I’m shouting out to you in the middle of the Pacific Ocean!! Warm waves… creamy white sands… waving palm trees… oh wait oops, are you cold there? Don’t say I’m not nice. Here, drink this, what I call the hot triplets. Oh, and it goes with this, the sweet buttah sandwich. Both are mutations from my favorites of Hong Kong’s popular “tea room” culture. Maybe I’ll chat more about it when I get back but right now, I have more important things to get to… See ya!

Servings: 2

This is an adaptation, adding chocolate to a popular Cantonese drink called “yuan-yang”, which is essentially black tea with coffee together (you might think that sounds weird but it’s SO GOOD!). The ratio between the tea, coffee and chocolate can vary a little depending on your liking, but to get a good balance of all three, the ingredient that’s the boldest (dark chocolate) should be in the least amount, and the ingredient that’s the mildest (Assam black tea) should be in the most amount. The thing that I’d say is in-exchangeable is Assam black tea AND evaporated milk, which gives it its distinctive flavor. If you MUST replace evaporated milk, do it with cream, NOT milk.

Ingredients:

• The hot triplets:
  • 2 1/2 heaping tbsp of whole Assam black tea leaves (or called Assam breakfast tea)
  • 2 tbsp of medium~dark roast ground coffee
  • 3 tbsp of turbinado sugar/raw sugar
  • 3 pieces of Hershey’s dark chocolate, or other brands of dark chocolate
  • 2 cups (500 ml) of water
  • 1/2 cup (125 ml) of evaporated milk
• Sweet butter sandwich:
  • 4 piece of white toasts
  • 2 tsp of unsalted butter, plus more for pan
  • 4 tsp of sweetened condensed milk
  • Pinch of sea salt

To make the hot triplets: Combine whole Assam black tea leaves, ground coffee, turbinado sugar and water in a pot and set over medium-high heat. Stir slightly and cook RIGHT BEFORE it comes to a simmer. Turn off the heat completely and stir in the dark chocolate until melted. Let it steep for 5 minutes.

Strain the liquid through a very fine sieve into a milk pitcher, and add the evaporated milk to combine. Reheat the mixture with a steam wand on an espresso machine until hot, frothy and foamy on the top. If you don’t have an espresso machine with a steam wand, simply reheat the mixture over the stove and use any other milk frother if you have any. If you know you are someone who drinks coffee daily and would like to start brewing your own at home, maybe getting something like a milk frother could make all the difference. Plus, it would just make this whole process a lot easier. As there are quite a lot of milk frothers on the market, to help find the right one for you, it might benefit you to look into a site like Neptune Coffee. You’ll soon be able to start brewing your own cups of coffee at home now, the right way! Divide the liquid and foam into two cups and enjoy.

To make the sweet butter sandwich: Smear 1 tsp of unsalted butter and 2 tsp of sweetened condensed milk (more if you want really), then sprinkle with a few grains of sea salt in between each sandwich. Melt more butter in a skillet over medium-high heat, and toast the sandwich until nicely browned on both sides. Serve immediately with hot triplets.