Milk tea with tapioca pearls and a wide straw in a clear cup.

Orlando Boba Source

Read an Orlando boba menu — milk tea or fruit tea, sweetness, ice, topping — then open the shop’s own board. Tapi is the pearl with a face. Four parts at the counter: base, sugar, ice, chew.

Tapi, a tapioca pearl with a face.

Pearls, ice, straw, sugar

Kung Fu Tea’s FAQ prints sugar as 0 / 30 / 50 / 75 / 100 and ice as none / less / regular / extra. Harmony, Ding Tea Orlando, and The Boba Company print their own boards. Cook the chew at home, then match the counter script.

Dry tapioca pearls in a scoop and cooked pearls in syrup.

Pearls

Cassava starch cooked to a chew. After about twenty minutes they firm past the first bite. FAO and USDA FoodData Central cite the crop.

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Iced fruit tea with lime and mint.

Ice ratio

Less ice is more drink. Extra ice is a colder walk-out in July. Shake the tea over ice, then pour so the ratio holds.

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Brown-sugar milk tea with pearls and a sealed lid.

Straw

A wide straw is the diameter that lifts a pearl. Thin cocktail straws leave the chew in the cup.

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Amber syrup poured over a cold plate.

Sugar levels

A percent or a word like “half sweet.” Stay silent and some boards pour full sweet. Brown-sugar syrup is the dark ribbon.

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Shops that publish a menu