we have food at home.

~ingredients: 

• evaporated milk
• 6 cups water
• 6 tbsp ceylon black tea leaves (generally 1 tbsp tea leaves for every cup of water)
• 2 tbsp brown sugar

~materials: 

• 2 kettles (or 1 kettle and 1 heat-safe pitcher)
• tea/coffee cloth strainer with handle

~instructions: 

1. Boil water in the tea kettle and while the water is boiling, put the black tea leaves into a cloth strainer and set over a separate kettle/pitcher. 
2. Once the water is boiling, pour the water into the pitcher with the cloth strainer, over the tea leaves, and let the tea steep for 10 minutes. 
3. After 10 minutes, transfer the tea bag over to the kettle. Pour the tea that is in the pitcher, back into the kettle, into the tea bag. 
4. Transfer the tea bag back over to the pitcher, and repeat pouring the tea back into the tea bag, filtering through the tea bag once more. We repeat this again and this will result in extracting that tea taste that we want in our hong kong milk tea. 
5. After transferring back and forth, use a tong to squeeze any excess tea from the tea bag. Discard the tea leaves. 
6. The tea itself will be very bitter and concentrated. I like to add brown sugar at this stage, and stir until the sugar is melted. 
7. At this point, you can let the tea cool if you want to make an iced drink. Whether you’re making iced or drinking it hot, for every cup of tea, add in 2 tbsp of evaporated milk (or adjust to your liking).