Popular Taiwanese boba brand shows how they make their brown sugar boba milk

The U.S. branch of Xing Fu Tang, a popular Taiwanese bubble tea chain, has shared how it prepares its signature brown sugar boba milk in an ASMR-style video.

In a five-minute TikTok clip posted on Tuesday, CEO Andrew Chuang said the brand uses a specific type of brown sugar from Taiwan for making its brown sugar boba, noting that the variant is “stickier” and has a syrupier texture than store-bought options. After mixing brown sugar and dough, he cuts the mixture into pieces and turns them into boba pearls using a machine. He then proceeds to cook the pearls for four to five minutes before mixing the final product with roasted brown sugar.

For the drink assembly, Chuang carefully ladles the boba into a cup at an angle, rotating it to coat the interior with the thick, caramel-like brown sugar before adding milk, ice and foam.

The video’s release came just days after the “Dragon’s Den” boba controversy, sparking humorous responses from TikTok users who referenced it in their comments, such as how people are “never quite sure about the content” of boba drinks. “But what is tapioca starch made out of? It’s truly a mystery, we may never know,” one user commented. “I want the French Canadian ‘Bobba’ cause I know what’s in it,” another wrote.