Hong Kong Milk Tea (港式奶茶)

Name: Hong Kong Milk Tea (港式奶茶)
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Ingredients: 5 bags black tea; 3 cups boiled hot water; 3 tbsp sweetened condensed milk (or more)

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Made with minimum ingredients, this Hong Kong Milk Tea (港式奶茶) comes together quickly and easily and tastes just like the ones you find at a Hong Kong cafe or diner (茶餐廳). Perfect hot or iced, this milk tea is a deliciously strong drink to kick start your morning.

Another classic drink served at HK cafes, this Hong Kong style milk tea is a strong, creamy, and flavourful drink that can be served with any meal. While there are instant powdered versions of HK milk tea, I prefer this homemade version as it takes next to no time to make and you can adjust how strong or sweet you’d like it.

As I explained in my Hong Kong Iced Tea post, a 茶餐廳 or a cha chaan teng is a type of restaurant commonly found in Hong Kong, Macau, and parts of Guangdong. In English, it translates to pretty much Hong Kong Style Cafes. In a way, they were like the OG fast food as the food was viewed as “cheap western food.” This HK milk tea, along with the HK lemon tea is a staple and I always see it on the menu as an add-on or part of a combo.

Another name for this drink is “pantyhose” or “silk stocking” milk tea as a sackcloth bag is used to filter the tea leaves, making it look like a silk stocking. It’s said that this method of making milk tea produces a drink that’s silkier and smoother. However, I’m going with what I have on hand and am using tea bags or a regular tea strainer.

Ingredients You’ll Need

Ingredients needed to make hong kong milk tea.

black tea — I’m not too picky about my black tea. I usually use a breakfast blend or orange pekoe. To be honest with you, due to how much tea is needed for this HK milk tea, I don’t break out the $$$ stuff. It can add up, especially with expensive teas. HK milk tea requires a LOT of tea as it’s traditionally a strong drink.
sweetened condensed milk — this is what gives it that sweet creamy taste.

How to Make Hong Kong Milk Tea

Steep 5 bags of black tea in 3 cups of boiled filtered water for 10 minutes.
Stir in the the sweetened condensed milk and remove the tea bags. Enjoy as is or chilled/with ice.

How to Make Hong Kong Milk Tea Bubble Tea

Want to turn this simple milk tea into bubble tea? Easy! All you need is tapioca, brown sugar, and water.

Prepare your tapioca pearls according to the package (½ cup).
In a pot, combine ¼ cup muscovado sugar with 40 ml of water and bring it to a boil. Turn down the heat to a simmer and add in the prepared tapioca pearls. Simmer until the brown sugar syrup has thickened. Simmering the cooked tapioca pearls in the syrup just adds more flavour to them.
Remove from heat once it has thickened.

Recipe Tips and Notes

Add more tea for a stronger and deeper coloured milk tea.
If you only loose leaf tea, usually it’s 1 teaspoon loose leaf tea = 1 tea bag.
To make this ahead of time, you can chill the milk tea mixture in the fridge overnight so you can enjoy it for breakfast.
Don’t wait too long to stir in the condensed milk. The condensed milk melts into the tea better when it’s hot.
You can also stir in some evaporated milk if you’d like. However, you’ll still need condensed milk to add sweetness.

Is black tea high in caffeine?

In general, black tea has the highest amount of caffeine. Also, keep in mind that this HK milk tea uses more tea than a general cup of tea so I avoid drinking this after 2-3 PM so it doesn’t affect my sleep.

Can I make my own tapioca?

If you want, you can definitely make your own pearls. For a while, I made my own but it was so time consuming rolling every single tapioca pearl by hand that I just purchase the shelf stable ones instead. This is the one I buy.