To add milk, or not to add milk?

I had a hard time with this myself. For years I found my ratios to result in watery tea flavored milk. I’m definitely not a “dash” of milk type tea drinker. After much tinkering, I’ve found I prefer no less than a 1:1 milk water ratio… sometimes 2:1. The only “dash” of anything I put in is if I use coffee creamer- I use 1TB per cup. As for the types of tea I add milk to, I only add milk to dessert or chai flavored blacks (I’m not big on other blacks in any form). The one exception is when I make my favorite winter non-coffee drink: peppermint matcha hot chocolate.

I would say just try it and see how you like it! Sometimes I like a little milk (with or without sugar) in strong black teas. I steep in less water if I know I’m going to add milk. Milk is a good fix if you accidentally oversteeped too. I particularly like milk in sweet/fruity flavored teas, but there are some varieties I prefer without milk — for example, lapsang souchong, currant flavored black, and the cinnamon raisin toast tea from 52teas. I almost always have milk with spiced chais.

I use soymilk, but dairy milk is fine too obviously. :)

It’s all a matter of taste, but I generally don’t take milk in my teas. That said, I do occasionally like to have a dash of milk to round out a tea with strong flavors. For example, a little bit of milk in an earl grey with strong bergamot flavors can really mellow it out and make it more enjoyable. I’d experiment and see what you like.

I’ve never really gotten into the milk and sugar thing though. The only time I’ll do this is when I’m making chai.

I usually take a bit of milk…well, actually half-and-half…with a breakfast blend, but there’s really no hard and fast rule for me. I play with each new tea to see what I like with it, if anything. I do tend to like strong black teas with milk and sugar, but there are exceptions.

Like LeafJoy said, it’s a matter of personal taste.

I can’t have too much dairy products, so I use almond milk in some of my tea/tisanes. If you want to try this, I really recommend Blue Diamond. It tastes more like milk than other brands I’ve tried.

I think most real tea, besides chai and black, tastes better plain with no additives.

I find adding milk to tea is much better if the milk is first steamed and frothed, latte-style. What I do is brew 8 oz of tea, double strength, and add 6-8 oz frothed/steamed milk to it. This creates a delicious tea latte that beats anything on the menu at Starbucks.

The teas that work best with this treatment tend to be bold-flavored black teas (Keemuns, strong Assams, English and Irish breakfast teas, etc.). Black teas with fruit flavoring or any type of chocolate or vanilla flavoring are also excellent as tea lattes. And I also make my own matcha lattes this way as well.

http://www.menopausemakeover.com/2011/04/06/matcha-green-tea-latte/

omg that looks so yummy

edit: just for clarification, i do not have menopause. i just googled matcha with milk, and that article came up.

I almost never put milk or sugar in tea. But some flavoured black teas can really be improved by it! Particularly, and to my taste, blends with chocolate, vanilla or caramel. Or Ceylon types.
I usually put just a small dash, maybe 10% or 5% of the volume of tea, I do not think it particularly dilutes it.

Personally, I adore a strong black tea with a splash of milk and sweetener. That has become my guilty pleasure almost each evening. I think it is really all about personal taste. I started drinking almost each tea this way but have learned over time to drink many teas without additions.

Hey! I see that many people have responded… but thought our blog post is pretty concise on that topic: http://www.shopsanctuaryt.com/blog/should-i-add-milk-to-my-tea/