Why Some Dairy-Free Boba Teas Aren't Vegan

Boba shops are known for their ease of customizability, with self-serve order screens making it easy to choose your ice quantity, sweetness level, tea flavor, boba variety, and additional toppings. They're the perfect choice for a group of friends with different tastes or for anyone who's just a little bit picky. Unfortunately, though, customizing them to fit certain dietary preferences can be a little more complicated.

There are two main types of boba drinks offered at most shops: milk tea and fruit tea. Fruit tea is akin to sweetened iced tea, often flavored with peach, mango, or lychee. Meanwhile, milk tea takes the green or black tea of your choice and mixes it with milk — all pretty self-explanatory. Some shops use fresh milk, while others use milk powder (a shelf-stable version of the food that doesn't expire), which won't make much of a difference taste-wise, but does make a difference if you're vegan or on a dairy-free diet.

Shops that use fresh milk may be able to swap it out for a non-dairy version, like soy or almond milk. But for ones that use powdered milk, the alternatives available are often lactose-free without being dairy-free, meaning they're not vegan and could still be harmful to people who avoid dairy for dietary reasons. If you're vegan, you should also be cautious of certain topping options, such as jelly, that may include gelatin.

Lactose-free milk, or milk powder, can be made by removing the lactose from dairy milk. This is great for anyone with a lactose intolerance, but for anyone avoiding dairy because of veganism or who avoids another component of dairy, such as whey or casein, it misses the mark of making the beverage safely drinkable. So, be sure to kindly ask your boba barista follow-up questions if you're concerned.

As far as toppings go, you don't have to worry about the typical boba — also a popular frozen yogurt topping — as it's made by sweetening tapioca. And if you're wondering what tapioca is, the starch is made from the cassava root (a plant), so it's certifiably vegan. But if the shop is offering honey boba or jellies for topping, you might want to take a minute to look into the ingredients. Honey boba uses honey, rather than the more common brown sugar, as a sweetener, so it isn't vegan. So far as jellies go, almost all of them are made with fruit juice, but there is a chance that some of them could include gelatin or honey.

To be safe, you can always just order a regular fruit tea with tapioca pearls. Or if you just love cow's milk too much to give it up, regardless of the dietary problems it will cause, you can always use Lactaid pills to mitigate its effects.