{"id":8391,"date":"2018-12-19T08:19:43","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T08:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blog.thatsmandarin.com\/?p=8391"},"modified":"2018-12-19T08:19:43","modified_gmt":"2018-12-19T08:19:43","slug":"history-of-milk-tea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/blog\/history-of-milk-tea\/","title":{"rendered":"History of Milk Tea"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s the most popular drink in China? Not coffee – at least not yet! It\u2019s <\/em>\u5976\u8336 ♦ n\u01ceich\u00e1<\/strong>, or milk tea, the beloved drink you can buy in China\u00a0at any corner. Today, let’s look back and trace the\u00a0history of\u00a0Chinese milk tea together.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Origins<\/h2>\n
\"History

Tibetan butter tea – Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

The way of drinking tea\u00a0by adding dairy to it – namely, butter (\u5976\u6cb9 n\u01ceiy\u00f3u<\/strong>) – was originally invented by the Tibetan people (\u897f\u85cf\u4eba X\u012bz\u00e0ng r\u00e9n<\/strong>). They liked butter tea not only for its\u00a0taste, but also because they believed that it eased digestion. Tibetans used goat milk ( \u7f8a\u5976 y\u00e1ngn\u01cei<\/strong> 🐐) or cow milk (\u725b\u5976\u00a0ni\u00fan\u01cei<\/strong> 🐄) to make it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

India<\/h2>\n
\"Origins

Indian Masala tea – Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

As the Silk Road influenced the spread of culture and traditions, the\u00a0idea of adding milk to tea came to India.\u00a0Indians, with their rich culinary history, adapted the recipe\u00a0and added spices to it.\u00a0This\u00a0version of milk tea, known as Masala tea (\u5370\u5ea6\u9a6c\u838e\u62c9\u5976\u8336 Y\u00ecnd\u00f9 m\u01cesh\u0101l\u0101 n\u01ceich\u00e1<\/strong>) quickly became popular all over the country.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Europe<\/h2>\n
\"Origins

British tea – Flickr<\/p><\/div>\n

Later, the Brits brought the milk tea recipe from India. The rest is history – now, as we all know, ‘tea with milk’ has become an essential part of the British culture. More recipes came to life then, invented and perfected by British aristocrats. The Indian recipes lost their ‘spiciness’, and were replaced by sweeter, softer versions of this tea with sugar and honey.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Taiwan<\/h2>\n
\"Origins

Taiwanese bubble tea – Flickr<\/p><\/div>\n

Then, during the Second World War, the European recipe of \u5976\u8336<\/strong> came to Taiwan. It kept evolving with time – until a creative vendor added tapioca balls to his recipe, and invented bubble tea<\/em> (\u73cd\u73e0\u5976\u8336 ♦ zh\u0113nzh\u016b n\u01ceich\u00e1<\/strong>), a famous drink that we all know.<\/p>\n

\u73cd\u73e0\u00a0zh\u0113nzh\u016b<\/strong>\u00a0literally means \u201cpearls\u201d,\u00a0and points to tapioca balls.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Modern China<\/h2>\n

In the mid-1990s, with the popularity of Pearl Milk Tea in Taiwan, many companies opened their tea-shops in mainland China – namely, the Hong Kong region – where milk tea became popular at once. However, competition forced some tea-shops to use low-quality tea with lots of flavor compounds and sweeteners. In the recent years in China, \u5976\u8336<\/strong> with cheese or milk cover (\u829d\u58eb\u5976\u76d6 ♦ zh\u012bsh\u00ec n\u01ceig\u00e0i<\/strong>) has also grown extremely popular.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Have you tried \u5976\u8336<\/strong>? What\u2019s your favorite flavor?<\/em><\/p>\n

[If you like this post and want to learn more about some Chinese traditions, have a look at our post “History of New Year in China!”<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Share your favourites in comments –\u00a0or tweet us at\u00a0@thatsmandarin<\/a>!<\/em>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s the most popular drink in China? Not coffee – at least not yet! It\u2019s \u5976\u8336 ♦ n\u01ceich\u00e1, or milk tea, the beloved drink you can buy in China\u00a0at any corner. Today, let’s look back and trace the\u00a0history of\u00a0Chinese milk tea together.   Origins The way of drinking tea\u00a0by adding dairy to it – namely, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":11429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[229],"tags":[262],"yoast_head":"\nHistory of Milk Tea | That's Mandarin<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"History of Milk Tea | That's Mandarin\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What\u2019s the most popular drink in China? Not coffee – at least not yet! It\u2019s \u5976\u8336 ♦ n\u01ceich\u00e1, or milk tea, the beloved drink you can buy in China\u00a0at any corner. Today, let’s look back and trace the\u00a0history of\u00a0Chinese milk tea together.   Origins The way of drinking tea\u00a0by adding dairy to it – namely, […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thatsmandarin.com\/history-of-milk-tea\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"That's Mandarin\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-12-19T08:19:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.blog.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Tibetan-butter-tea.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/\",\"name\":\"That's Mandarin\",\"description\":\"Learn Chinese in China\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/history-of-milk-tea\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tm.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/History-of-milk-tea-1.jpg\",\"width\":820,\"height\":490,\"caption\":\"History of Milk Tea\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/history-of-milk-tea\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/history-of-milk-tea\/\",\"name\":\"History of Milk Tea | That's Mandarin\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/history-of-milk-tea\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-12-19T08:19:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-12-19T08:19:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8a9b0d4b1d85fd7153b458eaea98837f\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/history-of-milk-tea\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8a9b0d4b1d85fd7153b458eaea98837f\",\"name\":\"nikandreyevas\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/304d44fdc343cab4318d1b9fc62c5fc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"nikandreyevas\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8391"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.thatsmandarin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}