Hong Kong Yuanyang: Coffee With Tea

Ingredients

• 1 cup Bolivian drip coffee (brewed extra strong)
• 1 cup Hong Kong-Style milk tea
• 1/2 to 1 cup ice

Steps:

1. Gather the ingredients.
2. In a medium-sized pitcher, mix the coffee with the tea.
3. Prepare two 8-ounce glasses by adding ice to taste to each.
4. Pour the coffee and tea mixture over the ice.

Adjust the Yuanyang to Your Taste

Our recipe uses a 1:1 ratio of coffee to milk tea and it’s a great place to begin. But adjusting the beverage to your liking is very simple and just requires a little experimentation:

• If the 1:1 ratio doesn’t fill your needs, you can try to go as far as 7 parts of milk tea to 3 parts of coffee. Measure in ounces and aim for a total of 10 to 12 ounces of the prepared mixture per person. The flavor is also going to depend on the strength of your coffee as well as the type of tea.
• As milk tea is already sweetened, try to play with the amount of condensed milk used in it.

Quick Yuanyang

If pressed for time, use this quick version of the recipe for a cup of yuanyang:

• Place 2 bags of black tea in a cup of boiling water and let sit for 8 minutes. Remove the bags.
• Brew one cup of dark roast coffee.
• Add the tea to the coffee and mix with 3 ounces of condensed milk.
• For a cold version pour the mixture over ice.

Why Is Yuanyang So Popular?

The history of Hong Kong made it possible for yuanyang to be so popular. From 1839 until 1997, Hong Kong was under British rule. During this time, capitalism, modernization, and Western views made an indelible imprint on the economics and culture of the island, while British customs became part of the local culture. Among those rituals is the famous afternoon tea, a tradition in which fancy cakes, confections, fine patisserie, and finger sandwiches are served amongst the finest teas. The craze for tea persists, but as there became less time to sit down and enjoy a spread of pastries and tea in the middle of the afternoon, yuanyang seemed like a great two-in-one beverage in which tea meets a much-needed coffee shot to keep going with the day.