken

[trebuchet03]

No jelly? Or Pearls?

Tapioca peals are fairly easy to add - they can just be a bit time consuming if you're trying to make a quick cup....
Here's how

I was a little disappointed because the first picture had pearls - but no instructions followed... I'm curious of how other people make them (methods not involving stirring a pot for the duration exactly two episodes of Battlestar Galactica)