If you’re searching for the best Hokkaido milk tea recipe, that’s the right place. This blog post enlightens you with all the right instructions for preparing the best Hokkaido milk tea.
What Is Hokkaido Milk Tea?
In case you don’t know, Hokkaido is Japan’s second-largest island and is famous for its rich creamy tea recipe. The tea is originally produced in Hokkaido, the center of Japan’s farming and facilities.
The name has been derived from the same region it was derived from i.e. Hokkaido – a province of Japan. It is primarily popular for its agriculture and dairy productions. It’s a beautiful island and so, tends to be a famous tourist attraction. Tourists from around the globe come to visit the beautiful landscapes of this island and enjoy savoring themselves with hot and creamy Hokkaido milk tea.
The tea is largely popular across borders in the name of nidashi milk tea and royal milk tea. A lot of western people also tend to confuse the tea with bubble or boba tea for it may contain tapioca pearl at times. However, the two are entirely different. Boba is a creation of Taiwanese while Hokkaido is purely originated from Japanese cuisine.
Wondering what’s so special about the Hokkaido milk tea?
Well, it’s the rich and creamy texture of the tea that leaves your mouth coated with an enticing tastefulness. It is because the milk produced in Hokkaido’s dairy farms is purposefully high in fatty content in comparison to the milk produced in other dairy farms.
Since the tea is incredibly tasteful, its popularity is not just limited to the borders of Japan. But it has recently earned great popularity across the tea houses of Chinatown, Singapore, and several different states of the U.S. and even Korean households.
Hokkaido milk tea is also being sold at popular tea shops such as I-Tea and Saisabo. There are other companies as well that offer amazing pre-packaged versions of the tea which you can easily grasp on the go and savor yourself with incredible tastefulness.
Now that you know a little about why Hokkaido milk tea from Japan is popular around the world, you must be excited to know the recipe.
Brace yourself because the best Hokkaido milk tea recipe is just around the corner.
But first, let’s look at the ingredients required to make the best Hokkaido milk tea!
Ingredients to Prepare the Best Hokkaido Milk Tea
Dive in to burst your curiosity!
Loose Tea Leaves
Hokkaido milk tea is originally based on black tea leaves. You can take any organic black tea as a base such as, Irish Breakfast, Assam, or English Breakfast, etc. The best is to use your regular black tea base.
Milk from Hokkaido’s Dairy Farms
Typically, Hokkaido milk tea requires pure, full-cream milk from Hokkaido’s dairy farms. However, you can also use a combination of milk and cream for an extra satisfying taste.
In case you’re allergic to dairy products or avoid them for any reason, you can always use a non-dairy milk product such as almond or oat milk, etc.
Sweetener
Hokkaido milk tea could be easily sweetened with either honey, caramel, or brown sugar. You can add any of these to taste – depending on how sweet you like. However, you can always consume Hokkaido milk tea without sugar if you like it that way.
Seven Simple Instructions to Prepare the Best Hokkaido Milk Tea
Here’s the best Hokkaido milk tea recipe to let you taste the goodness!
Step No.1: Thoroughly Boil the Water
First things first, take your regular saucepan and pour water into it. Let it boil until it reaches 100 degrees Celsius. Make sure not to overheat the water because that can make your tea bitter in taste.
Step No. 2 – Add Loose Tea Leaves
Once the water reaches its boiling point, add a spoonful of tea leaves for each cup of tea in the saucepan. If you’re making two cups of tea, add two spoonfuls of tea leaves and you’ll get a perfect taste at the end.
Step No. 3 – Let the Tea Leaves Simmer
Once you’ve added the tea leaves and they’re mixed with water, let them settle for a while on low heat. Let them simmer for almost 1-3 minutes to get the best-desired flavor. The key is the longer you let the tea leaves simmer inside water, the better taste you’d be able to steep.
Step No. 4 – Add Milk
Now that the tea leaves have nicely simmered, it’s time to add the rich and creamy Hokkaido milk into the saucepan. Let the milk bubble for around 1-3 minutes and you’ll get the finest taste in the end.
Step No. 5 – Arrange Tea Cups
Here’s the key. To make the perfect Hokkaido milk tea, you’ll have to arrange the teacups accordingly.
Wondering how to arrange it?
It’s pretty simple. You just have to pour hot boiling water into teacups, let the cup warm up, and boom – discard the water. The teacups are ready for serving!
Step No.6 – Strain the Tea into Cups
Now that the tea is ready and so are your teacups – it’s time for serving. Take a fine-quality mesh strainer and strain the tea mixture into teacups.
Step No. 7 – Add Tea Sweetener to Taste
Sweeten your tea using either brown sugar, honey, or caramel syrup to taste. You can also take it as it is without tea if you like it that way.
Optional Step – Add Pearls
If you want to make the tea extra fancy and experience some exciting flavors, you can always add tapioca pearls into the mixture. Make sure not to overcook the pearls and only add them in the end when your tea mixture is almost ready for serving. You can even add the pearls directly into the teacups when serving.
The instructions are the same: either you use homemade tapioca pearls or you’ve bought a ready-made pack from the market. If you’ve bought tapioca pearls from the store, it’s always a good idea to read instructions on the back of the package. Most tapioca pearls may require 5-10 minutes for cooking.
To bring more spice and luxury to your Hokkaido milk tea experience, you can even soak these pearls into caramel once cooked before pouring them into the tea mixture.
How Is the Taste Experience of Hokkaido Milk Tea?
Hokkaido is the most popular type of milk tea in Japan. It offers an incredibly flavorful experience for the consumers and a creamy, velvety texture to please your eyes. Because of the black tea base – it also tends to offer a roasted yet earthy flavor.
Similar to taro boba and taro milk teas, Hokkaido could also be used as a fruit tea by adding a few flavorful ingredients. To further enhance the flavor of Hokkaido milk tea, some sellers also add coconut milk or dessert into the mix. You can even do that when making Hokkaido milk tea at home without hassle.
How Is Hokkaido Milk Tea Beneficial for Your Health?
Hokkaido’s milk tea is highly beneficial for your health. A few popular benefits amongst many include the following –
· First things first, Hokkaido’s milk tea can help you prevent oxidation.
· It can also be used as an anti-aging product.
· The fact that Hokkaido’s milk tea is prepared using organic dairy milk helps make it a great product for weight reduction.
· All the ingredients used in Hokkaido milk tea are extremely healthy and they can play a significant role in boosting your immune system.
Though the tea is enriched with all the beneficial ingredients, it’s always better not to use anything in an excessive amount. As long as you consume Hokkaido milk tea in a balanced amount, it can prove to be a beneficial commodity. However, excess consumption may end up causing side effects.
What Are the Common Side Effects of Hokkaido Milk Tea?
Since the excess consumption of anything can cause you side effects, so is the case with Hokkaido tea milk. Here’s the list of common side effects which can be caused due to the excessive consumption of Hokkaido’s milk tea –
- Since the main ingredient of tea leaves is caffeine, overdose may result in hypertension, dizziness, or insomnia.
- There could be reactions to the Hokkaido milk tea from different medicines. So, it’s important not to consume the tea if you have any kind of allergy with the ingredients used in the tea.
How Much Is the Caffeine Content Found in Hokkaido Milk Tea?
Since most of the time, Hokkaido milk tea uses black tea leaves as a base – it could often be higher in caffeine. A cup of Hokkaido milk tea could contain half as much caffeine as a cup of coffee would. The content of caffeine present in tea could be influenced by the following factors –
Leaf Size
A typical recipe of Hokkaido milk tea requires black tea leaves as a base that are popular for brewing up quite an amount of caffeine. The size of tea leaves plays a crucial role here – the more broken the leaves are, the bigger caffeine content they are likely to brew up.
Tea Varietal
The variety of tea tends to play a crucial role in determining caffeine content. Popular black teas like Irish Breakfast or Assam tend to have a higher caffeine content and so, they end up making a lot stronger tea than usual.
Water Temperature
The ideal temperature to boiling the water for Hokkaido milk tea is 212 degrees Celsius. It is the point where the water reaches its utmost boiling point – giving the black tea leaves an incredible platform for steeping and simmering.
The hotter your water when adding tea leaves, the more caffeine content your Hokkaido milk tea would contain. In case you like a little lighter tea, you can add tea leaves to a less hot and boiled water instead.
Steeping Time
It’s ideal to let the black tea leaves steep for around 3 to 5 minutes for a flavorful experience. The more time you’ll give in for steeping, the more caffeine content your tea would contain.
Best Places To Enjoy Hokkaido Milk Tea in Japan
Now that you’ve been through all the important information about Hokkaido milk tea, you must be craving a tasteful experience.
Here’s the list of few places where you can best enjoy the Hokkaido milk tea in Japan –
Kenyan – Shibuya
Kenyan is loved and adored local teahouse in Japan. For the amazing taste and services it delivers, the teahouse often gets packed with the locals on weekends and holidays. They are specialized in a range of Japanese black teas. Also, they have even been certified by the Japanese Black Tea Association for the quality and excellence they provide.
They have black teas on their menu and even offer several kinds of juices. However, the view and location are perfect for tea lovers to enjoy their special Hokkaido milk tea struck with a rich and creamy texture.
Chunsuitan – Daikanyama
It’s a popular chain of tea houses, located in different cities and towns of Japan – mainly Tokyo. Chunsuitan is known for being the pioneer of cold milk tea, which is often confused with the Hokkaido milk tea outside Japan.
Apart from that, the tea house is famous for offering incredibly tasteful Hokkaido milk tea. Also, their locations are super aesthetic and it could be a treat for enjoying Japan’s famous Hokkaido milk tea.
Tea Salon G Clef – Kichijoji
The tea salon is popular across Japan for several amazing tea beverages and snacks they sell. A few popular among them include milk teas, waffles, and scones. Hokkaido milk tea is one of their specialties and they’re popular for serving the tea hot and appealing in taste.
The tea salon is made while keeping the classical Japanese interior in mind. And so, it can be a treat to experience the tasteful goodness of the Hokkaido milk tea within their location and environment.
Best Time to Enjoy Hokkaido Milk Tea
Though the incredible benefits of Hokkaido milk tea make it consumable at any time of the day, you should always take it early in the morning for the best experience.
Since it has a black tea base and more likely a higher caffeine content, consuming the Hokkaido milk tea early in the morning could be really effective. It can give you a freshening boost and let you through the day all content and easy.
If you’re a working professional or even a student, having a cup of Hokkaido milk tea before school or work could actually give you the right caffeine hit. It won’t be destructive as long as you consume the tea in a balanced amount. Having it twice a day is ideal while exceeding the amount may result in dizziness, hypertension, or other addictive behaviors.
How Is Hokkaido Milk Tea Better Than Other Types of Milk Tea?
Since Hokkaido milk tea is the most consumed beverage in Japan, you must be wondering what makes it so special.
Well, the fact that it is made using full-cream dairy milk in combination with brown sugar, caramel syrup, or honey makes it incredible in taste. Though it is made with a black tea base, people tend to consume it a lot more than other types of milk teas. That’s because it’s made using full-cream milk – minimizing the caffeine effect.
Be it a morning hangout, a routine trip to your work or school, or even an evening snack time – you can always consume Hokkaido milk tea for a freshening boost and kick.
Conclusion
Japanese milk teas have always been popular for their aesthetic tastefulness and organic ingredients. Hokkaido milk tea is one of the popular Japanese milk teas and is known for the thick, creamy, and rich flavor it offers.
The best part of the Hokkaido milk tea recipe is that it uses full-cream dairy milk with high-fat content – produced organically in the farms of Hokkaido.
The above blog post provides a detailed overview of all the significant information about Hokkaido milk tea. From the basic ingredients and recipe to the tasteful experience, health benefits, side effects, and the places you can get the best Hokkaido milk tea from – it has detailed information about everything.
Additionally, the blog also highlights adequate times for consuming Hokkaido milk tea and what makes it more special than other types of milk teas at the same time.
Either make the flavorful Hokkaido milk tea at home using the recipe we’ve shared above or buy it from a popular tea salon to savor your taste buds. Whatever way of consumption you choose, it will always give an enlightening boost to your mood and make your day exciting.