What’s (Black) Milk Tea?

Alright, you probably know what Milk Tea is (or at least can guess), but entertain my post if you will…I’m no tea expert, so this post is “milk tea” in relation to the world of boba (of which I’m not expert either)!

Anyway, the easy answer would be: any milk + any tea. And you’re definitely not wrong. Any tea latte is a milk tea (HNTea definitely knows this)! I’ve heard that if you see latte at a place it’s definitely real milk they’re using and not creamer, but a lot of the boba shops popping up nowadays brag about using real milk (or alternatives) and still use “milk tea”.

The longer answer is, if you just saw “Milk Tea” on a menu, it’s most likely a black milk tea. A milk tea is usually a tan color if you’re looking at an image. Personally, along with a Thai (Milk) Tea, a black milk tea is my go-to order when I try a new place to try to gauge quality. I’m not quite sure how a black tea became the standard, but a black milk tea is a good drink to start your milk tea journey if you haven’t already. It’s a good classic flavor, and from there you can branch out to other teas, like Green or Oolong! Some places nowadays will specifically say Black Milk Tea, but other places won’t have a specifically labeled black milk tea at all.

It’s taken me a bit, but I figured out some common alternative “names” for black tea on the menu include Ceylon, Assam, and Ruby, among others, for those that are unfamiliar. A few places will put the black tea under a “Signature” tea too. I’m not exactly sure yet how these black teas taste differently, but they all fall under the general category of black tea. So next time if you’re looking for the black tea, try to see if the menu has one of these instead. Perhaps if they use these labels, it’s a sign of high quality tea, or a good tea shop! Or just ask an employee for the black tea. That works too.