“I’ve never heard of that kind of tea before.” Bill Waddington
Milk tea being made at the Rohini Estate, Darjeeling, India.
It’s not very often that I say those words. But it happened while I was in India last month. Almost every tea place I stopped in - street stalls, tea broker’s offices, tea gardens - I would be asked if I wanted tea. Of course I would say “yes.” I would be asked if I wanted “black tea” or “milk tea.” And this gave me pause.
Milk tea being served at the Rohini Estate, Darjeeling.
At first I thought they just meant a black tea served with milk on the side. But it became clear this was not what they meant. “Milk Tea” was a completely different/unique concoction: not black tea, not tea with milk, not “Royal Milk Tea,” not boba or bubble tea, not chai tea (or masala chai). I already knew all of those. Milk tea is its own thing. So of course I asked for it. Then asked for it at the next place, and the next place ... It’s reaalllly good. It is strong, sweet, smooth, milky (duh), and the method of preparation totally took me by surprise. In the interest of full disclosure my wife did not like it, but EVERYONE at TeaSource did.
This is one of the things I most love about tea: almost every culture in the world drinks tea-and almost all of them do something different with it. Tea snobs be damned.
On Thursday, April 17 at Noon (CST) I will be doing a Livestream broadcast, demonstrating how to make Indian Milk Tea. To participate, just click here, log in, then sit back and enjoy!
FYI, we try to do Livestream broadcasts approximately once a month. All are welcome to watch and participate. We announce these on Twitter and Facebook, as well as our monthly email newsletter.
Thanks, -Bill
Comments
Bill, the Livestream was very interesting. Did they ever explain how they came to this process for milk tea? It seems almost backwards from the standard methods of adding “condiments” to tea, ie. sweeteners, etc. Here, the tea almost appears to be a condiment to the boiled milk.
I tried milk tea with a non dairy milk. I’ve never made it with dairy milk so I’ve nothing to compare it to, but it was terrific. I used an unsweetened almond and coconut blend. It may have been a bit more tropical tasting because of the coconut milk. I could see this on a cold rainy day or after snow shoveling in winter. It would definitely fortify you! I wanted to try this so bad Thursday but I had hand surgery Wednesday and didn’t think I should boil milk with one hand. LOL. I dated someone of Dutch background many years ago that made milk coffe a similar way (well anyway his mother made it for him). Thanks Bill for introducing us to something new! At least to us Midwesterners.
If you missed the live event or if you want to see it again, you can watch it here: http://new.livestream.com/accounts/3409548/milk-tea