Last Updated on 06/03/2020 by Desmond
Delicious breakfast in the morning must collocate a cup of milk tea, the strong aroma will sober you up at once. Who doesn’t want to get a better mood at the beginning of the day? So how to prepare a perfect cup of milk tea is worth learning.
CONTENT
Make The Tea Stronger
Just like making cold-brewed tea, you need to make a cup of strong black tea first. Because after add milk, the concentration will be diluted, and the taste of tea getting less. And more caffeine in tea also can bring you more energy.
So, when you choose loose tea, take more. And in teabags case, brew with less water, or steep for a longer time.
Suitable Black Tea Types
Black tea with a strong flavor typically is the best for making milk tea. For example, the pure tea Ceylon, Assam, and Lapsang Souchong are awesome; The flavored tea such as English breakfast and Earl Grey may are the most suitable.
More important than the tea origin is the processing mothed. It’s better to choose the crushed leaves, such as BOP, BOPF, or CTC(black tea grade), which can make the infusion stronger and more intense than the whole leaf tea.
Sometimes, some fen-flavor tea also good for making milk tea, such as No.18; they may without the bitter taste but also need to cut into crushed fine. The BOT grade black tea is probably the best to match milk.
Milk Is The Key
Milk must be fresh. Any artificial creamer or extended shelf-life milk is intolerable. There is no doubt that the higher the lipid contains, the better the quality of fresh milk, and the milk tea it made would taste better.
Usually, I prefer the milk from the single farm, which is natural, additive-free, has been HTST standard sterilization and has good reviews. Most of the time, the milk under these standards taste softer, and the flavor would not clash to the tea. Of course, if you can get the fresh milk which been sterilization under 65℃ for a long time, that will be best.
The volume and concentration of milk can depend on your taste. My habit is both tea and milk in 1:1; sometimes, tea will take more ratio.
About the temperature, I prefer to pre-heat it to warm first. The warm milk can send more fragrance, and would not make the tea cool down, make you feel more comfortable. To check the temperature of milk, just touch the container with your hand, don’t make it too hot to burn your hands.
Milk in first or milk in after?
When we preparing milk tea, add the milk in first, or after, that’s a question, which has been argued for a long time.
They both got an interesting name; The one who agree with milk in first called MIF, and who prefer to milk in after called MIA. They all have their opinion and never agree with the other side.
I got used to adding the milk first(MIF). Just like the way to make Hong Kong milk tea, lay the milk at the bottom of the cup first, then pour the hot black tea in, and stir. What I feel that can keep the black tea warm, and send more fragrance of tea and milk. Also, you may feel the lipid seems to wrap the tea and make it softer and smoother.
Later, Professor Herve This presented his answers in the book “Kitchen Mysteries: Revealing the Science of Cooking,” which based on scientific studies.
The studies suggested that people love milk tea than pure tea because there may have some protein in milk, which can neutralize the bitter taste of tea.
Therefore, add the milk in the hot tea, these proteins may be inactivation and lost the effect. In the MIF case, the milk will not heat too much during the mixing, and the proteins work and make the drink taste better.
