The Hong Kong Drink Combination That Starts With Milk Tea

Tea and coffee have become a popular drink combination in today's caffeinated age. England, building off of an Indian staple, likely gave us the dirty chai: espresso poured into a cup of chai — which, mind you, is not to be called chai tea – chai means tea after all. Ethiopia created spris, a 50-50 combination of strong black tea and even stronger coffee, which separates into layers in the cup. And Hong Kong created yuenyeung, a coffee-tea hybrid that can be served hot or cold.

Yuenyeung is a rich combination of traditional Hong Kong milk tea, coffee, and condensed milk for a sweet drink sure to kick your wakefulness into high gear. The name comes from the Chinese name for the mandarin duck, with "yuen" referring to the male duck and "yeung" to the female. It is a term meant to evoke both the duality working in perfect harmony and eternal love, as there is a belief in Chinese cultures that mandarin ducks mate for life. In the case of the yuenyeung beverage, the name evokes the tea and coffee coming together to form a delicious unity.

The Hong Kong restaurant Lan Fong Yuen claims to have invented the drink in 1952. Whether true or not, it appears to have grown popular selling to drivers and laborers who needed an extra caffeine boost to their milk tea to keep awake throughout long or grueling shifts. To this day, yuenyeung is a ubiquitous offering in coffee shops throughout East and Southeast Asia.

Yuenyeung is made with three or four simple ingredients, making it the perfect year-round beverage for caffeine lovers. All you need to create this iconic drink at home is Cylon tea, coffee, and one or both condensed and evaporated milk. There are different methods to crafting yuenyeung, so feel free to experiment to find the one that fits your tastes best.

One approach is to make Hong Kong milk tea by boiling black tea leaves and water before adding condensed milk, straining the leaves out, and adding it to hot coffee. Stir to combine and add more condensed milk if desired. If you want to use both condensed and evaporated milk, follow the same instructions while using a ratio of one tablespoon of condensed milk to six tablespoons of evaporated milk.

Maybe most simple of all, if you want to only use evaporated milk, pour ⅓ of a cup of evaporated milk into a mug, then add coffee until you've filled half the cup, and finally add tea and stir to combine all the ingredients. Any of these recipes can be made cold by preparing the coffee and tea in advance and refrigerating overnight before combining over ice.

To complete the themed breakfast, consider serving your yuenyeung with Hong Kong-style scrambled eggs. This delicious corned beef and egg combination emerged in Hong Kong diners and uses a potato starch slurry to achieve a light, fluffy texture that has to be tried to believe.