What's you favorite tea to have with milk?
I don’t know what “milk tea” is since I am one of those weird Northern American folks, but I can say that I add just a touch of milk to just about all my teas (more milk for more flavored teas) I do tend to drink primarily ALL flavored teas, though, so I don’t know about ruining pure teas with milk since mine is already flavored. I add Slender Soy if anybody is super curious ;)
Being English, I find the term “milk tea” very odd. Almost everyone in the UK and Ireland takes milk in their black tea, while the consumption of green tea is very low. As you know, “black tea” does not mean tea without milk, like black coffee for example. It refers to tea leaves that have undergone fermentation, unlike “green tea”. You would have to specify that you did NOT want milk in your tea in the UK and Ireland. Tea over here is made strong. Without milk in it, it would taste very bitter and astringent. The milk softens the tannins yet leaves the aromas and flavors intact. The softened tannins help the flavor of the tea linger all round the mouth for longer, as they do with red wine and beer(tannin from hops). You need tannin in red wine but not a bitter aftertaste…the same with tea. I believe the UK and Ireland are among the few countries that normally add milk to tea….not sure about Australia. In countries where black tea is drunk and milk is not added, the tea tends to be made weaker and weaker to try and reduce the bitter astringency. When I was in Germany, I had to add 6 tea bags to one cup of tea to get any flavor at all. Most Germans and the French and will not be seen dead adding any milk to tea. So they do not like strong black tea. It is only in countries where milk is routinely added to black tea that the drink becomes popular and widespread. The combination of plain cold milk(not heated milk or cream or creamer for me) and black tea makes for a perfect balance of tannin and flavor. I believe Ireland is the biggest drinker of black tea in the world and almost all those people add milk to their tea. This suggests that unless you add milk to black tea, it will never become widely popular due to the bitter taste…merely an occasional thing made very weak or brewed for a very short time. This just ruins the flavour in my opinion.
i lived in the Uk for a while, and learned to take my tea with milk. however, i drank it with milk or cream before I moved to the UK. In Holland, parents add milk to red tea for their children, it’s refered to as baby tea here. most Dutch prefer red/‘black’ tea without milk though. Friesland (Frisia) has quite a tea consumption (even larger than the UK), and tea is popular here, though coffee is more popular in other region. I think it’s very personal. I have always loved tea, despite being born in one of the biggest coffee drinking nation on this planet. Every country has it’s one popular beverage, and that is only just.
I apologise to everyone for being a bit judgmental Starfevre. I got up on my high horse! However, I think there is a lot of snobbishness about how you ought to drink high quality tea without milk. The combination of just the right amount of milk and strong black tea is a match made in Heaven! Try it and you will be hooked! I even take a little milk in Darjeeling, about 1 teaspoon. In TGFOP Assam about 2-3 teaspoons and at least 4 teaspoons in PG Tips. In one go, the astringency disappears but the texture, flavour and aroma live on to refresh the palate. I have not taken any sugar in tea since I was 20 years old. I gave it up to lose weight at the time and replaced it with calorie-free sweeteners for a few months. Then I went off the sweeteners because of a bitter after-taste but could then not bear the taste of sugar in my tea. I still can’t stand sweetened tea to this day. There is enough lactose sugar in the milk for me. I think that probably the majority of people in England no longer take sugar in their tea, but very few drink it without any milk. It should not be forgotten that the vast majority of tea drunk in the world is blended black tea but it does not get much publicity. All we hear about are anti-oxidants and green tea. You would think that the Indians would drink a lot of tea but the consumption of tea is very low in India. They export most of it to the UK and Ireland and keep the rest for tourists! They much prefer coffee now.
We usually use milk for black teas and for black tea blends like English Breakfast and English Afternoon.
I like teas in milk. :) In Taiwan, the bubble teas are popular with milk. It becomes a nation drink. We have many varieties of teas with milk. My favorite is matcha latte in the morning. If I wake up late, I make condensed "teaspresso"charcoal roasted dong ding oolong or Iron Goddess of Mercy mixed with milk. Love it!
i drink my chai with soy milk, and love very deep strong assams (& Irish breakfast tea) to have with milk.
all other teas without milk or sugar or honey.
It’s funny, but I usually find myself putting milk into more flavored teas than straight ones. I’m on a big vanilla kick right now. The Vanilla Mystique from Dallywater’s is probably my favorite tea with milk.
makes me want to try more of my flavored blacks with milk. will start adding a touch at the end of teas for a bit.
Some travel article about robust tea culture in northern Germany- another tea+milk list. I hope to try it some day!
http://travel.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/travel/in-northern-germany-a-robust-tea-culture.html?emc=eta1&_r=0
Thanks for the link to the very interesting tea…I see that Kuwait actually drinks more tea than Ireland, which was news to me. This does not agree with my table below that puts United Arab Emirates top and Morocco second ahead of Ireland and Kuwait just behind the UK. USA not in top 47.
Rank Country Tea consumption
1 United Arab Emirates
6.24 kg (220 oz)
2 Morocco
4.34 kg (153 oz)
3 Ireland
3.22 kg (114 oz)
4 Mauritania
3.22 kg (114 oz)
5 Turkey
2.74 kg (97 oz)
6 Seychelles
2.08 kg (73 oz)
7 United Kingdom
1.89 kg (67 oz)
8 Kuwait
1.61 kg (57 oz)
9 Qatar
1.60 kg (56 oz)
10 Kazakhstan
1.54 kg (54 oz)
11 Malta
1.45 kg (51 oz)
12 Hong Kong
1.42 kg (50 oz)
13 Bahamas
1.35 kg (48 oz)
14 Syria
1.29 kg (46 oz)
15 Russia
1.21 kg (43 oz)
16 Gambia
1.19 kg (42 oz)
17 Guyana
1.18 kg (42 oz)
18 Botswana
1.13 kg (40 oz)
19 Aruba
1.10 kg (39 oz)
20 Iran
1.07 kg (38 oz)
21 Zimbabwe
1.05 kg (37 oz)
22 Chile
1.02 kg (36 oz)
23 Macau
1.01 kg (36 oz)
24 Japan
0.99 kg (35 oz)
25 Bahrain
0.98 kg (35 oz)
26 Georgia
0.95 kg (34 oz)
27 Egypt
0.93 kg (33 oz)
27 Thailand
0.93 kg (33 oz)
27 Mongolia
0.93 kg (33 oz)
30 Tunisia
0.92 kg (32 oz)
31 Poland
0.87 kg (31 oz)
32 Uzbekistan
0.86 kg (30 oz)
33 Turkmenistan
0.82 kg (29 oz)
33 China
0.82 kg (29 oz)
35 Barbados
0.81 kg (29 oz)
35 New Caledonia
0.81 kg (29 oz)
37 Malaysia
0.80 kg (28 oz)
38 Mozambique
0.75 kg (26 oz)
39 Fiji
0.74 kg (26 oz)
40 Saudi Arabia
0.72 kg (25 oz)
40 Kyrgyzstan
0.72 kg (25 oz)
42 Netherlands
0.71 kg (25 oz)
43 Jordan
0.70 kg (25 oz)
44 Myanmar
0.67 kg (24 oz)
45 New Zealand
0.65 kg (23 oz)
46 Swaziland
0.62 kg (22 oz)
47 Singapore
0.60 kg (21 oz)
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