Hong Kong style milk-tea (絲襪奶茶)

Oxidized tea
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mbanu
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Tue Apr 06, 2021 7:33 am

Classic greasy-spoon diner tea and a HK cultural landmark, but surprisingly difficult to make correctly. I think of all the types of black tea, this is the one I've had the hardest time with, as it does a lot of non-intuitive things, such as being made with Ceylon tea, which is not really the ideal choice for milk like an Assam would be. Plus it's not just a little thin milk, but a lot of evaporated milk.

So I thought maybe a thread dedicated to it might be a nice start. :)
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Bok
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Tue Apr 06, 2021 9:23 am

Is it? Take the nastiest tanninny Hongcha you can find, add the most artificial thick condensed milk available and mix until you get the HK milk tea red according to your Pantone swatch... serve in thick porcelain cups - easy as pie. Just as you’d brew a builders cuppa for the lads of the colonial overlords.

< :lol: >
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mbanu
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Tue Apr 06, 2021 11:09 am

Bok wrote:
Tue Apr 06, 2021 9:23 am
Is it? Take the nastiest tanninny Hongcha you can find, add the most artificial thick condensed milk available and mix until you get the HK milk tea red according to your Pantone swatch... serve in thick porcelain cups - easy as pie. Just as you’d brew a builders cuppa for the lads of the colonial overlords.

< :lol: >
That tea is not Ceylon tea, though -- tea that takes to milk naturally is Assam tea. Ceylon teas were originally Chinese varietals, then became hybrids in many places after Assamica teas were introduced to sites that already had the Chinese teas. Because of this, Ceylon tea has never been as strong as pure Assam, so coaxing it into playing nicely with something like evaporated milk that tries to smother any drink it is a part of requires a bit of adjustment. Some folks will add to the challenge by mixing in some portion of Chinese teas for aroma, making it even harder to get a good milk-tea flavor. There really does seem to be a trick involved, which I think is why they have annual competitions for the best milk tea in Hong Kong, even though this is a bit like having a Dunkin' Donuts barista challenge in the U.S. :D
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LeoFox
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Tue Apr 06, 2021 11:20 am

mbanu wrote:
Tue Apr 06, 2021 11:09 am
Bok wrote:
Tue Apr 06, 2021 9:23 am
Is it? Take the nastiest tanninny Hongcha you can find, add the most artificial thick condensed milk available and mix until you get the HK milk tea red according to your Pantone swatch... serve in thick porcelain cups - easy as pie. Just as you’d brew a builders cuppa for the lads of the colonial overlords.

< :lol: >
That tea is not Ceylon tea, though -- tea that takes to milk naturally is Assam tea. Ceylon teas were originally Chinese varietals, then became hybrids in many places after Assamica teas were introduced to sites that already had the Chinese teas. Because of this, Ceylon tea has never been as strong as pure Assam, so coaxing it into playing nicely with something like evaporated milk that tries to smother any drink it is a part of requires a bit of adjustment. Some folks will add to the challenge by mixing in some portion of Chinese teas for aroma, making it even harder to get a good milk-tea flavor. There really does seem to be a trick involved, which I think is why they have annual competitions for the best milk tea in Hong Kong, even though this is a bit like having a Dunkin' Donuts barista challenge in the U.S. :D
Ceylon tea can be pretty tannic too and just as nasty as the most tannic assam. You seem to keep mentioning idealized forms of ceylon teas and milk pulled tea.

Have you made it yourself? Do you actually like it? You say you've had "the hardest time" with this type of tea. What do you mean by that? Hardest time as in most difficult to reason through or hardest time in making it yourself?


Here is from wiki:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Ko ... e_milk_tea
Hong Kong-style milk tea originates from British colonial rule over Hong Kong. The British practice of afternoon tea, where black tea is served with milk and sugar, grew popular in Hong Kong. Milk tea is similar, except with evaporated or condensed milk instead of ordinary milk.[1]

A dai pai dong-style restaurant called Lan Fong Yuen (蘭芳園)[2] claims both silk-stocking milk tea and Yuenyeung were invented in 1952[3] by its owner, a Mr. Lam. Its claim for the latter is unverified, but that for the former is on the record in the official minutes of a LegCo council meeting from 2007,[4] lending it significant plausibility.

Hong Kong-style milk tea is made of a mix of several types of black tea (in the Western sense, often Ceylon tea), possibly pu'er tea, evaporated milk, and sugar, the last of which is added by the customers themselves unless in the case of take-away. The proportion of each tea type is treated as a commercial secret by many vendors[8] A variation uses condensed milk instead of milk and sugar, giving the tea a richer feel.

The key feature of Hong Kong-style milk tea is that a sackcloth bag is used to filter the tea leaves. However any other filter/strainer may be used to filter the tea.[10] Sackcloth bags are not completely necessary but generally preferred. The bag, reputed to make the tea smoother, gradually develops an intense brown colour as a result of prolonged tea drenching. Together with the shape of the filter, it resembles a silk stocking, giving Hong Kong-style milk tea the nickname
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mbanu
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Tue Apr 06, 2021 12:36 pm

LeoFox wrote:
Tue Apr 06, 2021 11:20 am
Ceylon tea can be pretty tannic too and just as nasty as the most tannic assam. You seem to keep mentioning idealized forms of ceylon teas and milk pulled tea.

Have you made it yourself? Do you actually like it? You say you've had "the hardest time" with this type of tea. What do you mean by that? Hardest time as in most difficult to reason through or hardest time in making it yourself?
In my experience, I've never had a Ceylon tea that you can give a 5-minute steep and it will tolerate a good amount of whole milk, let alone evaporated milk -- the milk dominates rather than the tea harmonizing as it does with a good fresh Assam. My least favorite blends are Assam-Ceylon blends because of this -- blenders rarely use aromatic Ceylons anymore, so it just thins the Assam out, I imagine to make it play more nicely with semi-skimmed milk, and it still never tastes quite right.

By hardest I mean adjusting the brewing parameters to make it work when you are fighting against the base ingredients. My first breakthrough was realizing that you needed to boil the tea, as though you were making an Indian-style chai, even though it is often categorized as a British-style tea rather than an Indian-style. Thinking of it as a British-style tea created a blind spot for me, as in British-style tea it is essential to make sure the tea itself never boils.
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LeoFox
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Tue Apr 06, 2021 1:15 pm

mbanu wrote:
Tue Apr 06, 2021 12:36 pm
LeoFox wrote:
Tue Apr 06, 2021 11:20 am
Ceylon tea can be pretty tannic too and just as nasty as the most tannic assam. You seem to keep mentioning idealized forms of ceylon teas and milk pulled tea.

Have you made it yourself? Do you actually like it? You say you've had "the hardest time" with this type of tea. What do you mean by that? Hardest time as in most difficult to reason through or hardest time in making it yourself?
In my experience, I've never had a Ceylon tea that you can give a 5-minute steep and it will tolerate a good amount of whole milk, let alone evaporated milk -- the milk dominates rather than the tea harmonizing as it does with a good fresh Assam. My least favorite blends are Assam-Ceylon blends because of this -- blenders rarely use aromatic Ceylons anymore, so it just thins the Assam out, I imagine to make it play more nicely with semi-skimmed milk, and it still never tastes quite right.

By hardest I mean adjusting the brewing parameters to make it work when you are fighting against the base ingredients. My first breakthrough was realizing that you needed to boil the tea, as though you were making an Indian-style chai, even though it is often categorized as a British-style tea rather than an Indian-style. Thinking of it as a British-style tea created a blind spot for me, as in British-style tea it is essential to make sure the tea itself never boils.
From what you are saying, this milk tea is "hard" because you dont know how ceylon can work with evaporated milk based on your experience of brewing Assam, assam-ceylon blends and ceylon teas with milk. It is not clear from this whether you have experimented with evaporated milk. It is also not clear if you have actually attempted to make hk milk tea. Can you describe your attempts? Did they taste worse than you anticipated? And by anticipated - I mean against some reference like hk milk tea from hk.

Also, did you use some kind of cloth bag as that is deemed a "critical" equipment for the process?
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Tue Apr 06, 2021 6:18 pm

Maybe your brew is missing some bits of tobacco from an unlit cigarette! ;)
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mbanu
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Tue Apr 06, 2021 7:59 pm

LeoFox wrote:
Tue Apr 06, 2021 1:15 pm
It is not clear from this whether you have experimented with evaporated milk.
I have! Strangely enough, the recommended brand, Black & White, does seem to make a difference, although I struggle to understand why. Maybe this is my ignorance over what makes one type of evaporated milk different than another? Alternately, it could just be advertising. :D
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Bok
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Tue Apr 06, 2021 9:04 pm

mbanu wrote:
Tue Apr 06, 2021 7:59 pm
I have! Strangely enough, the recommended brand, Black & White, does seem to make a difference, although I struggle to understand why. Maybe this is my ignorance over what makes one type of evaporated milk different than another?
Water is not water, why should milk be milk?

Luckily, we do not live in a world where all things taste the same within their category... what a sad and boring place that would be. Also rendering much of what we discuss around here redundant.
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mbanu
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Thu Jun 03, 2021 10:48 pm

A couple new things I've noticed seem to help.

First, is aerating the tea until it is lukewarm, then reheating it without boiling again. The extra aeration really seems to improve the flavor.

The other is related to the tea-mix. While it is well-known that the blends used are usually Ceylon tea for strength and Chinese tea for aroma, which Chinese tea always seems to be a stumper. I think part of this blind-spot is that one of the best aroma teas I've found is Yingde, a black tea that seems to have always struggled as an export tea due to its historical origins as a tea made by prisoners at a laogai forced-labor camp, when the main thrust of tea-marketing now is focusing on the romance of a tea's historical origins.

For the milk-tea enthusiast, this then adds the extra hurdle of determining whether a particular Yingde blend includes tea grown under forced-labor conditions or not.

I haven't tried a comparison yet between Yingde and Keemun in a HK milk tea, which I suppose will be the next step. I'm also not sure if the age of the Chinese tea is important or not (with the Ceylon tea, it actually seems to improve a bit if the tea is a little on the tired side).
Andrew S
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Fri Jun 04, 2021 1:37 am

I wonder if there are any coffee baristas in Hong Kong who have perfected the art of milk tea yet.

It seems like something that the coffee-inclined would pursue.

Andrew
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Bok
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Fri Jun 04, 2021 2:56 am

Andrew S wrote:
Fri Jun 04, 2021 1:37 am
I wonder if there are any coffee baristas in Hong Kong who have perfected the art of milk tea yet.

It seems like something that the coffee-inclined would pursue.

Andrew
I don't think it's a desirable goal for them... it's something not very hip and usually the best ones are the greasy spoon ones. Try to make it in a sophisticated way and you'll kill the appeal of it.

No one in the UK is trying to improve the builder's cuppa either :lol:
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mbanu
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Thu Jun 10, 2021 10:29 pm

Andrew S wrote:
Fri Jun 04, 2021 1:37 am
I wonder if there are any coffee baristas in Hong Kong who have perfected the art of milk tea yet.

It seems like something that the coffee-inclined would pursue.

Andrew
The impression I get is similar to Bok's, that there is a cultural divide that would make this less likely. I'm not sure what the Australian equivalent would be, but in America, it would be like the distinction between donut-shops and coffee-shops. While some people treat donut-shops as specialized bakeries, ordering donuts to-go, they are also known for being a place to get coffee, and are often social gathering spots like coffee-shops. However, if you were to call the person making your coffee a barista, people would assume you were joking. Part of this is related to social-class -- donut shops are mainly viewed as working-class coffee-shops, so even if the actual role is the same (making and serving coffee), it is categorized differently.

If someone were to do a donut-shop barista challenge here, the assumption would be that it was not really serious. This is a little different in Hong Kong, it seems, because Hong Kong milk tea has become a way of symbolizing Hong-Konger identity, so there is an annual milk-tea competition. I don't know if the attendees treat it as a joke, but the brewers seem to take it seriously.

There is a coffee/tea cross-over, however, in the form of "Yuenyeung", a variant of milk tea where instant coffee is used for aroma instead of Chinese tea. :)
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mbanu
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Thu Jun 10, 2021 10:33 pm

(Maybe an obvious tip, but another helpful thing I've noticed is that if I'm using a can of evaporated milk that has already been opened rather than a fresh can, taking it out to warm up a bit is important, because when adding so much evaporated milk, even if the tea is near boiling, you might end up with a finished cup that is not quite warm enough.)
zachgoh
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Sat Jun 12, 2021 7:43 am

I remember seeing a Hong Kong style milk-tea robot at the Hong Kong tea fair a few years ago.

https://en.kamcha.com.hk/kamchai
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