Which Hong Kong drink mixes coffee with milk tea?

Which Hong Kong drink mixes coffee with milk tea? The answer is yuanyang, also spelled yuenyeung.

This Hong Kong beverage combines brewed coffee with Hong Kong-style milk tea, which is typically made from strong black tea, sugar, and evaporated or condensed milk. It can be served hot or iced, and recipes vary by café; one commonly cited proportion is three parts coffee to seven parts milk tea.

Yuanyang developed in Hong Kong’s dai pai dong street-food stalls and cha chaan teng cafés. The name refers to mandarin ducks, which traditionally symbolize a paired couple, an apt image for the union of two unlike drinks. A Hong Kong restaurant, Lan Fong Yuen, claims its owner invented the drink in 1952, although that specific origin story is not independently verified.

It is easy to confuse yuanyang with teh tarik or Thai tea, but those drinks do not combine coffee and Hong Kong milk tea. In Malaysia, a similar coffee-and-tea drink is commonly called kopi cham.