Science of Milk Tea

Intro:

I have recently found great favor in The Boba Guys' muscat oolong tea....but I knew I just couldn't keep driving to the city, hunt down parking, pay for excessive parking, and then another $5.50 for this tasty business.

"As an addict, Kitty decided to hunt down the supplier." - Ducky

Method:

I politely asked the owner where he got his leaves from, and he pointed us to Aromas Tea Shop, a local business in the Richmond district of San Francisco. We also read online that Lupicia Tea Shop has a muscat oolong tea that is also very popular, so we stopped by the mall for some as well.

Aroma's tea shop cost a whopping $32 for 4 oz of the leaves while Lupicia's cost only $6 for 50 grams (~1.7 oz)

After acquiring the tea, we set out to see if we can replicate it. Thankfully Boba Guys uses beakers so it was easy to estimate the quantities of each ingredient. From what I saw the recipe seemed like:

• 100 mL of Strauss Half and Half
• 50 mL of Simple Syrup
• Two tablespoons of tea leaves steeped for 2-3 minutes in 150 mL of water
• Total volume is approximately 300 mL

For the simple syrup, we found a recipe that Boba Guys posted: Syrup Recipe

We were only making 2 cups so we halved the recipe using 1/2 cup of water, 1/4 cup of white sugar, and 1/4 dark brown sugar.

We also wanted to be sure we weren't biased so Ducky devised a double blinded test to see if the expensive tea leaves were the real deal. This was the following method:

1. Ducky packed the tea leaves in their own tea bags without me looking and then holds them out one in each hand (so he'll remember which tea bag was in which hand, but I won't know which tea is in which hand)
2. While Ducky wasn't looking, I took the tea bags, remembering which hand which came from, and put them in their own cups of hot water (so I'll remember which tea bag was in which cup, but he won't know which one was in which cup)

This method insured that neither of us really knew which one was which. 

Result:

We tasted each of them and we both concluded we liked the tea in the owl cup more. In result, Boba Guys' source Aroma Tea Shop really delivered the flavor.

Conclusion:

We both agreed that 50 mL of syrup made the milk tea too sweet. The fault may have been from using dark brown sugar since the recipe called for light brown sugar, but we both concurred to use 25 mL of syrup next time.

We usually try to make our own milk teas at home but the fault was that we always used whole milk but it only made the final product seem watery. After using half and half, the milk teas really achieved their signature creamy texture. So really...it should be called Half and Half Tea.

Finally in terms of differences of taste...they both exhibited the muscat flavor. Lupicia's tea had a more floral and light flavor while Aroma's tea was more pungent and strong. From now on we will probably use Lupicia's tea to just enjoy as its original state, and we'll use Aroma's tea whenever I get the hankering for the muscat oolong milk tea. 

If only we can figure out Purple Kow's iced milk recipe....