Making Milk Tea at Home
First Off, What is Milk Tea?
It’s exactly what it sounds like! Milk tea is any kind of tea with some milk added. We're not purists here—you can use dairy or any alternative style of milk that you prefer: almond, oat, cashew, soy, etc. and milk tea is a versatile beverage that can be enjoyed hot, cold, over ice, sweetened or unsweet.
What Kinds of Milk Tea are There?
When we talk about milk tea, we’re often referencing a few particular styles of tea. These include:
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Hong Kong Style Milk Tea
this style of tea has probably popularized the actual phrase “milk tea” the most. It’s influenced by British afternoon tea, and thus usually uses a strong black tea, such as ceylon tea. Instead of milk, the quintessential Hong Kong style tea uses evaporated milk, which is thicker and creamier, and sometimes condensed milk, which is already sweetened. Our best tea to use here would be our American Breakfast Black Tea.
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Boba Tea
Also known as bubble tea or pearl milk tea, this is a Taiwanese-style cold milk tea with chewy tapioca balls added, which are the “bubbles” or “pearls.” Bubble tea is made with any kind of black or green tea, milk and/or condensed milk. There are endless fun varieties of boba tea with the addition of syrups, flavors, and other toppings such as popping boba, jellies,mochi, puddings and foams. You can use any tea for Boba Tea; we like to recommend our Jasmine Serenity Green Tea.
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English style Milk Tea
Although tea originated in Asia, English-style tea is a common conception of tea in the United States. English style milk tea can be a morning tea, afternoon tea, or high tea. It typically features a hearty black tea such as ceylon, keemun, assam or earl grey, steeped strong, with a dash of milk or cream. You can keep it unsweet or add sugar or honey. Once again, American Breakfast works well here; or try an earl grey flavored tea with citrus notes such as our Hazy Grey or our award-winning Georgia Grey.
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Masala Chai
Aka spiced chai, or chai tea, although “chai” means tea so “chai tea” sounds like “tea tea” so you might want to skip using that one 😉. Spiced chai is an Indian style milk tea that uses spices—any kind will do—and milk and sugar. The traditional method for making chai uses loose tea, spices such as cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, clove, black pepper, lemongrass etc. water. You add all the ingredients to a pot, bring it to a boil, then add milk and sugar, bring it to boil again, then strain it before drinking. We offer our classic Harvest Chai in pyramid sachets and loose leaf.
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Tea Latte
Now this one is a bit less well defined than the other styles of milk tea, because it really plays off the idea of an espresso-based drink with steam milk. What’s more, it’s almost always called a “tea latte” even if it uses widely varied ratios of tea to steamed milk and/or foam, whereas a traditional espresso-based latte is mostly steamed milk with a little bit of foam on top. A tea latte generally is still mostly tea, and is topped with just a bit of steamed milk or foam. A london fog, which uses earl grey tea, vanilla syrup and frothed milk, is a popular tea latte. However you can make any tea into a tea latte, including herbal teas. Our favorite these days is a lavender-hibiscus tea latte using our Farmhouse Lavender Tea in pyramid sachets and loose leaf.
Tips on Making Your Milk Tea Taste Good
It’s a lovely habit to dress up your tea every once and a while and make yourself a fancy milk tea at home. Some tips we recommend:
- Steep your tea strong, either use a double portion or leave it steeping twice as long as typical.
- Steep in about ¾ cup water, leaving room for milk.
- If making iced instead of hot, steep using only ½ cup of hot water; pour into drink tumbler and shake with ice to cool; then strain into your serving glass filled with new ice.
- Alternatively for iced tea, you can brew up a bunch of hot tea, let it cool, then refrigerate to use as needed. For more info, check out our article on Making Iced Tea at Home.
- Make your milk teas extra pretty by dusting it with cinnamon, nutmeg, or cocoa powder
- Or, decorate with a sprinkle of flower petals, a cinnamon stick, or a sprig of a complementary herb. Mint, thyme, rosemary, or lavender all do nicely.
