BootsnAll Travel Community

Am wondering about drinking tea...in which countries is it customary to add milk:


WITH MILK:
UK
India
Sri Lanka
Taiwan - if bubble tea
Tibet
Nepal - I think.

WITHOUT MILK:

US
China
Japan


UNKNOWN:

Russia
Turkey
Czech
Ireland - supposedly drink the most..

Can anyone help with the unknowns?

I think it's customary here (in Canada) to add milk. I prefer mine green (like my men )

quote:

Originally posted by Urban Kitten:
I think it's customary here (in Canada) to add milk. I prefer mine green (like my men )

I always think of Canada and tea as similar to the US, except your ice tea is pre-sweetened, whereas in the US we add sugar. Although, admittedly all the times I've been to Canada and drank hot tea I don't recall if anyone ever asked me if I wanted milk.

Could the custom for hot tea with milk be a relic of the English association?

Green men eh? Like little guys from Mars with big heads and small bodies and beady eyes?

My wife is a fan of milk tea which may or not be something different altogether. We just found some instant milk tea mix for sale at a local Indian grocery. In Hong Kong we had it in cans.

Russia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan without milk. But Russians in any of those countries will add massive amounts of sugar (Russian tea is almost always black). Uzbeks and Kyrgyz drink green tea, no milk ever. For a change of pace I ordered black tea at an Uzbek chaykana in Kyrgyzstan and they didn't even give me sugar, even though they probably thought I was Russian. So milk and sugar are pretty foreign ideas to native central asians.

As a Canadian, I always add milk.

Oh, and Tibet is special, don't forget. It's all about the yak butter. That is some very strange stuff, let me tell you.

A good tea I found in the more Tibetanish parts of Gansu and Sichuan was Muslim tea, which had all manner of fresh spices, flowers and sugar cubes added.

Its not an absolute necessity for me but I usually drink my tea with milk and on occasion a very small amount of sugar or honey. As an American does this make me an oddity? From the Americans I know who regularly drink tea quite of few of them take theirs with milk. I contest the no milk tea for Americans generalization!

Egyptians drink it with milk.

Holy cow, I think Americans use milk a lot. At least I think they do?? Makes it taste more creamy. I like my tea to be like sugary milk

I know a lot a people in america take their tea without milk. I however, have always taken it with milk just because that's the way my family has always done it. Honestly tea without milk, just doesn't taste right. It's too watery.

Anyways in my experience in Turkey, they drink tea w/o milk. Everywhere I went, that was the way it was served.

Black tea with milk, but green, white and herbal without...

Of course my true introduction to black tea was in the UK, so I may be a bad American tea ambassador.

It's a personal preference of course but you'll always be offered milk and sugar with your tea in Ireland.

I drink my hot black (Barry's) tea the same as my coffee - strong with lots of milk, no sugar. If it's iced I drink it with lemon, no sugar. Green tea I like weak without milk or sugar. I never realized how many rules I have for my tea.

quote:

Originally posted by Tickles:
Holy cow, I think Americans use milk a lot. At least I think they do?? Makes it taste more creamy. I like my tea to be like sugary milk

Hmm..not me! No milk, no sugar, with the tea steeping for 10-20 minutes (although usually if it's in there 20 minutes it's because I forgot about it..but I still drink it!). I guess I'm used to the somewhat bitter taste, and I can't have it any other way anymore!

Extremely common in Hong Kong for iced tea to have milk and sugar in it. Equally common was how hard it is to get it any other way. Shudder. I'm with Eowyn, straight up tea. No sugar, lemon, milk, etc. But I don't like hot liquids, so it's only iced for me.

I drink all of my tea without milk, EXCEPT for Indian Chai. Oh droool ~~ I want some chai.

Tibetan yak butter tea is some of most "interesting" stuff I have ever drank, except for once at a small temple where they gave us candy chasers where it was good. I don't even know if there is any TEA actually in the yak butter tea. It tastes like if you took the toppings on popcorn (salt and butter) and drank them together.

Though, I had a great time in Tibet, somtimes it's so cold you don't care what is in the tea.

Mongolia- DEFINATELY with milk, no sugar.

PC

mmmm tea. i prefer my black with milk, but travelling in chile i was so happy to get ANY tea at all i just drank it and smiled. the quality was so poor, and if you order it "con leche," they put the milk in before the tea has steeped! can you imagine!

i missed green so much when i was in s america. i guess there are a _few_ things about coming home that are good.

quote:

Originally posted by Kathryn M:
Egyptians drink it with milk

Must be the odd Egyptian. 99% of the country drink tea black and very sweet.

Russians drink their tea without milk, at least the Odessans I worked with did.

They do appreciate a good tea. I bought some good tea in a supermarket for my co-workers, and they really appreciated it.
They drink a lot of tea.


Turkey- Without. Properly made Turkish Chai is among the best forms of tea in the world. Its a very strong, almost astringent but tasty tea. They use sugar to bring out the flavor.

Now.. indian Chai.

Ahh.. Did I mention that when I was in India, I could never pass up a popular Chai stand? The cups are so small its not as if one actually can get filled up on it quickly. I loved those throwaway terracotta cups.

When I was in Malaysia the tea was served with a small tin of sweetened condensed milk. Really thick , sweet and sticky.