What's you favorite tea to have with milk?
*The original title was “what’s your favorite tea to make milk tea?” but I was told that the term “milk tea” refers to an unexciting children’s drink in North America. I wasn’t aware, but I guess Asians use it differently since my friends from Korea and Japan commonly use the term.
I am a big fan of milk tea, hot or iced, and while I am drinking more and more tea straight, milk tea will still hold a special place in my heart.
So I just wanted to know what brand or type of tea other people use to make their favorite cup of milk tea, whether it be a strong tea with a touch or cream or royal milk tea.
I usually use English Breakfast or Irish Breakfast, and sometimes just plain Assam CTC. I like to make royal milk tea with plenty of leaves, so I go for strong and affordable tea; I just ordered 250 loose leaf Barry’s Gold- hope I like it. I have one friend who likes Yorkshire Gold (Taylors of Harrogate), and another friend who loves Ahmad’s English Breakfast for her milk tea though she is not a big fan of Ahmad otherwise.
Other possibilities that I haven’t thought of, but my friends have tried, are Lupicia’s green tea (!) base with strawberry and vanilla flavoring. When it comes to flavored teas, I usually stuck with vanilla, caramel, almond, or cookie-like flavors, but it sounded interesting…
So, I would like to hear from all you milk tea lovers what you do for your cup of milk tea! Anything about milk tea is welcome. For example, I like to use La Perruche brown sugar cubes when I’m using non-flavored black tea.
In that case, the only tea I ever add milk to is black tea based chais. I’m trying to get brave enough to add it to a Kashmiri chai one day.
I think the phrase “milk tea” is not commonly used in America, must be Europen perhaps? But it is a good description of what I like in the morning. I’ve really been enjoying PG Tips lately. But I also like Twinings Irish and English Breakfast. Tried to get Barry’s tea not long ago. but the place that is supposed to carry it was out. @gander, let us know what you think when you get it! Where are you from?
Yeah that reminds me of “milk coffee” my grandma used to give me on days I was over for breakfast as a kid- milk w/ about 2oz of coffee in it. Because of this, when I heard “milk tea” I thought of some drastically diluted by milk tea. Looking back milk coffee wasn’t very good (it was cold on top of being really unporportionate in flavor) so I thought of the tea version being equally bad. I prefer to steep the same amount of tea I would for a cup made just w/ water in a reduced amount of water, steeped for an extra min, and then decant into milk (in a ratio of 1:1 or 2:1 milk to water) and reheat if necessary. I also heat the milk just a bit (30sec in the microwave) before decanting the tea into it.
I think you’re right, several people have pointed it out. I think milk tea is an Asian term, because I’ve met many Japanese and Korean friends who call tea with good amount of milk (rather than just a touch) “milk tea.”
And, of course! I’ll let you know how I like it. I got it from Amazon.com; search online stores inc tea: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BRV9NY/ref=oss_product
PS: I’m from South Korea but I’ve been living in Michigan for the past six years. Right now I live in Ann Arbor, MI and I mostly use Internet to order my tea because I’m a poor college student stuck without a car.
Hi poor student without car. i am poor as well and have no need for a car; not mechanically incline.
I do enjoy teas from Barry’s; I know that Trader Joe’s carries quite a variety of this tea if you’ve not tried them as yet:
http://www.traderjoes.com/index.asp
Also the store Irish Imports has many of Barry’s Teas costing about $8.00 a box. I believe they are only in Cambridge, Massachusetts. So may not be good for you.
I commented because although I do not take milk with my tea; I do believe that there are nice teas out there to be taken/enjoyed with milk or soy and nicely hot…cooked on a stove and adding cinnamon sticks and carnation milk to add richness and texture. Yums, if my stomach could tolerate but not.
Good luck in your studies. Stay a brazen, keen on becoming something by way of a professional.
I really like the Twinnings Irish Breakfast tea with milk and honey.
I drink nearly all of my black tea with milk.
Similar to what cofftea said – I’m familiar with the term “milk tea” referring to a child’s beverage with lots of milk and a little bit of tea for flavor. Not an exciting beverage…
I just found a local coffee place that sells “tea lattes” – tea brewed in their own sweetened vanilla milk. The Earl Grey version (which they call “London Fog”) is really tasty!
Ah, I wasn’t aware of the term “milk tea” as a child’s beverage. I guess it is an Asian term, because I first learned about it from my Asian friends. I think the term is commonly used in Japan and Korea.
I tried London Fog from some of the cafes, but the only problem is that the coffee cafes usually steep the tea for only a short amount of time and pour in steamed milk, and I end up with more vanilla than bergamot. When I make my own, however, I do like it; I wasn’t a big fan of earl grey with milk but vanilla helps.
I agree with kaypendragon. I always put a dash of milk in my black teas. I used to drink coffee and when I made the switch to tea I guess I just used milk out of habit. However, when I tried it on white, green, etc., it just never tasted “right.”
I’ve never tried honey in tea though. Maybe one day when I’m feeling adventurous lol.
Twinings English Breakfast with milk and sugar or honey is perfection! I’ve had it with boba pearls as well and it was delicious. :)
The only unflavored tea I’d ever think to touch with milk would be Assamese.
It’s not so much to lessen the extra bite that’s characteristic of the broader Assamica Sinsensis leaves, – I can handle that – but because the milk mixes in so well. Where with most teas, I find the milk to be a distracting, “extra” flavor, in teas from Assam it works surprisingly well. It not only curbs the boldness, it gives a really pleasant creamy flavor.
Aside from that, I’ll have milk with Masala Chai (of course), and a few teas from Lupicia’s flavored black selection. With a bit of milk and sugar, their Chocolat Marron (Chocolate Chestnut) tastes like hot chocolate – except a LOT better.
Green tea powder is the only “tea” tea I have with milk
http://gingkobay.blogspot.com/2009/07/green-tea-pop-ice-and-green-tea-latte.html
In some Asian cities, “milk tea” often refers to fruit-milk blend, no tea at all, not even herbal tea. For example, I like “mango milk tea”, which is fresh mango blended with milk and sugar (and sometimes half a banana) :D
I’ve tried adding milk to matcha, but I’m not a fan of milk other than in chai or espresso lattes and the milk taste was too strong in my matcha latte.
Growing in Korea, I thought to add milk to green tea was an abomination- But then again, I wasn’t aware of matcha until I was in my late teens! I like matcha by itself because it’s already frothy, but occasionally I do like matcha with milk. I have to make my own though, and I don’t have my matcha kit with me at school…
When I go out I like to have royal milk tea or some kind of flavored milk tea like honeydew. At home, with hot tea, I like just the basic english breakfast with milk. Usually, I don’t like adding milk to my tea unless it’s at an afternoon tea.
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