Crystal boba, also known as white pearl or agar boba, is a soft and sweet bubble tea topping. Although, crystal boba is less chewier than tapioca boba, you will still enjoy its fruity flavor and crispy jelly-like texture.
We can easily make crystal boba at home with agar agar powder and juice within 20 minutes. By adding some gelatin powder, we can make our boba softer and more elastic. But it’s optional. You can still successfully make crystal boba if you choose to skip the gelatin powder.
EQUIPMENT you will need:
INGREDIENTS List:
- 1 cup Sprite (Or juice)
- 1 tsp agar agar powder
- 1 tsp gelatin powder (Adding some gelatin powder can make the crystal bobas softer and more elastic. But it’s optional. You can still successfully make crystal boba if you skip the gelatin powder.)
Step-by-step INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Add 1 cup of Sprite (or fruit juice), 1 tsp of agar agar powder, and 1 tsp of gelatin powder (optional) to a small saucepan. Stir with a whisk until fully dissolved.
2. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, keep simmering over medium low heat for 5 minutes, stir regularly to prevent burning or spilling.
3. Place a mini round silicone mold on a large baking pan to prevent spilling. Pour the hot liquid to the silicone mold, use a scraper to evenly distribute the liquid to each slot, scrape away the excess liquid into the baking pan. (The agar agar liquid turns firm quickly, so make sure you scrape it fast before it gets cooled.)
4. Leave the crystal boba liquid undisturbed under room temperature for about 10 minutes until fully set. Unmold the bobas to a plate.
5. Serve the crystal boba with iced latte (it’s my favorite combination), iced fruit tea, or over ice cream or frozen yogurt.
Crystal Boba Q&A
1. Can I make crystal boba with gelatin powder only?
To make crystal boba without agar agar powder, you can bloom 1 tbsp of gelatin powder (1 envelope) in 1/4 cup of cold Sprite, bring 3/4 cup of Sprite to a boil, then dissolve the bloomed gelatin in the hot Sprite.
Crystal boba made from gelatin powder is more like mini jello balls, which could melt in your mouth. They are softer and creamier than agar agar bobas. It could be hard to unmold gelatin bobas from the silicone mold, because they are very fragile. Therefore, you can freeze gelatin boba until firm before unmolding them.
However, note that agar agar jelly has a crispier texture than gelatin jelly. When you make crystal boba with agar agar powder and gelatin powder, the boba will has a balanced texture of crispy, soft, bouncy, and elastic. So, ideally you should use a combination of gelatin powder and agar agar powder to make crystal boba.
2. Is crystal boba vegan?
This crystal boba recipe is not vegan, because gelatin powder is made from animal bones.
But you can make it vegan by replacing the gelatin powder with the same amount of Chinese jelly powder, which is plant based.
3. How to make brown sugar crystal boba?
Add 2 tbsps of brown sugar, 1 tsp agar agar powder, and 1 tsp gelatin powder to 1 cup of water, stir fully fully dissolved. The rest of the steps are the same.
4. Can I use fruit juice to make crystal boba?
Yes sure! You can use bottled fruit juice or freshly blended fruit juice. For example, I blended mango and water at a ratio of 1:1, strained the mixture to get 1 cup of mango juice, and added 1 tbsp of sugar to the juice, or sugar to your taste. You can also use orange juice, strawberry juice, coffee, or lychee drink.
Make sure you strain the fruit puree with a fine mesh strainer, otherwise the boba will have a cloudy appearance and a mushy texture.
5. How to make crystal boba without a mold?
If you don’t have the mini round silicone mold available at home, you can also set the boba liquid in a plate. Once the liquid has turned firm, you can peel off the jelly sheet from the plate, and slice it into mini cubes by making a grid pattern of about 0.5″ pieces.
In this way you will get some cube-shape crystal bobas. As long as it is able to pass through a boba straw, the shape doesn’t really matter.
I also tried the oil dripping method introduced in this gelatin boba recipe. But my agar boba turned out to be firm in iced oil bath. So I’d still recommend using the silicone mold method or the cutting method.
6. How to store crystal boba?
In an air tight container, add 2 tbsps of sugar and ¾ cup of cold potable water, stir until fully dissolved. Soak any leftover boba in this sugar water, close the lid, store under room temperature for up to 24 hours.
The crystal bobas will turn hard in the refrigerator, and it only takes 20 minutes to make some fresh crystal bobas, so only make what you will eat and finish them within 24 hours.
Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any other questions about this recipe. And note that you don’t need to fill in the email to leave a message below~
My other boba recipes you will also like:
Crystal Boba Recipe (Agar boba)
Equipment
- Measuring spoons
- saucepan
- Mini round silicone mold
- scraper
Ingredients
- 1 cup Sprite (Or juice)
- 1 tsp agar agar powder
- 1 tsp gelatin powder (Adding some gelatin powder can make the crystal bobas softer and more elastic. But it's optional. You can still successfully make crystal boba if you skip the gelatin powder.)
Instructions
- Add 1 cup of Sprite (or fruit juice), 1 tsp of agar agar powder, and 1 tsp of gelatin powder (optional) to a small saucepan. Stir with a whisk until fully dissolved.
- Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, keep simmering over medium low heat for 5 minutes, stir regularly to prevent burning or spilling.
- Place a mini round silicone mold on a large baking pan to prevent spilling. Pour the hot liquid to the silicone mold, use a scraper to evenly distribute the liquid to each slot, scrape away the excess liquid into the baking pan. (The agar agar liquid turns firm quickly, so make sure you scrape it fast before it gets cooled.)
- Leave the crystal boba liquid undisturbed under room temperature for about 10 minutes until fully set. Unmold crystal boba to a plate.
- Serve the crystal boba with iced latte (it's my favorite combination), iced fruit tea, or over ice cream or frozen yogurt.
Video
Notes
Can you replace the Sprite with tea?
Can i use only agar powder?