What's your favorite morning drink? I personally like a good cup of coffee; especially when it comes in one of those classic New York Greek-style cups. However, lately, I have been drinking tea more and more. But not any regular tea. I like a cup of Hong Kong-style milk tea. It's odd that Hong Kong is a city known for its milk tea. Sure, there's the bubble tea craze going around the States at the moment, but that's recent news. Tea isn't traditionally drunk with milk and sugar in Asia. Yet milk tea is as old as the city itself and it is a testament to Hong Kong's history as a British colony.
To begin, Hong Kong's name means "fragrant harbor" in Cantonese. The city started with its large natural harbor, a rocky port used by British ships to stop and load goods traded from China and other Asian nations. At the time, there was a huge demand in Britain for Chinese products, such as tea and porcelain. This demand led to war between the two countries. In winning the war, Britain was awarded control over the territory that would become Hong Kong.
Before the British, the only people that lived in Hong Kong were fisherman and farmers. Many of these farmers (in Cantonese the word for these people are the Hakka, the Punti, and the Hoklo) lived in walled villages where a small handful of families, known as a clan, formed a small community.
