Hongkong (HK) style Milk tea (Naicha)

In this cold season, when I came to do shopping in Chinatown, nothing is more cozy than a cup of hot Naicha, i.e. HK style milk tea, which can be bought in a pastry shop or a tea restaurant. It is even better when you accompany the tea with a cruchy and fragrant Poluo bun. These two are both very poplular in Hongkong. The milk tea is consumed millons of cups by Hongkong people each year. Long ago, I gave up making a cup of milk tea by mys...elf. The idea is simple. You pour some milk and sugar into a cup of black tea. But the quality is different. My own tea can not compare with the milk tea that is prepared by the professional, which is velvety smooth and pleasant-smelling. Although I m not a tea expert, I can feel the difference between a good prepared milk tea and a poor one. I read an article about the yearly held milk tea preparation championship in Hongkong. (You can search KamCha competition to learn more about it). Then I know that the road to become a champion in milk tea making is as long and hard as the roads to the champions in other fields. It needs the experience to control the time to infuse the tea, also the ratio between milk and the tea. It is also a business sececret to get the good black tea leaves and the condensed milk. Look at the picture. The Hongkong people use special tea pots and tea bags to filter the tea. The tea bags look like a long nylon sock that a lady usually wears in summer. That is why the HK style milk tea has another name, silk sock milk tea. In fact, the tea bag is not made of nylon or silk. It uses the sack cloth made of naturel materiel to make the tea keep its original flavor. The original color is white. After it soaks the tea water, it becomes dark brown. Thus we know that many factors decide the quality of the milk tea. So why not treat yourself by buying one cup. They can be served hot or cold. They are not expensive. That is why Naicha is enjoyed by Hongkong résidents. Offering a type of milk tea that is affordable by the grassrootz, that is the motivation that the HK style milk tea is invented in Hongkong, since under the colonaizaiton of the Great Britan, only the rich people enjoy the English style afternoon tea.