A popular drink in Japan, divine Royal Milk Tea is easy to make at home with Assam or Darjeeling black tea leaves and milk. You can add sugar or honey to suit your taste. It‘s a delicious beverage to serve hot or iced, or you can use it as a base for boba milk tea!
Cook Time5 minutesmins
Total Time5 minutesmins
Course: Drinks
Cuisine: Japanese
Keyword: milk tea
Servings: 2teacups (2 x 200 ml per batch)
Calories: 76kcal
Author: Namiko Chen
Ingredients
For 1 Teacup
¾cupwater(enough to fill your teacup about 75%; preferably the warm water you used to heat up the cup beforehand)
2heaping tspblack tea leaves(about 8 g; use Assam leaves for dark-colored tea and Darjeeling for light-colored tea; see the blog post for other options)
½cupmilk(for a regular teacup, 50% full)
sugar(or honey, optional; if you already know how much sugar you like to add, dissolve it first before pouring into the cup)
For 2 Teacups
1cupwater(enough to fill a teacup 100%; we don‘t double the water for 2 teacups because the evaporation is the same as with 1 teacup; preferably the warm water you used to heat up the cup beforehand)
3heaping tspblack tea leaves(about 12 g; use Assam leaves for dark-colored tea and Darjeeling leaves for light-colored tea)
1cupmilk(for a regular teacup, 100% full)
sugar(or honey, optional; if you already know how much sugar you like to add, dissolve it first before pouring into the cup)
Instructions
Gather all the ingredients.
To a milk pot or small saucepan, add ¾ cup water (or 1 cup water for 2 teacups). Bring it to a boil.
When the water boils, stir in 2 heaping tsp black tea leaves (or 3 heaping tsp black tea leaves for 2 teacups). Reduce the heat and simmer for 1½ to 2 minutes. To make iced royal milk tea: Boil the leaves slightly longer so the ice will not dilute the flavor as much.
Add ½ cup milk (or 1 cup milk for 2 teacups). Slowly bring it to just simmering. Meanwhile, keep your serving teacup(s) nice and hot with hot water (and drain the water before you serve the tea).
When the tea is about to boil, remove from the heat. Pour the tea into your teacup(s) through a tea strainer or fine-mesh strainer.