Hong Kong-style Milk Tea - Varieties

Varieties

Today, iced milk tea is usually prepared with ice cubes. However, in the old days, when machines for producing ice cubes were not popular, the iced milk tea was made by filling the hot milk tea into a glass bottle and then cooling it in a fridge. Sometimes the milk tea were filled in Vitasoy or Coca-Cola bottles, and were sold by bottle. Today this type of "bottle milk tea" is rare in Hong Kong. Iced milk tea in cans or plastic bottles can be found in many of the convenience stores around Hong Kong such as 7-Eleven and Circle K.

In the case of milk tea with ice cubes, the melting ice will dilute the content, thus affecting the taste of the drink; therefore, many people prefer the old way of preparing iced milk tea. Today, some cha chaan tengs serve ice-less iced milk tea, made by pouring hot milk tea into a plastic cup and then cooling it in a fridge. Another way is to place the cup/bottle into a cold water bath, which is called 冰鎮奶茶. This is often used as a selling point.

Cha chow (Chinese: 茶走) is milk tea prepared with condensed milk, instead of evaporated milk and sugar. Its taste is, as can be expected, sweeter than ordinary milk tea. In the old days, Cha chow was mostly drunk by older people who had "congestion" in their throats.

Milk tea and coffee together is called yuan yang (yin yang) (鴛鴦).

A variation on "silk stocking tea" is "silk stocking coffee".