Tiger Stripe Brown Sugar Milk Tea

For the syrup

• 4 tbsp dark muscovado or dark brown sugar
• 2 tbsp hot water

For the drink

• 1 serving Super PearlsSuperboba
• 2 tsp Classic powderSuperboba
• 100 ml hot water, about 85 C
• 200 ml cold whole milk
• Ice, to fill

1. 1

   Stir the muscovado into the hot water until it becomes a thick, dark, pourable syrup. Leave it a couple of minutes and it thickens further.

2. 2

   Soak the Super Pearls in about half the syrup for one to five minutes. Do not boil them. Every version of this drink online boils tapioca for twenty minutes or more; ours arrive cooked, and boiling turns them to mush.

3. 3

   Spoon the rest of the syrup down the inside wall of a tall empty glass, turning the glass as you go so it runs in separate streaks rather than one sheet.

4. 4

   Tip in the pearls, then fill the glass with ice.

5. 5

   Pour the cold milk slowly down the centre. Aim for the middle, not the sides, or you will wash the stripes off.

6. 6

   Whisk the Classic powder into the hot water until smooth and pour it over the milk.

• Muscovado rather than ordinary brown sugar. It is darker and more molasses-heavy, which gives both the colour of the stripes and the caramel note.
• Chill the glass first. Cold glass holds the syrup in place noticeably longer.
• Photograph it before you stir it, drink it after.
• The stripes are the reason this drink exists, so do not skip the tilting. Poured straight in, the syrup just pools at the bottom.