What it is
Black tea with milk (紅茶牛奶, hongcha niunai) is old-style Taiwanese black tea mixed with fresh milk. The name points to real milk. Breakfast-shop milk tea (奶茶) is often made with creamer, whose main ingredient is vegetable oil. In Kaohsiung it is a standard order at the city's old black tea shops.
Where it came from
Black tea growing took hold in Taiwan under Japanese rule. In the 1920s plantations of Indian tea varieties were laid out at Yuchi (魚池) in Nantou, and the Yuchi Black Tea Research Institute opened there in 1926.
In Kaohsiung, black tea shops have been part of street life since the 1950s or earlier, and many have passed through several generations of one family. Lao Chiang (老江紅茶牛奶), founded in 1953, has its main shop in the Liuhe Night Market and carries the drink in its name. By the early 2020s it ran about ten of its own shops around the city.
How it is made
Shops brew black tea in big batches and chill it. Old-style tea (古早味紅茶) is often not plain: its familiar taste comes from black tea brewed with barley and cassia seed (決明子) and flavoured with vanilla powder. Fresh milk is then mixed in. Lao Chiang adds 高牧 brand fresh milk to a dark tea base that is slightly bitter, almost like coffee.
How to eat it
In Kaohsiung it goes with toast, as breakfast or a late-night snack. At Lao Chiang the most-ordered item is ham and egg toast with a soft-cooked egg, and the shop also sells Taiwanese egg tarts. To be sure of fresh milk rather than creamer, look for 紅茶牛奶 or 鮮奶茶 on the menu.
Around Taiwan
- Kaohsiung
- Several old black tea shops survive in Cianjin, Yancheng and Sinsing districts. Lao Chiang's main shop is in Sinsing District, by the Liuhe Night Market. Yu Chuan (諭泉冰果店), another Sinsing shop, is billed as the place that started black tea with soy milk (紅茶豆乳).
