How To Make Earl Grey Milk Tea 🫖

Tea is one of the favorite breakfast and afternoon drinks in many countries. With multiple varieties of tea available, every person has a favorite recipe. 

Among those varieties is Earl Grey Milk Tea, which is becoming a people’s favorite. You can enjoy this super flexible tea with the same recipe, hot or cold. It perfectly combines classic Taiwanese bubble tea and Earl Grey tea. What you get is a creamy, delicious, and sweet drink that you can serve hot or cold.

Furthermore, you can add boba pearls to this tea to make an Earl Grey bubble tea for boba lovers. This article covers the Earl Grey Milk Tea recipe with the simplest steps possible to get the best taste.

Ingredients for Earl Grey Milk Tea

The essential ingredients you need are Earl Grey tea, sugar, and milk. You can also add tapioca pearls to enjoy the chewy and warm pearls with the iced tea. We recommend getting the tea leaves for the best results, but you can also use tea bags for convenience.

Also, we chose to add whole milk due to its fat content, which provides a creamy and soft texture for the tea to enhance its taste. You can use low-fat milk if you don’t like extra cream on your tea, but it won’t improve the taste. Additionally, you can use soy, almond, or oat milk for a unique flavor. 

Soy milk is a better option to improve the fragrance of this tea. For the sugar, you can use brown sugar if you don’t like your tea extra sweet. A simple syrup made from brown sugar is also a great option. To add sweetness to their chewy texture, you can soak the tapioca pearls in this brown sugar syrup.

If sugar is not your forte, honey, agave, or maple syrup are good alternatives, especially for adults who can’t handle sugar.

Earl Grey Milk Tea Powder

If you are not interested in spending time creating this tea, use Earl Grey milk tea powder. It is convenient and makes the tea within minutes without extra hassle. Additionally, the ready-to-drink Earl Grey milk tea is a suitable option for people with no time. Grab the kit, add hot or cold water, and the tea is ready.

How Much Time Does It Take To Make Earl Grey Milk Tea?

On average, creating this tea won’t take more than five minutes. However, if you are preparing it for the first time, it can take up to ten minutes.

Making Earl Grey Milk Tea

Things to Remember

• The tablespoons of tea leaves and the number of tea bags should be the same. For example, if you want to enjoy a strong cup of tea, use two tablespoons of tea leaves.
• Add one and a half cups of whole milk for every two cups of water.
• If you want to make simple syrup, use 100 grams of brown sugar and three cups of water.
• Follow the instructions on the boba pearls to boil them. Alternatively, boil 100 grams of tapioca pearls in three cups of water.
• Steep the tea for at most five minutes. For iced tea, let the tea rest for ten minutes before adding milk and water.
• Use high-quality earl grey teas for the best earl grey flavor.
• Use quick-cook tapioca pearls to reduce your cooking time.

What You Need

• Water
• Loose-leaf tea (Earl grey tea bags)
• Milk 
• Sugar or alternatives
• Boba pearls (optional)

How to Make Hot Earl Grey Milk Tea

1. Fill the pot with water and let it boil. There is no limit to how much you can fill, but it is better to measure using cups. For example, if you want to make three cups of tea, add two and a half cups of water and one and a half cups of milk.
2. Once the water is boiling, turn off the heat and soak the tea bags or leaves in the pot. Let the leaves soak in for up to five minutes until the water is golden brown. The tea bags will take around three minutes to reach that point.
3. In the meantime, you can cover the pot to let the tea steep. Doing this is necessary to make the tea strong and improve its flavor. Also, it is essential because you have turned off the stove. The tea bags or leaves need extra heat to release the flavor.
4. Remove the teabags and squeeze them to get the extra juice out. If you use leaves, filter the tea in another pot and quickly add milk. Don’t wait a lot; pouring the tea into another pot will make it cold quickly. Alternatively, you can pour the tea directly into the cups. 
5. The tea is ready; serve it with some snacks or biscuits.

How to Make Iced Earl Grey Milk Tea

If you don’t like the hot Earl Grey tea, try the iced version for a different flavor. The ingredients for both recipes are the same, and the method is similar too. You only need to make one change: steep half the water and save the remainder to add after mixing milk and sugar.

1. Add half the water into the pot and let it boil. For example, add only one cup of water to the pot to make two cups of iced tea.
2. Turn off the heat and add the tea bags or leaves to the water. Cover the pot with a lid and let the tea steep.
3. Remove the leaves or tea bag from the water, milk, sugar, and remaining water. Stir well.
4. Put the tea in the refrigerator until you want to serve it; ensure that you refrigerate it for at least an hour before serving so the tea gets chilled.
5. Before serving, add some ice cubes to the glass, pour the tea on top, and enjoy.

Making Earl Grey Bubble Tea

Mixing boba tea or adding boba pearls is the best option to take this tea to the next level. The iced Earl Grey milk tea with chewy and soft boba pearls will enhance the overall experience.

1. Grab a pack of boba pearls and boil them according to the instructions on the label. Once they are cooked and ready, mix them in the sugar syrup and put them aside.
2. Follow the Iced Earl Grey tea above to make the milk tea.
3. Add two to three tablespoons of boba pearls into a drinking glass and top them with ice.
4. Pour the milk tea into that glass, let it settle for a few seconds, and serve.

What Is the Taste of Earl Grey Milk Tea?

If you have ever tried black tea, Earl Grey milk tea tastes the same. However, it has a citrusy flavor thanks to the bergamot orange. This tea has no sweetness unless you add extra sugar or syrup. It has malty and rich flavors with subtle and floral undertones, and surprisingly, they all balance out perfectly. Despite having the same shape as a traditional black milk tea, Earl Grey milk tea is light and refreshing.

We called it flexible because you can add boba pearls to this tea to make it better for boba lovers. Additionally, there are no restrictions on what milk you use. In the end, the taste of this tea depends on what ingredients you use.

Calories in Earl Grey Milk Tea

The calories will increase depending on how much sugar you add to the tea. Without any sugar, it has 240 kcal, but if you add sugar, it can reach up to 400 kcal.

Variations

We provided the basic Earl Grey milk tea recipe, but you can make different variants of it by adding extra stuff. 

• For starters, use oat milk for more cream and a dairy-free experience. You’ll have a soft texture with more cream, making it smoother as you sip it.
• Another thing you can do is to check different bubble teas and try mixing them with earl grey tea. Add some muddled fresh strawberries into the tea for a sweet and tangy taste. However, don’t mix too many flavors; it will ruin the taste. Stick to mixing two bubble tea flavors for good results.
• If you want to improve the overall presentation, a layered drink is the best option. For example, add a topping layer with whipping cream and a spoon of vanilla sugar in a jar and shake it as hard as possible. Pour this cream on the tea, wait for it to cascade down, and serve it.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Enjoy Your Earl Grey Milk Tea

Serve your guests or family with the smooth, creamy Earl Grey milk tea and enjoy a delightful afternoon. We shared the easiest way to create this tea and the multiple variations you can get by adding different ingredients.

Sources

1. https://teakandthyme.com/earl-grey-bubble-tea/#variations
2. https://www.honestfoodtalks.com/earl-grey-milk-tea-recipe/
3. https://decoratedtreats.com/earl-grey-milk-tea-how-to-make-earl-grey-tea-with-milk.html