Here we will discuss the reasons why your bubble tea or milk tea tastes watery. There are multiple reasons why this could be, but we will start with the most common reasons why it will be this way first.
Of course bubble tea drinks don’t usually taste watery. They actually have plenty of flavor in them, which comes from the tea, the milk, the flavor of the bubble tea itself, and the sugars.
However, just because a bubble tea drink has all of these ingredients, doesn’t mean that the drink can’t end up tasting watery. A bubble tea can still end up tasting watery with all these ingredients in it. In fact, any boba drink can end up this way.
However, a bubble tea drink with less ingredients, or lacking one of the key ingredients listed, doesn’t automatically mean that the drink will taste watery. Bubble tea and milk tea are also made without sugar or a specific flavor too sometimes. Pearl milk tea is a good example, as it can still taste great without extra sugar.
Even tea consists mostly of water, yet it can be pretty flavorful. So, even though the milk tea or bubble tea may taste watery, the tea most likely isn’t the main reason why. However, it could be, but probably not. We will discuss how tea can affect the drink later on.
So, why does my bubble tea taste watery?
The most common reason why your bubble tea tastes watery, is because it has/had too much ice in it. If your bubble tea was made cold, then this is why it tastes watery. The more ice used, the easier it will be for the milk tea or bubble tea to lose its flavor after the ice begins to melt, making the boba drink watery.
If the bubble tea is consumed before all the ice melts, then it won’t end up tasting watery, considering that the beverage was flavorful to begin with. This same thing applies to all drinks. If a drink that has ice in it is left too long, then it will begin to taste diluted, because the water from the ice is diluting the drink.
The individual that made the drink may also not realize that the extra ice is the same thing as adding the same amount of water to the drink when they made it. The flavoring in the bubble tea has to be more to compensate for the extra ice when the bubble tea or milk tea is made, if the boba drink isn’t going to be consumed all at once.
When the bubble tea or milk tea is made, usually the tea added to it is either warm or hot. Even if it doesn’t look like the boba drink doesn’t have much ice, it could have melted and turned into water once the tea was added into the beverage. Some boba shops use a cup shaker filled with plenty of ice to shake and mix all the ingredients together in the shaker.
After the mixture is shaken thoroughly in a cup shaker, the bubble tea or milk tea becomes chilled, and all the ice is gone. If too much ice is added to the cup shaker with the rest of the ingredients, it dilutes the flavor, causing the bubble tea or milk tea to taste watery.
If more ice is added again afterwards, the bubble tea drink becomes even more watery if that ice melts over time in the bubble tea cup. This makes the drink taste even more watery.
Tea
Tea can also make milk tea and bubble tea drinks watery if it lacks flavor. No flavor in the tea itself, would be pretty much like putting straight water into the milk tea or bubble tea to make the drink. Once again, this is diluting the drink rather than adding flavor to it.
When the tea is made, enough tea leaves have to be used in the proportion of water that the tea is steeping in when making the tea. This creates tea instead of watery tea, that would soon be placed in the milk or boba drink to make it.
Some teas are naturally less flavorful than other teas, so keep this in mind. Green tea is a light tea that can be less potent in flavor as darker teas, like black tea for instance. If enough tea leaves aren’t added to the hot water when steeping the lighter teas, then it will make a watery tea that could make the milk tea or bubble tea taste watery too.
Of course, care needs to be taken when adding tea leaves and steeping them, as too much time steeping can make the tea bitter, and therefore cause the milk tea or bubble tea to be bitter too.
Milk
Milk plays an important role in milk tea and bubble tea drinks. If a fat free milk (or no milk) at all is used to create a milk tea or bubble tea, then it could result in the drink tasting watery. The reason for this is that the milk adds the creamy flavor to the boba drink.
Without this creaminess, you are left with a watery taste from the milk, or lack there of. If too little milk is added, even though a full milk like whole milk was used, then the only thing left to hold the boba drink is the tea. As stated, the tea can make the milk tea or bubble tea taste watery too if it lacks flavor.
This is even more true with milk tea, as it only comprises of milk and tea as its main flavor to begin with, besides any added sugars. This means that if the milk or tea isn’t flavorful, then the milk tea can easily come out bad.
If an individual is desiring to use a different milk than whole milk, then that milk needs to have fat in it to give the boba drink a more full taste. If not, then another option would be to enhance the flavor of the tea to compensate for the lack of the creamier flavor that is given by the fatty milk.