IT CAN BE MILK TEA OVER COFFEE FOR HONG KONG
Culture-Magazine | IT'S MILK TEA OVER COFFEE | Culture-Magazine.com
Some cities are fuelled by coffee. In Hong Kong, it can be milk tea that keeps things going — a potent nostalgia-infused caffeine hit, with fierce competitors to brew the best in the town. There are thousands of restaurants delivering the full gamut of international cuisines, but the city’s no-frills diner-style cafes, a few of them decades old, remain perennial favourites with locals and still do a roaring trade.
Recognised in Cantonese as “cha chaan tengs” or “tea restaurants” they serve up cheap local favourites, from fried egg sandwiches and buttery French toast to noodle soups and macaroni. The standard accompaniment is a milk tea, or “lai cha” — a tangy, deep-tan brew formed from blends of black tea strained again and again for strength, then mixed with condensed or evaporated milk. The city gulps down about 2.5 m cups a day. At family-run tea shop Lan Fong Yuen, on a hilly market place in Hong Kong’s Central district, business suggests no signs of slowing after 60 years. Owner Lam Chun-chung mentions the no-fuss nature of Hong Kong’s tea restaurants performs an enormous role of their popularity in a rapid-paced city. “folks are always in a hurry. Having a sudden bite with milk tea is fast and easy,” mentions Lam, who adds that his cafe has much more character than the developing number of sterile coffee shops. “We signify the grassroots. If you find yourself right here you feel a sense of community,” he mentions.
Customers sit around shared wood tables, many stopping for just 10 minutes to grab a fast breakfast or mid-morning boost. A tea master juggles steaming pots on an electric stove, straining the hot brews by way of long cloth sieves — a key utensil for any serious Hong Kong “lai cha” joint. The sock-like strainer has given Hong Kong milk tea one of its nicknames: “stocking milk tea”. At this cafe, tea is strained 7 times to intensify the flavour. Lam taught the present tea master his skills and nonetheless drinks a cup or two of milk tea each day. It is an obsession, he says, but also a way to monitor standards.
Milk tea is a local institution and has even formed it onto an official record of the city’s “intangible cultural heritage”. Hong Kong’s Association of Coffee and Tea says additionally it is building a global fanbase. The organisation has been running Hong Kong milk tea contests global for the past 7 years, and they are growing. Earlier this month, rivals from Hong Kong, mainland China, Canada and Australia all competed for the “KamCha” or “Golden Cup” award in the association’s biggest tea competition, on home turf. Local contestant Chen Chi-ping, 44, emerged successfully — he has been forming milk tea in Hong Kong “cha chaan tengs” for 22 yrs. “Every detail needs to be strictly precise — the heat of the stove, the water degrees,” he announces. The aroma and strength, as well as the thick consistency, make Hong Kong-style milk tea exclusive, Chen adds.
It has flowed by means of the city’s arteries for more than half a century, in line with association chairman Simon Wong, who tells the way it used to be first served on Hong Kong’s docks to sailors and labourers, an earthy conversion of the weaker version made with fresh milk by way of the colonial British who ruled at that time. “Hong Kong folks desired something with further shot. So we invented this type of brewing,” Wong says. The energy of the tea and the canned milk made it worth for money — few ordinary Hong Kongers at that time would afford fresh milk. Wong’s father — a tea trader — used to be a proponent of the new concoction, setting up one of the first “cha chaan tengs” in Hong Kong, which still occurs in these days. Mainland China has now additionally advanced a taste for Hong Kong-style milk tea, and immigrant communities over the world are introducing it to new international countries, says Wong. The winning formula? Each tea champion Chen and cafe owner Lam agree — it’s the passion to make a strong cuppa, says Chen.
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