Milk in your black tea?

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Jun 9th, '10, 13:17
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Milk in your black tea?

by plant partaker » Jun 9th, '10, 13:17

For the first time, I tried black tea with milk. The black tea I tried was adagio's golden monkey, and I poured a little bit of milk in it. It is okay, I think another black tea would be better because I feel like I am not getting all of the flavors from the tea. However, it seems to linger longer. What type of black tea do you use with milk? How much milk do you use? Cold milk or hot milk?

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Jun 9th, '10, 14:52
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Re: Milk in your black tea?

by teaisme » Jun 9th, '10, 14:52

assam brewed strong goes well with milk , at least to me , but I usually don't drink milk with tea
I would throw in a little bit of some honey too(orange blossom goes well), milk added after tea is in cup, whole milk, around 1/5-1/3 milk depending on your tastes and how strong you brewed the tea.

cold vs hot I have no idea, never really tried heating up the milk too, even though that would probably be a good idea to at least get it warm instead of cold.

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Jun 9th, '10, 14:59
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Re: Milk in your black tea?

by plant partaker » Jun 9th, '10, 14:59

It was my first time drinking tea with milk. I am not opposed to it, I will do more experimenting maybe with a Darjeeling or some other black. All the vendors recommend drinking with milk, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I have to try other teas with milk before I can say I don't like it.

Jun 9th, '10, 18:32
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Re: Milk in your black tea?

by bsteele » Jun 9th, '10, 18:32

none ;)

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Jun 9th, '10, 18:59
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Re: Milk in your black tea?

by Noir » Jun 9th, '10, 18:59

I have to agree, Assams are best drunk with milk if you are looking for a tea that pairs well with milk. I do love some Irish breakfast with milk in the morning.

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Jun 9th, '10, 19:40
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Re: Milk in your black tea?

by JD » Jun 9th, '10, 19:40

Milk in my coffee, sure.

Milk in my tea.. it depends. Chai, sure. Earl Grey, only if it's one of those throat-chokingly strong Earls. Yunnan Gold, you keep that milk far away! ;P

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Jun 9th, '10, 22:14
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Re: Milk in your black tea?

by spinmail » Jun 9th, '10, 22:14

I almost never add milk to my tea. I admit I've never tried it, but I've been tempted. While I'm tempted to order through Adagio, Upton's routinely appends their reviews of aggressive Assams with notes that they'll go nicely with milk.

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Jun 10th, '10, 06:05
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Re: Milk in your black tea?

by Amaikokonut » Jun 10th, '10, 06:05

When I first started drinking black teas (from teabags) in college, I always had them with milk, so I really grew to enjoy it. Later on I found higher quality teas that didn't require milk to be divine, but I still find myself with a tendency to take some black teas with milk.

Chai I always take with milk, it seems to be made for it. Assams, like others have mentioned, can go very nicely with milk. Flavored ceylon, like you find in a lot of Adagio's signature blends seem to fall in the same category as chai for me-- they seem almost made for milk. Whatever you try though should certainly be brewed a bit stronger than usual to make up for diluting of the milk.

I usually add cold milk to the tea-- that way it has the added benefit of cooling down the tea a little so you can drink it sooner! I usually don't add a lot though, just a splash. Though I will occasionally make an extra strong batch of chai and mix it half and half with warmed milk.

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Jun 11th, '10, 07:22
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Re: Milk in your black tea?

by artmom » Jun 11th, '10, 07:22

I use milk in black tea quite often. If I'm trying a new to me black tea, I try it first without milk. Sometimes, a black tea requires milk to "smooth" the flavor, and lose a possible bitterness. When I do add milk, in an 8 ounce cup, it would be about 1/2 ounce. Over the years, I have added less and less milk by percentage. :lol:

Assams, Russian Caravan tea, keemun, and yunnan all take milk nicely.

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Jun 12th, '10, 23:59
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Re: Milk in your black tea?

by sneakers » Jun 12th, '10, 23:59

None, and no sugar either. If you want to mask the flavor, don't drink good tea.

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Jun 18th, '10, 10:53
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Re: Milk in your black tea?

by brad4419 » Jun 18th, '10, 10:53

sneakers wrote:None, and no sugar either. If you want to mask the flavor, don't drink good tea.
+1
When I add milk to tea my tastebuds taste almost all milk and very little tea or if the teas bitter then its like drinking bitter milk with no good tea tastes to be found. Its just an opinion question that varies from person to person so the only way to know is to try it both ways and enjoy.

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Jun 18th, '10, 12:43
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Re: Milk in your black tea?

by Rithmomachy » Jun 18th, '10, 12:43

I like milk tea, but to me it's almost a completely different beverage than "regular" tea. The blends they use in Britain taste really good with milk, and don't really taste right to me without. If I'm visiting family there, that's what I drink. When I'm making tea for myself, I drink it straight. Except when I have a cold, then it's lots of lemon, lots of honey (and a shot of whisky if I'm at home). Nothing cures a sore throat better. I use the cheapest tea avaialble for that though. I've gone out and bought Lipton in bags when I didn't want to use any of my good teas.

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Jun 23rd, '10, 12:59
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Re: Milk in your black tea?

by Tead Off » Jun 23rd, '10, 12:59

Only goat milk for me, thank you.

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Jun 24th, '10, 05:04
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Re: Milk in your black tea?

by rmisra9 » Jun 24th, '10, 05:04

Ideally, you want to use hot milk. If you pour cold milk into hot tea, the milk proteins will scald.

Also, while I know most people don't do it this way, but you should add milk to your cup, then tea. If you add milk into tea, it causes the tannins to precipitate out and stain your cup, and change the flavour. Try it for yourself and find out.

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Jun 24th, '10, 12:44
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Re: Milk in your black tea?

by plant partaker » Jun 24th, '10, 12:44

Rmisra9, are you a chemistry teacher?Thanks so much for the knowledge! I will have to try that sometime.

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