Evaporated milk, explained
Evaporated milk is milk with about 60% of its water taken out, sealed in a can and sterilised. Nothing sweetens it. Hong Kong calls it 淡奶, or 花奶 after the Carnation brand, and it makes up roughly 30% of a cup of milk tea.
What it is
Milk, minus most of the water
Fresh milk is about 87% water. Take out most of that, sterilise what's left in a sealed can, and you have a shelf-stable milk that's thick, creamy and faintly caramel. That faint caramel is half the reason milk tea tastes the way it does.
The milk is standardised for fat, heated, then boiled gently under a vacuum, at about 65–70°C, so the water leaves without scorching it. It's homogenised, canned and sterilised in the can at 110–120°C.
Carnation's maker says about 60% of the water. The Canadian Dairy Commission says milk reduced to half its volume. They describe the same thing two ways.
The heat of sterilising sets off the Maillard reaction between milk protein and milk sugar. It gives the milk a light caramel colour and a slightly cooked taste, which darkens a little as a can ages.
The international food standard, Codex Alimentarius, requires evaporated milk to have at least 7.5% milk fat and 25% milk solids. Hong Kong's food composition rules set at least 7.8% milk fat and 25.5% milk solids. One Hong Kong regulation even defines 煉奶, condensed milk, as milk condensed "whether or not sugar has been added", and says it includes evaporated milk, 淡奶.
Side by side
Evaporated, condensed, filled or fresh
Four milks sit near each other on the shelf, and each makes a different cup of tea.
On a narrow screen, scroll the table sideways.
| Milk | What it is | Sugar | Fat | How it keeps | In milk tea |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evaporated milk淡奶 | Milk with about 60% of the water removed | None added | Milk fat, at least 7.5% | Sterilised in the can | The standard: roughly 30% of the cup |
| Sweetened condensed milk煉奶 | Milk with water removed and sugar added | About 45% of the can | Milk fat, at least 8% | The sugar preserves it | Replaces both milk and sugar in 茶走 |
| Filled evaporated milk植脂淡奶 | Evaporated skimmed milk with vegetable fat in place of milk fat | Some brands add it: check the label | Vegetable oil: palm, coconut or soybean | Sterilised in the can | Cheaper; a thinner, sweeter cup |
| Fresh milk鮮奶 | Milk as it comes, about 87% water | None added | Milk fat, about 3.5% in full-fat milk | Kept in the fridge | Too thin: it waters the tea down |
Read the ingredients. Evaporated milk lists milk, and usually a stabiliser. Filled evaporated milk lists vegetable oil. Hong Kong Memory, the heritage archive, gives milk tea's milk as "evaporated milk or filled milk": cha chaan tengs use both.
Condensed milk is roughly 45% sugar. Swap it for evaporated milk and you've made a different, much sweeter drink. That drink has its own name: 茶走.
History
Why Hong Kong milk tea uses it
British tea in Hong Kong came with fresh milk. The local drink came with a can.
Fresh milk was scarce and expensive in early Hong Kong: Dairy Farm was founded in 1886 with the aim of halving its price. After the war, in the 1950s, eateries switched to cheaper tea and canned milk to keep prices down, and the heavy, sweetened drink suited people doing manual work. Canned milk needed no fridge, which many families didn't have.
It stayed because it works. With most of its water gone, evaporated milk thickens the cup and softens the tannin without watering the tea down, and its cooked note is now part of the taste. Sociologist Selina Chan has said evaporated milk "was initially a coping strategy".
Black & White 黑白淡奶 is made in the Netherlands by FrieslandCampina for the Hong Kong market. It turned 85 in 2026, which dates it to 1941, the year a history of Hong Kong industry also gives. Carnation 三花, from Nestlé, is the other name you'll see, in full-cream and reduced-fat versions.
In the kitchen
Using evaporated milk
Pour what's left into a clean container with a lid and keep it in the fridge. Nestlé says use it within 5 days; Black & White's label says 4.
It can separate when it thaws.
Mix 1 part evaporated milk with 1¼ parts water for something close to ordinary milk.
Simmer 270 ml of full-fat milk, uncovered and stirring often, until 120 ml is left. Keep it in the fridge like fresh milk: it isn't sterilised, and it won't have the canned caramel note.
Sources
- Codex Alimentarius — Standard for evaporated milks (CXS 281-1971)
- Codex Alimentarius — Standard for sweetened condensed milks (CXS 282-1971)
- Codex Alimentarius — Blend of evaporated skimmed milk and vegetable fat (CXS 250-2006)
- Hong Kong e-Legislation — Food and Drugs (Composition and Labelling) Regulations, Cap. 132W
- Centre for Food Safety — Harmful Substances in Food (Amendment) Regulation 2011 (definition of condensed milk)
- Tetra Pak Dairy Processing Handbook — Condensed milk
- Tetra Pak Dairy Processing Handbook — Recombined milk products (filled milk)
- Nestlé — Carnation FAQs (water removed, freezing, mixing with water)
- Nestlé Hong Kong — product FAQs (storing an opened can)
- Canadian Dairy Commission — Evaporated milk
- Hong Kong Memory — History of Hong Kong-style milk tea
- Hong Kong Memory — Ingredients, utensils and brewing process
- South China Morning Post, HK Magazine — Why is evaporated milk so popular in Hong Kong?
- South China Morning Post (2026) — Going Dutch: Black and White and the taste of milk tea
- Industrial History of Hong Kong — condensed and evaporated milk in Hong Kong
- Goldthread — Why Hong Kong's milk tea is in a class of its own (Selina Chan)
- Time Out Hong Kong (2026) — Black & White celebrates its 85th anniversary
- Nestlé Hong Kong — Carnation evaporated milk (full cream and reduced fat)
- Marupo (Substack) — Ingredient lore: evaporated milk (the name 花奶)