How Hong Kong-style milk tea became part of local culture

For as long as Hong Kong food writer Emily Tong Lai-fong can remember, she’s been eating at Wai Kee Noodle Café near her childhood home in Sham Shui Po. Wai Kee started serving the community as a dai pai dong (open-air food stall) in the 1950s.

Although it has evolved over the past six decades – moving off the street and into a more permanent home – one thing that has stayed the same for Tong is her regular order: a cup of Hong Kong-style milk tea. “We have grown up together,” she says, taking a sip of the invigorating brew.

In the short time we’ve been here, there’s been a fast turnover of customers shuffling in and searching for a spare plastic stool. Sitting shoulder to shoulder around five foldable round tables, people scoff down dishes such as pork liver noodles, ordered from wall-mounted menus with red Chinese characters. Despite being strangers, one thing they have in common is their drink of choice.

Known as yeet lai cha (hot milk tea), Hong Kong milk tea has a rich, hearty flavour. It’s made creamy with the addition of evaporated milk, and packs a long-lasting tannin punch from the carefully steeped and “pulled” mix of tea leaves. “It’s a comfort drink,” says Tong, who is in her 40s, adding she drank it daily as a child.

Milk tea is a staple for many Hongkongers; its sweetness making it palatable for all ages, despite its high caffeine levels. It is firmly part of the city’s eating out culture. Due to the complexities of making it, however, Tong says it is “near impossible to make a good one at home”.

Hong Kong milk tea is a product of the city’s colonial past. During British rule, English tea was served almost exclusively in hotels or high-end Western restaurants. “That meant most [local] Hong Kong people could not afford it,” says Donald Tse Chung-tak, a Hong Kong milk tea master. But following the second world war, the English tea “trend” eventually filtered down to the traditional street food stalls.

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Bing sutt (ice café), cha dong (tea house) and dai pai dong specialised in selling affordable variations of Western dishes for locals. Tse says the ingredients of the British tea were “localised” and adapted to Hongkongers’ tastes. Regular milk was replaced with the evaporated milk that is still used today (many tea makers say Black&White evaporated milk makes the smoothest cuppa), and a stronger blend of tea leaves were chosen.