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Overhead shot of a cup of Hong Kong coffee milk tea.
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5 from 37 votes

Hong Kong Coffee milk tea recipe

Also known as Yuanyang, Yun Yeung or Yuenyueng tea, Hong Kong Coffee milk tea is a simple 4-ingredient, 3-step recipe that anyone can easily make at home. Tastes great both as a hot drink or cold- warming in winter and refreshing in summer!
Prep Time1 minute
Cook Time15 minutes
Optional chilling time (for an iced version)2 hours
Course: Dessert, Drinks, Snack
Cuisine: Cantonese, Chinese
Servings: 2 people
Calories: 129kcal
Author: Zen

Equipment

  • Saucepan/ small pot OR microwave
  • Tea strainer Only needed if using tea leaves

Ingredients

Hot coffee milk tea

  • ½ Cup Strong Coffee Substitute: cold brew coffee or a shot of espresso. Instead of making the coffee in a separate mug, I added 4-6 teaspoons of instant coffee directly to the hot pot of milk, followed by ½ Cup of hot water then mixed well (to save on washing up!)
  • 4-6 Black tea bags (preferably Ceylon, if not Assam and Darjeeling work too.) If using tea leaves, use ⅓ Cup, loosely packed. See Notes on exact Hong Kong standard mix break-down if you're a tea aficionado.
  • Cups Whole Milk Substitute: plant-based milk if vegan or flexitarian (Avoid coconut milk if you don't want a coconut- flavoured drink!)
  • Evaporated milk, to taste, optional Substitute: condensed milk (you can omit or reduce the sugar in this case)
  • Sugar or simple syrup (preferable if making an iced drink), to taste I prefer to use brown sugar.
  • Optional fillings: boba pearls, pudding, coffee jelly etc

Iced coffee milk tea

  • 1 or more Ice cubes In addition to all of the above. Use fewer, bigger ice cubes (instead of smaller ones) if you want your ice to melt more slowly.

Instructions

Hot Hong Kong Coffee milk tea (I have provided a simplified tea-making process here but if you want to follow the style of Hong Kong cha chan tengs, see Notes.)

  • Pour the milk into a small saucepan, and add the black tea leaves or tea bags. Make sure the tea bags are immersed in the milk and not floating on it! Heat over low fire till just about to boil, then switch off the fire and allow to steep. It will vary depending on the pot you use, but it took me about 12 minutes to bring the milk to steaming on a Bosch induction fire of 2.0 (where the maximum is 9.0) The milk should gradually turn light brown- if it doesn't, your tea is probably not immersed in the milk or you're not using a strong enough tea!
  • Alternatively, you can heat the milk (with the tea leaves/ bags) in a microwave - make sure you use a microwave-safe container and leave at least 1-2 inches from the top of the milk to the rim of the container. Heat on low for 10 seconds at a time, stirring well in between each 10 second blitz, till the milk is steaming and allow the tea to steep.
  • Whilst the tea is brewing/ steeping, make some strong coffee.
  • Once the tea has steeped, add the coffee (to the tea) followed by the condensed or evaporated milk (if using.)
  • Sweeten to taste then pour into the individual cups. (Some recipes sweeten the tea and coffee individually which I don't recommend as it's always best to sweeten the final drink.)
  • If using fillings, add after pouring into cups (this allows you to customise the fillings for each person.)

Iced Hong Kong Coffee milk tea

  • Follow Steps 1-4 above.
  • Chill the mixed beverage in the fridge, then sweeten right before serving- You would need to use a sugar syrup solution (or honey) here as sugar won't dissolve in a cold drink.
  • Alternatively, you can use sugar to sweeten right after mixing the coffee and tea (when they're still hot) - but note that how sweet something tastes changes with the temperature for the SAME drink, so it's always best to sweeten at the temperature you want to drink. (i.e. the same cup of tea may taste perfect when hot, then bland when cold.)
  • Once ready to drink, pour into cups, add ice and any filings you like.

Notes

Note: the nutritional information is an estimate automatically calculated using the WPRM recipe maker and I am not responsible for its veracity. It doesn't include the nutrition info for optional fillings such as boba.
Note: The Cultural Department of Hong Kong (HK) actually recommends a 3:7 ratio for making HK  coffee milk tea (3 parts coffee to 7 parts Hong Kong milk tea) but I've changed the ratio to make measurements easier! You can of course, change the ratio to your taste if you prefer a stronger coffee or tea flavor.
 
Authentic (but complicated) Hong Kong milk tea
The recipe card above is a simplified way to make Yuan Yang Tea, but if you want to go all-in, read on:
The standard tea mix for Hong Kong milk tea is Broken Orange Pekoe (BOP) leaves, BOF Fannings, Dust and Lipton (BOP and Ceylon) tea in the ratio 3: 3: 3: 1. BOP tea gives the drink its aroma, BOF Fannings its deep color, Dust the strong taste and Lipton is an all-round enhancer.
To make milk tea the way the Hong Kong eateries do, you need to place the tea leaves in a "silk stocking"- not a real stocking but so called because of its resemblance! (You can buy them in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong- they're also called "coffee socks.") The silk stocking is placed in a kettle, and 95C/ 203F water is added to the kettle- don't fill it to the brim or it'll be difficult to "pull" later. 
Leave the tea to steep for 15 minutes then transfer the silk stocking (with tea leaves still inside) to a 2nd kettle/ teapot (that is at least as large as the 1st.) Pour the tea through the silk stocking from a height of about 60 cm (to ensure there is equal pressure on all the leaves and thus an even taste.) 
Do this 4 times. (This replaces the tea strainer as it filters out the tea leaves and makes the tea less bitter.) After the tea has been pulled, steep for another 5 minutes, then add evaporated milk in the ratio 3: 7 (3 parts evaporated milk to 7 parts tea.)
If this is too laborious, use my easy method above!

Nutrition

Calories: 129kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 26mg | Sodium: 82mg | Potassium: 349mg | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 346IU | Calcium: 264mg | Iron: 0.01mg