Teh Tarik

Teh Tarik

Today we are making pulled tea. It is also known as nylon tea (because the tool used to brew the tea looks like a lady's nylon). I don't have one of these "nylons" to brew it with, and they obviously aren't the type of nylons women wear because they don't have gaping holes in them (or little dabs of nail polish everywhere to stop various runs to make them usable just a little bit longer). Okay, I'm glad the 1990s are long gone. But I digress, back to tea. If you want to know more about this brewing method (and whether or not it makes a difference for the flavor), I will leave you to watch this video. 

This style of tea is popular in many countries, and is served hot or iced. It is also the base for bubble tea. If you want to make it into bubble tea, add some cooked large pearl tapioca that has been soaked in sugar syrup, and ice. I think people also add extra sugar to it as well. 

Malaysia, a country at the end of a small peninsula (West Malaysia) just north of the equator, and on the island of Borneo (East Malaysia, which is shared with Indonesia). Malaysia is covered by rain forest, and most of the people live on the peninsula. About 75% of the population is reported as urban, and over 50% of the population is under age 30. 

Brunei is a small nation o Borneo as well. It has a small coast, and is bordered by Malaysia. It is also broken up into 2 disconnected parts of unequal size. Its climate is equatorial monsoon, and 3/5 of their land is reported to be rain forest. Most of the population is also Maylay, so it makes sense that they take their tea the same. 

Laos, a landlocked country with a diverse landscape of mountains, plateaus, and valleys. It is bordered by China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar. 

Hong Kong, while not a country of its own, this tea is widely associated with this "special administrative region". I remember Hong Kong most from PJ O'Rourke's book "Eat the Rich: A Treatise on Economics." Hong Kong was the example of making something out of nothing. A small piece of land with few natural resources, and they build high rises and a huge economy. 

So, what is pulled tea? It is a very sweet tea made with sweetened condensed milk. Sometimes condensed milk, salt, and additional sugar are added. So, I gathered my ingredients. 

Suggested ingredients
One video I watched said that Lipton is one of the brands used in Malaysia. I have a lot of decaf Lipton on hand because I thought that it would be nice to drink in the evenings. It turns out decaf Lipton tea tastes horrible, and I have been mixing it with other stuff to make it palatable. I also didn't feel like opening yet another can of evaporated milk knowing that I wasn't going to use it, so I substituted some cream from the cheese salt tea experiment. 
What I really used
So, I put all 3 tea bags in a cup of water and waited several minutes. Then the mixing began...

I was a bit intrigued by what I ended up with in my measuring cup. 2 teaspoons of sweetened condensed milk on the bottom, and a layer of cream on top. Evaporated milk wouldn't float like this (but it was really fun watching the globules of cream float up to the top after I dumped it in the cup). I also added a little salt - a few sprinkles from my shaker. The video suggested dipping your spoon in warm water with salt dissolved in it before using it to scoop your milk, but I didn't feel like messing around with that. She also didn't say what proportion of salt to water to use. 

Then I "pulled" the tea. I don't have pictures of this, but rest assured I did this over the kitchen sink. There's a reason I made this in a measuring cup, and have a second one waiting in the background. "Pulling" tea means pouring it back and forth between cups to mix it and make it frothy. 

Here is what I ended up with. Everything finally mixed together!

How was it, you ask? Cloyingly sweet. I could have put more salt in it, but it needed a lot more. I'm amazed that people actually put more sugar in this as well. Granted, I think they use more salt. Either way, this did not turn me into a fan of sweet tea. 

Comments

  1. Poppy CrockerApril 8, 2018 at 8:51 AM

    At least it's pretty.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lace makerApril 8, 2018 at 10:17 AM

      It does have that going for it, but there are plenty of other pretty teas I can make.

      Delete

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