Korean Banana Milk Boba Recipe

This velvety banana milk and soft, chewy maple boba are trying to tell you something – It’s time to channel your inner bobarista!

Korean Banana Milk Boba is a creamy and natural fruity milk-based drink topped with boba pearls. It is made from whole banana, milk, brown sugar, and maple boba.

Banana milk is a popular item at boba cafes and Asian markets, and with this recipe, you can easily create it at home!

Read on for the easy recipe!

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Table of Contents

What is Banana Milk?

Banana milk is a popular Korean drink that originated in the 1970’s, at a time when the Korean government was encouraging citizens to drink more milk as part of a solution to countrywide malnutrition issues.

Binggrae, a famous dairy company, then launched its banana milk product and it was a hit (bananas were considered a luxury due to its expensive import prices.)

To this day, Binggrae banana milk is still available and is an iconic Korean product. You can find them at stores like Weee! or H-Mart!

By the way, if you haven’t tried out Weee! yet, we highly recommend checking them out! We love how they have FREE next-day Nationwide shipping and offer tons of essential and hard-to-find Filipino & other Asian ingredients in their store. Use our referral link for $20 grocery credit to put toward your first 2 orders!

What does Korean Banana Milk Boba taste like?

Korean Banana Milk Boba highlights the sweet flavor of bananas. This drink is creamy and velvety, with warm caramel and vanilla notes. It’s especially delicious with fresh, chewy boba!

Our Inspiration Behind Korean Banana Milk Boba

Our drink is definitely inspired by our frequent visits to Boba Guys in LA — their banana milk is one of our favorites on their menu!

Their drink involves oat milk and housemade banana jam. We love to order it “dirty” (with a shot of espresso) or with fresh boba. We highly recommend you visit Boba Guys or check out their book!

FYI, our original recipe is not adapted from The Boba Book, since we wanted to make a simpler version that didn’t involve making roasted banana jam.

While researching this drink, we also learned that many authentic Korean recipes add maple syrup to their banana milk.

It gives the drink a subtle caramel-y/molasses taste without being too sweet or overpowering. We also believe that maple syrup serves as an easy alternative to roasted banana jam.

To incorporate maple syrup into our recipe, we made maple boba! Much like honey boba, which is simply honey drizzled on boba, we mixed maple syrup and boba together.

It was surprisingly good, and we might just start using maple boba for our regular milk teas at home!

Why you should try Korean Banana Milk Boba

• It’s easy to make at home. With the help of a blender and just a few household ingredients, you’ve got a winning drink!
• Prevent wasting your overripe bananas. Here we present you another option besides making banana bread! Overripe bananas are actually preferred for this recipe since they’re super sweet and easy to blend.
• Save money at the cafe! I don’t know about you, but I’ve definitely had a phase where I was buying boba several times a week. My taste buds were happy, but my wallet sure wasn’t. If you relate, you know that making boba at home can save you $5-$8 per drink!
• It’s absurdly delicious! The first time I made this drink, I proceeded to make it every day of the week. And then I went to the store to get more bananas for next week!

Korean Banana Milk Boba Ingredients

Banana Milk

• 1 overripe banana
• 1⅓ cup milk of choice (1%, skim, almond, oat)
• ⅛ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp dark brown sugar

The consistency of the final drink should be thin and creamy. Therefore we recommend using milks with less fat (1%, skim, almond, oat, etc.). If you use thicker milk (soy, 2%, whole, etc.), you can add up to 1/4 cup water to get the desired consistency.

Maple Boba

• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• ½ cup uncooked boba pearls

Assembly

• ice cubes – we use a convenient ice cube tray with a built-in bin. Find it here on Amazon.

Boba pearls can be found in most Asian Markets, near the tea and instant coffees.

We recommend purchasing normal boba pearls over fast-cook bobas (ie. “ready in 5 minutes”) because the latter often don’t turn out very soft and chewy.

In general, you can expect most store-bought pearls to take about 40 minutes to prep (about 20 minutes for boiling, then removed from heat and resting for another 20 minutes). Patience is key, and the soft bobas are well worth the wait!

Here is our recommendation for store-bought pearls, made by the founders of Boba Guys!

Korean Banana Milk Boba Recipe

Make Maple Boba

1. Cook boba pearls according to package instructions. Rinse with cold water.

2. Mix together maple syrup and cooked boba. Set aside.

Make Banana Milk

1. Blend all banana milk ingredients together.

Assembly

1. Fill two glasses with boba. Add ice. Pour in banana milk and give it a quick stir. Enjoy!

Other Ways to Enjoy Korean Banana Milk Boba

• Add an espresso shot for that caffeine boost!
• Add matcha for a soft, earthy taste
• Switch up the toppings – use egg pudding, chia seeds, grass jelly, or whatever your fave is!

What Goes Well with Korean Banana Milk Boba?

As Korean Banana Milk Boba is a sweet and creamy drink, consider pairing it with savory snacks and appetizers like Fried Enoki Mushrooms or Lumpia or main dishes with strong flavors like Taiwanese Style Fried Chicken Sandwich or Longanisa.

Final Thoughts

Channel your inner bobarista with this deliciously creamy banana drink! Made moments before serving, each sip of this Korean Banana Milk Boba drink will make you feel like you’re at a cafe!

We hope you enjoy this recipe! Share your creations on Instagram and tag us @itsforkandspoon!

Still trying to satisfy your sweet tooth? Have a go at some of our favorite desserts like the eye-popping Ube Lava French Toast or decadant Milk Tea Boba Cake!

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References & Further Reading

https://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/Business/view?articleId=122721

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Flavored_Milk

https://www.bokksumarket.com/blogs/magazine/korean-banana-milk

Editor’s note: This post was originally published on May 10, 2022. It has been updated with content and images on September 21, 2023.