Every drink in this guide starts from our Pandan Syrup. The price, pack sizes and bulk savings are on its product page. Buy Pandan Syrup →
The short answer
A pandan latte is milk flavoured and sweetened with pandan syrup, served iced or hot. Add a little black or green tea and it becomes pandan milk tea; add tapioca pearls and it becomes pandan boba. All three start from the same step: 15–30 ml of pandan syrup stirred into 100 ml of milk.
What pandan is. A fragrant tropical leaf used across Southeast Asia to flavour sweets and drinks. Taste. Fresh and grassy, with hints of vanilla and coconut cream. Colour. Green. Made from. Pandan syrup stirred into milk, over ice or hot. Topping. Tapioca pearls, nata de coco or popping boba, bought separately. Our syrup. Pandan Syrup.
What pandan is and how it tastes
Pandan is a tropical plant with long, glossy green leaves. In Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand the leaves flavour cakes, rice, jellies and drinks, much as vanilla does in a European kitchen, and they give those sweets their familiar green colour.
The taste is hard to place if you have never had it: fresh and a little grassy first, then soft, sweet notes that people compare to vanilla, coconut and toasted rice. Our Pandan Syrup is described on its product page as fresh and grassy, layered with hints of vanilla and coconut cream. In milk those notes turn round and creamy, which is why pandan works so well as a latte.
How to make a pandan latte
This is the method printed for our Pandan Syrup:
- Add 15–30 ml of pandan syrup to the cup as the base.
- Pour 100 ml of milk and mix well until the syrup is completely dissolved.
- Chill with 5–10 ice cubes for an iced pandan latte.
Start at 15 ml and taste; more syrup gives a sweeter, greener cup. A dirty pandan latte is the same drink with a shot of espresso poured on top, which you add from your own machine. See the dirty pandan latte, the hot dirty pandan latte and the pandan cream cap latte in our recipe collection.
How to make pandan milk tea
Pandan milk tea is the latte with a tea backbone. Make the latte above, then add 10–15 ml of black or green beverage concentrate, as the syrup’s own method allows. Black tea gives a stronger, rounder cup; green tea keeps it lighter and lets the grassy pandan note lead.
See the iced pandan milk tea and the pandan tapioca milk tea recipes.
Pandan boba: hot and iced
Pandan bubble tea is any of the drinks above with a chewy topping as the bottom layer. The syrup’s method calls for 30–40 g of tapioca pearls, nata de coco or popping boba per drink.
- Iced pandan boba. Pearls first, then the pandan milk tea, then ice. Any of the three toppings works.
- Hot pandan boba. Stir the syrup into hot milk and leave out the ice. Tapioca pearls work hot. Popping boba does not: heat dissolves its membrane, so keep it for cold drinks. See hot pandan milk tea with tapioca.
- Brown sugar pandan. Pearls soaked in brown sugar syrup under a pandan latte. See the pandan brown sugar pearl latte.
Our tapioca pearls cook at a 1:10 ratio of pearls to water: boil for 30 minutes, steam for 35, and serve within 8 hours. The full method is in how to cook tapioca pearls. For a fruity contrast, pandan with mango popping boba pairs the green with a burst of mango; nata de coco brings out the coconut side of pandan.
Pandan floats, frappes and slushes
The same syrup goes beyond milk tea. Our pandan recipe collection includes a pandan float with ice cream, a pandan ice cream frappe and a pandan slush. The ice cream is your own; we make the syrup and the toppings.
More pandan drinks for a menu
The same Pandan Syrup builds a whole pandan section on a menu. Each of these has a published recipe card with its Recipe ID:
- Brown Sugar Dirty Pandan (TP-DIRT-0008) — pandan, brown sugar and espresso.
- Pandan Dalgona Latte (TP-DALGONA-0005) — whipped coffee over pandan milk.
- Pandan with Lychee Popping (TP-POP-0018) and Pandan with Mango Popping (TP-POP-0017) — fruity bursts with the creamy green base.
- Pandan with Lychee Nata (TP-NATA-0015) and Pandan with Brown Sugar Nata (TP-NATA-0014) — with chewy nata de coco.
- Pandan Coconut Sundae Delight (TP-SPEC-0009) — a dessert built on the syrup.
For a new café, pandan sits well next to taro and ube as the “something different” flavour: see our bubble tea syrups guide.
Storing pandan syrup
Our Pandan Syrup is made at our FSSC 22000 certified plant in Hyderabad. It is vegetarian and Halal, with no high-fructose corn syrup, and keeps 12 months sealed. Once opened, reseal it tightly and refrigerate. For the price, the case of nine and bulk savings, see the Pandan Syrup product page.
What is a pandan latte?
A pandan latte is milk flavoured and sweetened with pandan syrup, served iced or hot. It tastes fresh and grassy with soft vanilla and coconut notes.
How do you make a pandan latte?
Add 15–30 ml of pandan syrup to the cup, pour 100 ml of milk and mix until dissolved, then add 5–10 ice cubes. For a hot latte, use hot milk and leave out the ice.
What is the difference between a pandan latte and pandan milk tea?
Pandan milk tea is the latte with a tea backbone: add 10–15 ml of black or green beverage concentrate to the pandan latte.
What does pandan taste like?
Fresh and a little grassy, with soft sweet notes people compare to vanilla, coconut and toasted rice. In milk it turns round and creamy.
How do you make pandan boba?
Put 30–40 g of tapioca pearls, nata de coco or popping boba in the cup, then pour the pandan latte or milk tea over it with ice. For a hot drink use tapioca pearls only; popping boba is for cold drinks.
Is pandan syrup vegetarian?
Yes. Our Pandan Syrup is vegetarian and Halal, made with no high-fructose corn syrup. A pandan latte contains milk, so it is not dairy-free.
What drinks can you make with pandan syrup?
Pandan latte (iced or hot), pandan milk tea, pandan boba with tapioca pearls, a dirty pandan latte with espresso, pandan with popping boba or nata de coco, slushes, frappes and floats. Each has a published recipe card in our pandan recipe collection.