Introduction: Delicious, Sweet Milk Tea

About: I like foreign language films and music, theater, SNL, origami and Japanese boybands. I don't like buttheads. :(

This milk tea is not only delicious, but also soothing and simple to make! It's a choice drink for a cold day or just for sitting around.

I got the original recipe from the Inside Motherhood blog while looking for a simple milk tea recipe that didn't require condensed milk or evaporated milk, since I didn't want to buy new materials. Even though it's the end of August, Seattle's weather has been rainy and cold and awesome- er, I mean, dismal... -so this drink has been a constant to keep me comfortable.

I made some modifications because I didn't find the original recipe to be quite strong enough for me. Feel free to modify this recipe to your own tastes. It's fairly flexible!

Step 1: What You'll Need

Here's what you'll need:

*A glass or mug
*A small sauce pot
*Sugar
*Black tea (Try not to use flavored black tea, as it's probably not as strong. Use strong black tea because the milk and sugar will overpower it. I use two tea bags to get a more defined tea taste, but you can use less or more depending on how strong you want it. These teabags are Twining's English Breakfast tea.)
*Milk, obviously. I use non-fat/skim milk because it's what I'm used to. I'm not sure what it would be like with another type of milk.

Optional ingredient:
*Ground cinnamon or nutmeg, or both!

Step 2: Let's Get Started

The recipe I used originally called for one cup of milk, but that didn't fit my smallest mug, so in the end, I poured how much milk I wanted into the glass/mug to measure how much drink I want. Here, I filled up my glass because I was thirsty and having a bad day.

Pour the milk into the sauce pot, obviously, and then turn on the stove to LOW heat. If you are making more than one cup and cannot be buggered to wait for the milk to heat up, you can turn it higher. Just keep it from boiling.

Step 3: Patience Is a Virtue

We don't want to rush the heating of the milk, so let it warm up to a decent temperature BEFORE adding the tea bags. To measure the temperature, I usually just stick my finger in there. When it's hot but not scalding, put in your tea bags. You can choose to swirl them around, but you can also let them steep a while. Either way works. Eventually you will want to move them about to see how much you've steeped and to mix the tea in with the warm milk.

Step 4: The Tea Steeps!

Swirl the bags around a bit until you get a nice milky color of tea. If you can smell the tea rising from the pot, then you can start to wrap up the heating process. You should be able to smell it. It is better to wait until you can really smell it before you add the cinnamon, otherwise the cinnamon's smell will overpower and you won't be sure until you do a bit of stirring.

Once you get this scent of black tea, add your cinnamon if you want. I usually tap a nice amount in (I like to be generous with my cinnamon!) and then take a spoon and stir it for a little bit. Don't worry about whether or not you can see it. In the mug, you won't really see it. Stir it up so it's mixed. I usually let it steep just a little longer before removing bags just to make sure I get a nice strong taste. When you can smell the tea over the cinnamon, then take your bags out and squeeze the tea out of them. The way I do it is to rest the bags in the spoon and wrap the string around them, getting the tag on top so I can squeeze them on the tag, thereby successfully dodging a burn on my fingers. You're going to want to get all the tea out of those suckers before you toss them.

Step 5: Pour and Add Sugar

Now your sauce pot's handle is going to be hot, so grab a towel or a pot holder so you don't hurt yourself. Pour it into your glass or mug. I bet you can smell it! Smells good, huh? Now we're going to add sugar.

Since I only have sugar in a carton, I tend to pour it into a smaller bowl so I can add pinches. I usually put a pinch or two in mine since I don't want it to be too sweet, but it should be just a little sweet. Then stir it liberally.

Step 6: Serve!

When you serve this drink, serve it HOT! It's so much better that way. Try to drink it fast since it tends to go cold rather quickly. It tastes great though and so far, the only way I've found to really mess it up is to make it too sweet.

This recipe makes 1-2 servings depending on how many glasses you measure out. If you cannot smell the tea when you are making a bigger batch, just toss in another teabag until you can smell the tea rising up. Remember that if you can smell the tea rising above the milk when you smell the pot, it's steeped and perfect.

I hope you enjoy this drink and leave me a comment telling me what you think of it. If you make any modifications, let me know! I bet if you added a subtle fruit taste to it, it'd probably be dynamite too. Experiment and enjoy. Yum!