Who mixes coffee with tea? Sounds absurd at first, doesn’t it? But guess what? The Hong Kong Yuanyang, or the yuenyeung, yinyeung, yinyong, or whatever you like to call it, is a popular drink in Hong Kong. If you ever visit the province, you will find Yuanyang on the menu.
The Hong Kong Yuanyang is an old coffee brew. As the name suggests, it uses both coffee and tea. However, with time the original recipe has been modified several times to meet the changing taste preferences of coffee consumers.
What is a Hong Kong Yuanyang (Coffee with Tea)?
Visit Hong Kong, and you will see every street vendor offers some unique variety of the original Hong Kong Yuanyang recipe. Each of these vendors has its secret formula, which has slight variations from the original one.
The Hong Kong Yuanyang can be served both hot and warm. The classic recipe is nothing but a mixture of fresh-brewed coffee and homemade milk. Despite having tea in it, the caffeine content in the recipe is higher. That is why Hong Kong Yuanyang is considered a coffee beverage.
If you are a true coffee lover, here is a tip for you. When brewing this coffee beverage at home, try and use Bolivian coffee beans. Beans from this region are usually grown at a higher altitude. As the coffee plants grow under harsher conditions, they take a longer time to mature, giving the beans enough time to develop a more complex flavor profile.
However, for the regular coffee lover, getting Bolivian coffee beans might be too much work. In that case, you are better off with your regular dark-roasted coffee beans.
What Do You need to Brew Hong Kong Yuanyang (Coffee with Tea)?
The below list contains all the ingredients you will need to brew a delicious cup of Hong Kong Yuanyang.
- 1 cup Dark Roasted Espresso
- 1 cup Hong Kong-Style Milk Tea
- 1/2 to 1 Cup Of Ice
The key to brewing a strong Espresso shot lies in the coffee ground. Keeping all the other steps the same, using only a coarse coffee ground, you can get a strong coffee brew. When you use coarse coffee grounds, it takes the coffee maker more time to complete the extraction, resulting in a stronger brew.
Hong Kong Yuanyang (Coffee with Tea) Recipe
When you have your coffee ground, it is time to boil the water. Try and aim for 200 degrees Fahrenheit water. According to many expert baristas, it is the ideal temperature for brewing Espresso with a French Press. If your water isn’t warm enough, you will end up with a bland-tasting brew.
Once the water is warm, take the pre-warmed French Press, and pour in some hot water. As soon as the warm water hits the coffee ground, it will release a pleasant aroma. It indicates that the coffee ground has started blooming.
After some time, you should add some more hot water to the brew. Take a spoon with a long handle, and start stirring the mixture. Now it is time to let the mixture steep. Remember, we are aiming to produce a strong brew that is high in caffeine. But do not overdo this step. Otherwise, you will end up with a brew that tastes too bitter. Don’t be too quick to press down the plunger. Wait for the coffee grounds to start steeping first.
Now it is time to brew some Hong Kong-style milk tea. This particular tea recipe requires huge amounts of tea. As it is meant to be strong, natives of Hong Kong will add huge amounts of tea to brew just one pitcher.
If you have never made Hong Kong Tea before, here is the recipe for you. First, add 6 cups of warm water to a pot. Now add your tea bags to the boiling water. Usually, two standard bags of tea bags are equivalent to 1 tablespoon of tea. For this recipe, you want to add at least 10 such bags to the boiling water. Let it bloom for 5 minutes. Once the brew is ready, it will have a pitch-dark color. Add 1/3 cup of evaporated milk and one tablespoon of condensed milk to the brew.
Hong Kong Yuanyang (Coffee with Tea) Serving
When you have all the ingredients, it is time to gather the coffee and tea and mix them in a pitcher. You can let it sit on its own, or you can use a spoon to stir the mixture. When adding the coffee to the tea, try and adhere to a 1:1 ratio. However, after you start getting the hang of the recipe, you can experiment with the ratio until you develop something that best suits your taste buds.
Before serving, you might want to add some ice cubes to the mixture and put it in a blender. Keep the blender on (30-45 seconds) until the ice cubes get broken down into smaller pieces.
The Verdict
In conclusion, let us look at why did Hong Kong Yuanyang get so popular? Well, the answer to this question lies in Hong Kong’s history. During 1839-1997 Hong Kong was under British rule. The British introduced new economic, and political concepts to the native people of Hong Kong. Similarly, they also taught the natives about their culture. The most influential cultural exchange was the practice of the famous afternoon tea.
However, the people soon realized that the tea was not enough to keep them going for the rest of the day. And thus, they came up with the idea of mixing tea and coffee. Since then, the Hong Kong Yuanyang has been a popular drink among all natives of Hong Kong and neighboring countries alike.
