Hong Kong Iced Milk Tea recipe: bit.ly/HKmilktea
The cotton filter bag is available on Amazon (affiliate links): amzn.to/2AqecK2 or this one with zipper: amzn.to/2yjCaW8
Sometimes you can find it in a local Chinese store.
For the tea leaves:
Ceylon: amzn.to/2zrBUWe
Lipton orange pekoe black tea: amzn.to/2yfQWwK
I bought the pu'er tea leaves at a Chinese grocery store.
Hong Kong style milk tea originated from England’s colonial rule over Hong Kong, from 1841 to 1997. You can easily find it in any local restaurant or cafe in Hong Kong. This drink is made with black tea and evaporated milk, or sometimes sweetened condensed milk and was heavily influenced by English customs.
In Britain, hot tea is brewed with Ceylon tea leaves and served with sugar and regular milk. But the Hong Kong style milk tea uses a much stronger blend of tea mixed with full-cream condensed milk for extra smoothness and aroma.
The Hong Kong style milk tea is usually blended with several types of tea leaves. Every cafe and restaurant has their own secret recipe. The most common tea leaves are Ceylon and Pu Lei (Yunnan black tea). The flavor of Ceylon is bold and brisk and adds fragrance and a strong taste. The Pu Lei is dark, mellow and rich, perfectly balancing the Ceylon tea. Blending with the evaporated milk reduces the bitterness of the tea and mellows the taste.
The traditional way of making the tea is to brew the loose leaves in a sackcloth (muslin) bag. It extracts the flavor from the tea very well by drawing the hot water repeatedly through the bag. This helps release the tannins and caffeine for an extra smooth texture. Due to the color of the bag and the finished tea, it’s also commonly called “silk stocking tea”.
You can easily turn it into boba tea with homemade tapioca. It’s my favorite drink of all time!
Ingredients
2 tbsp | 12g Ceylon loose leaves
2 tbsp | 12g Lipton Yellow Label loose leaves
1 tbsp | 6g Pu Lei (Pu'er) loose leaves
1 1/4 cups | 300 ml boiling hot water
1/3 cup | 80 ml evaporated milk
2 tbsp sugar