After reading numerous Chinese articles, I created this recipe because none of them sounded anything like the milk tea I drank previously. When I visit a tea shop, I always get a honey milk tea. Technically speaking, milk tea and bubble tea are very similar; I’m not sure why the tea business divides them into two distinct categories. There are various varieties of bubble/milk tea, including Taiwanese, Hong Kong, and other variations. This milk tea has a Hong Kong flavor.
| Prep Time: | 5 mins |
| Additional Time: | 10 mins |
| Total Time: | 15 mins |
| Servings: | 1 |
| Yield: | 1 drink |
Ingredients
- 2 orange pekoe tea bags
- 1 cup boiling water
- 5 ice cubes
- 4 teaspoons sweetened condensed milk
- 3 teaspoons honey
Instructions
- Steep the tea bags in hot water until the color turns dark red, about 3 to 5 minutes. Discard the tea bags and let the tea cool.
- Combine the ice cubes, sweetened condensed milk, and honey in a glass or cocktail shaker. Pour in the tea and mix well. (If the tea is still warm, the ice may melt; add more ice if desired.) A strong, flavorful milk tea is ready for you to enjoy.
- A good strong-flavored tea is the key to making good milk tea. Add more honey to taste if you like a sweeter tea. If you have a martini shaker, you may use it to mix the milk tea.
Reviews
This was very yummy! It was very sweet, so next time I will use less condensed milk
This is a lovely tea, and it’s really not that sweet. It has a nice flavor and is great for a hot day, or warm on a cold day.
Exactly what I was hoping to accomplish! Brilliant recipe and thanks, Tao.
No changes. It was ok
I didn’t have Orange Pekoe tea, but I tried it with some vanilla macaron tea, it worked out wonderfully.
It was way too sweet but very good.Loved it.
A lovely, exotic tea. Made a pitcher full in the morning and the whole thing was gone by the end of the day!
**Edit: After finishing my first tea and going to clean out my cocktail shaker, I realized that a lot of the honey solidified and never made its way into the drink! Since then, I’ve made the drink a bit differently, adding the honey (2 tsp max) and the sweetened condensed milk to the shaker, then the (warm) tea. Mix that up, then add the ice and shake to chill. Now I do see what the other reviewers were saying about the sweetness. 2 tsp honey is enough for me. Original post: I thought this was excellent! I’m surprised that many of the reviews say this is too sweet as I actually think the sweetness is quite understated. We happened to have some lychee coconut jelly on hand as well as some of those big straws, so I cut some up and added it in.
It was nice. I used a hand blender to froth
This is an excellent drink. It almost tastes like that orange cream candy.
I love sweet stuff so this sounded like a good recipe. FAT FREE SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK ruined it
Love it
Deffinately didn’t turn out as I expected. I thought the honey was a little overpowering and the sweetened condensed milk was a bit much. But I think with a little tweeking, I can find something that suits my taste.
I tried this recipe and it was delicious! even better when I added cinnamon sticks :p yum!
My boyfriend and I love honey milk tea. He likes his mild and I like mine sweet. For his, I used less sweetened condensed milk and a larger amount of water and tea. He said the flavor was just like the tea he used to have with his friends in China.
First I tried just the honey and tea, which was too sweet for me; then I tried just the sweetened condensed milk and tea which was still a little too much, so I used a tablespoon of sweetened condensed per cup of tea. Still not quite like the delicious stuff from a shop, but pretty doggone good! 🙂
At first I wasn’t sure if I liked this so much but it grew on me. I made a lot so there was leftovers. I enjoyed it more the next day after being refrigerated for a day. I don’t know if I was more in the mood for it or it actually got better sitting there but I did like it quite a bit the second day.
I could not find the pekoe tea so instead, I just got a random black tea. The black tea was not strong enough, I was so disappointed. However, an idea came to me. I boiled the tea leaves in water for a while, then I left it on med-low heat for half an hour. The taste of the black tea was so much stronger. It made a huge difference! Then I added all the other ingredients and it was perfect. It really reminded me of the milk tea I had in Hong Kong. Thanks for sharing the ingredient!!
Wow, it was better than what I had expected. Perfect amount of creaminess and sweetness. An excellent formula. I used the exact recipe and directions. I made enough to fill my pitcher. Tonight I am cooking Asian. Thanks for sharing.
I love this recipe! Thanks so much for sharing it. My cousins and I made this tea a few weeks ago, and used plain milk in it; it tasted so great!
I guess orange pekoe tea is just a medium grade black tea, but I thought it meant orange spice black tea. It’s good with either! I used the full amount of honey and sweetened condensed milk.