User:Risanahsim/Milk tea

Milk tea served in India

Milk Tea

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.

Women working at a tea garden in Assam

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.

Variations of Milk Tea in Asia

• 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