The Hong Kong Milk Tea Handbook · hkstylemilktea.com/recipe/
How to make Hong Kong milk tea
You will not match a good cha chaan teng — they are pulling from a pot that has been running all morning, through a sock seasoned for months. You can get surprisingly close. The two things that matter most are using broken-grade tea and using enough of it: this recipe will look like far too much tea. It isn't.
The recipe
Ingredients
- Black tea blend — see note below28 g
- Water, freshly boiled700 ml
- Evaporated milk, unsweetened120 ml
- Sugar, to taste, at the table2 tsp
No Hong Kong blend to hand? Use roughly two parts Ceylon broken orange pekoe, one part any cheap strong black tea taken out of its bags (that's your fannings and dust), and one Lipton Yellow Label bag on top as the finishing tea. Loose whole-leaf Darjeeling or a delicate oolong will not work — they are the wrong tool.
A cotton tea sock if you can get one (they're cheap online, sold as 茶袋 or "milk tea filter bag"); otherwise a fine sieve lined with a doubled square of unbleached muslin. Two heatproof jugs or pots you can pour between. Thick cups, warmed.
About 25 minutes
- Load the sock. Put the tea in the bag and set it in your first pot. Rinse a brand-new sock through with boiling water first, or the cup will taste of cotton.
- Boil hard, briefly. Pour the boiling water through the tea, bring the pot back to a boil and hold it there for 3 minutes. The liquid should go almost black.
- Pull it, four times. Lift the sock out and pour the tea into your second pot from as high as you can manage without decorating the wall. Put the sock back, pour it through again. Repeat until you've done four passes. It will foam, then settle.
- Cover and wait. Leave the sock in, lid on, off the heat, for 12 minutes. Don't stir it. Don't squeeze the bag — that's where bitterness lives.
- Pull twice more, then lift the sock out and let it drain on its own. Reheat gently if it has dropped below scalding, but do not re-boil.
- Milk in the cup first. Put 60 ml of evaporated milk into each warmed cup, then pour the hot tea straight onto it from height. The colour you're after is a solid, opaque tan — like a well-made caramel, not like weak coffee.
- Sugar at the table, in the cup, by the person drinking it. Two teaspoons is the traditional starting point and most people quietly want three.
Printed from hkstylemilktea.com/recipe/ — the full page explains the common mistakes and where to buy the tea, milk and sock outside Hong Kong.
Troubleshooting
Eight ways people get it wrong
Using nice whole-leaf tea
The single most common failure. Big intact leaves extract slowly and gently, so you get a thin, aromatic tea that disappears the instant milk hits it. Fix: use broken grades, fannings and dust. Cheap supermarket teabags are closer to correct than an expensive single-estate leaf.
Using fresh milk
Fresh milk is ~87% water, so it dilutes exactly what you were trying to concentrate, and it lacks the cooked-lactose note the drink is built on. It can also curdle against a very tannic, very hot brew. Fix: unsweetened evaporated milk. If you only have condensed, that's a legitimate different drink — see 茶走 on the menu below.
Boiling the leaves the whole time
Twenty minutes at a rolling boil doesn't make it stronger, it makes it burnt and papery, and it blows off the aromatics. Fix: a short hard boil for extraction, then cover and steep off the heat for body.
Squeezing the bag
Wringing the sock forces out the harshest, most astringent fraction plus a load of fine sediment. Fix: let it drain under its own weight. Pulling does the extraction; squeezing only adds bitterness.
Skipping the pulling
Straining once through a sieve gets you tea with milk in it. Pulling is what makes it silky — it filters progressively, emulsifies the fats and drops the temperature into the drinkable band. Fix: four passes minimum, poured from height.
Washing the sock with soap
Detergent strips the seasoning and, worse, cotton holds onto it — your next three cups will taste faintly of washing-up liquid. Fix: rinse in very hot water only, wring it out, hang it to dry. Replace it when it starts smelling stale rather than tea-ish.
Pouring milk into tea
Trickling cold milk into a hot pot scalds it in stages and gives an uneven, slightly grainy result. Fix: milk into the cup first, hot tea poured onto it from height, in one go. The turbulence does the mixing.
Under-dosing the tea, then over-sugaring to compensate
If the cup tastes weak and you fix it with sugar, you've made a milkshake. The drink is supposed to have a distinct bitter edge underneath the creaminess — that edge is the point. Fix: more tea, not more sugar.
Sourcing
海外點整
Making it outside Hong Kong
The method travels fine. The ingredients are the hard part: the right tea, real evaporated milk and a cloth sock are all easy to get wrong in a supermarket that has never heard of a cha chaan teng. Here is what to look for.
茶葉The tea
Best: a ready-made Hong Kong milk tea blend, sold loose by some Chinese supermarkets and online.
Or build your own: two parts Ceylon broken orange pekoe, one part strong, cheap black tea cut out of its bags, and one bag of Lipton Yellow Label or another fragrant Ceylon tea on top. Skip whole-leaf and flavoured teas.
淡奶The milk
Look for: unsweetened evaporated milk. Carnation is in ordinary supermarkets in the UK, Canada and the US, and so is PET in the US. Black & White, the Hong Kong café brand, is sold by Asian grocers in the UK and Australia, and by Woolworths in Australia.
None at all? Make it. Simmer full-fat milk gently, uncovered and stirring often, until it has reduced by a little over half: 270 ml of milk gives the 120 ml this recipe needs. It tastes slightly less cooked than canned, but it works.
茶袋The sock
Search for: "Hong Kong milk tea filter bag", "tea sock" or "coffee sock". They are easiest to find online. Cotton is the traditional choice; nylon-mesh versions exist too and are easier to wash.
No sock? In order of preference: a cotton nut-milk bag, which is the same idea; a fine sieve lined with doubled muslin or cheesecloth; or, as a last resort, a paper coffee filter, which the tea dust will slowly clog.
"Evaporated creamer" and "evaporated filled milk" sit on the same shelf as evaporated milk and look almost the same, but the milk fat has been replaced with vegetable oil, often palm or soybean, and some are sweetened. They cost less, and some cafés use them for that reason. They make a thinner, sweeter cup. In the US, some cans sold under the Black & White name are filled milk too. Check the ingredients: you want milk and milk fat, and no vegetable oil.
"Hong Kong milk tea" on a packet often means an instant 3-in-1 powder or a bottled, ready-to-drink tea. Both are pre-sweetened and neither contains leaves you can brew. For this recipe you want loose tea.
Where to look
| Where you are | Try first | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 99 Ranch Market; T&T in Washington and California; Chinatown grocers | Carnation and PET are in ordinary supermarkets. Check that a Black & White can says "full cream". |
| Canada | T&T Supermarket (BC, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec) | Carnation is in ordinary supermarkets. |
| United Kingdom | Wing Yip (Birmingham, Manchester, London); Hoo Hing (London); Chinatown grocers | Carnation is in most supermarkets; Asian grocers sell Black & White. |
| Australia | Miracle Supermarket (Sydney); Asian grocers in other cities | Woolworths stocks Black & White evaporated milk. |
| Singapore and Malaysia | Ordinary supermarkets | Many cans on the evaporated-milk shelf are creamer or filled milk. Read the label. |
| Anywhere else | Online Asian grocers | The easiest place to find tea socks and Hong Kong blends. |
Quick swaps
| If you can't find | Use |
|---|---|
| A Hong Kong blend | 2 parts Ceylon broken orange pekoe, 1 part bagged black tea, 1 Ceylon teabag on top |
| Evaporated milk | Full-fat milk, simmered until reduced by a little over half |
| A tea sock | A cotton nut-milk bag, or a sieve lined with doubled muslin |
| Two pots to pull between | Two heatproof jugs |
| Thick cha chaan teng cups | Any heavy mug, warmed with hot water first |
Brands and shops last checked October 2026.