Milk tea facts for kids
Milk tea refers to several forms of beverage found in many cultures, containing some combination of tea and milk. The term milk tea is used for both hot and cold drinks that can be combined with various kinds of milks and a variety of spices. This is a popular way to serve tea in many countries, and is the default type of tea in many South Asian countries. Beverages vary based on the amount of each of these key ingredients, the method of preparation, and the inclusion of other ingredients (varying from sugar or honey to salt or cardamom) Milk tea is the default type of tea in India and Pakistan and referred to as Chai. Tea without milk or ‘black tea’ is common in England, Ireland, Hong Kong and Scotland. Instant milk tea powder is a mass-produced product.
History
Origin
Tea cultivation was introduced on the subcontinent in the Assam hills during British rule. In Britain, the custom of drinking tea was popular amongst the upper-class which was acquired from the Dutch and Portuguese in the late 17th century. This custom was regarded as a medicinal purpose and slowly integrated its way into the middle and lower classes which then became a nation wide habit.
Although India is well-known for the tea it produces and the several cups that are drank a day by its inhabitants, the habit of drinking this beverage did not actually originate here. Historically, the habit of drinking tea in the subcontinent became prevalent when the British had introduced this concept. Researchers generally believe that drinking tea originated in China and was first used as a medicine and later on went to be used as a beverage.
While India has known about tea leaves and its medicinal properties, it was never used as a regular beverage. After exporting tea to Portugal, the Japanese decided to stop and thus, the global tea trade went into the hands of China. They however, refused to give up their secrets of the tea cultivation process. To combat this issue, British spies entered the Chinese tea industry by stealing tea plants. This plant was brought back to India and cultivated in Darjeeling. During the 1850’s, Darjeeling tea became vastly popular known as the ‘Champagne of Teas’, and from here Indian tea had taken over the global market.
Discovery in Assam
Tea was first discovered in Assam by Mr. Robert Bruce during the Burmese war, who allegedly brought down shrubs and seeds of this plant with him. The first discovery of tea plants was made in 1821 in upper Assam. Assam tea was exported to all parts of India and many farmers earned their livelihood through the export of it. When tea was discovered here, European planters invested capital in this region which made the state of Assam richer than other parts of India. In 1834, the Indian government formed a tea committee to explore expanding the tea cultivation in the Assam region. Although this project failed, in 1838 the Bengal Association was formed with Europeans and Indians both, who had similar objectives of tea expansion. Facing failures during the first few years, tea cultivation began to improve around 1852 - this year it had 15 gardens in Sivasagar with land that stretched to 400 acres. Tea grown in the cultivated area was estimated at a value of 23,362 British pounds. During the next three years, tea production rapidly increased in progress which was later faltered due to careless management that resulted in a crisis during 1866.
Milk Tea Alliance
The Milk Tea Alliance is a term used to describe an online democratic solidarity movement made up of netizens from Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Myanmar. The concept originally arose in response to the increased presence of Chinese trolls and nationalist commentators on social media, but has now been described to advocate for improved democracy in their own respective countries. Milk tea was seen as a symbol of anti-Chinese solidarity as it is believed that tea is historically consumed with milk in these countries while in China it is not (although this is factually untrue, as China has a long history of milk tea consumption). Australia has also been suggested to be a member of the Milk Tea Alliance, however the relation to milk tea is tenuous with the milk product Aptamil standing in for an actual variety of milk tea in imagery.
The "Milk Tea Alliance" moniker emerged in 2020 after Chinese nationalist Internet commentators criticised the Thai actor Bright for "liking" an image on Twitter which referred to Hong Kong as a "country", and called for a boycott of his TV programme. Some Twitter users in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Philippines joined Thai users in what The Telegraph called "a rare moment of regional solidarity". Following the 2020 China–India skirmishes India has also been included in some formulations of the Alliance with masala chai being their representative variety of milk tea.
Pallabi Munsi, writing in OZY, described the Milk Tea Alliance taking on 50 Cent Party and Little Pink as "Asia's volunteer army rising against China's internet trolls."
Variations
Local variations include:
- British tea, served with milk
- Bubble tea, also known as pearl milk tea or boba milk tea, a Taiwanese tea-based drink invented in Taichung in the 1980s
- Burmese milk tea, called laphet yay cho (လက်ဖက်ရည်ချို), made with strongly brewed black tea leaves, and sweetened with a customized ratio of condensed milk and evaporated milk, is popular in Myanmar. It is commonly served in tea shops, which first emerged during British rule in Burma.
- Cambric tea, a sweetened hot-milk beverage, often made with a small amount of tea
- Hong Kong-style milk tea, black tea sweetened with evaporated milk originating from the days of British colonial rule in Hong Kong
- Doodh pati chai, literally 'milk and tea leaves', a tea beverage drunk in India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh
- Teh tarik, a kind of milk tea popular in Malaysia and Singapore
- Suutei tsai, a salty Mongolian milk tea
- Shahi haleeb, a Yemeni milk tea served after chewing qat
- Masala chai, also known as masala tea, is a spiced milk tea drunk in the Indian subcontinent
- Irani chai, a type of milk tea made with pure milk mixed with mawa, prepared in Iranian-style cafes in Hyderabad, India
- Thai tea, a sweet tea-based drink popular in Southeast Asia
- Royal milk tea, The tea company Lipton invented product in 1965 as part of its "royal" recipe series in Japan
- Dalgona milk tea, milk tea sweetened with traditional Korean dalgona, a honeycomb-like toffee
It is believed that Thailand consumes up to six cups of bubble tea per person per month. Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia consume three cups per person per month.
In Britain, when hot tea and cold milk are drunk together, the drink is simply known as tea due to the vast majority of tea being consumed in such a way. The term milk tea is unused, although one may specify tea with milk if context requires it. This may cause confusion for people from cultures that traditionally drink tea without milk
pl:Bawarka
See also
In Spanish: Té con leche para niños
