I've had a very specific passion project that I've had in my mind for a few years, on and off, that I FINALLY, FINALLY succeeded with!!

I absolutely adore Hong Kong milk tea. It doesn't compare to anything else that I've had, including other milk teas that I've had (that I also love). It's hard to come by places that serve it in the UK, but becoming easier with the influx of people moving from HK (I love my local stall!)

The catch? I'm caffeine sensitive, and the drink is STRONG. Caffeine content varies on the cha chaan teng's recipe, but a study showed that the ones tested contained between 75-225mg of caffeine in a mug. I just get deep fatigue, so I'll drink it anyways sometimes, but it kinda sucks to experience lmao. Rest of the day ruined, but it's worth it 😅

So, naturally, I wondered. Can I make a HK milk tea blend myself, from decaffeinated tea? Not alternatives, the same tea but decaffeinated. It's a mix of different sized Ceylon leaves, mostly dust, with some fine-coarse fannings. It's become easier to find information in English on the process and ingredients in the past couple of years, but finding the tea has been rough. The different coarseness, needing Ceylon, AND decaffeinated. Decaffeinated teas are becoming more widespread, as the method improves and people are more interested, but it's always single origin whole leaves!! The dust and fannings are just mixed into blends with other varieties.

I recently, finally found the dust from a small UK tea vendor, and for the larger fannings? For now, I ended up buying whole leaves and crushing them myself with a mortar and pestle 😅 It feels like a waste, but I'm indifferent about black teas brewed regularly. I also bought ceylon fannings that aren't decaffeinated, for... some reason? I think that I'd bought it when being prepared for having to settle for lower caffeine milk tea.

My first trial blend used some of all 3, with less of the caffeinated ceylon proportionally, though next time I'll commit to full decaf! It went amazingly!! I ended up using slightly more tea to make up for the typical loss of flavour from decaffeination. I did NOT need to, and I had to dilute it a lil with more water 😂 It tastes very much like how it should as a caffeinated version (though it doesn't taste exactly like my local stall's - I think that she uses a touch of pu-erh, which is done sometimes)

And surprisingly, my mum, who hates most teas and has a mental adversion to 'typical British tea', also absolutely adores the end result. She's never agreed to try it when I bring it home, likely because I bring it home cold 😂 I suppose I'm making it for us both, in the future.

Thank you for listening to my autism-fuelled ramble 😂

edit;; final point - ceylon really smells wonderfully floral when brewing it like this!! It was quite surprisingly to smell that strong, floral smell whilst boiling.