Pouring over teh tarik

I enjoyed a chat today with Shaun Rajah, the events manager for the Drake Hotel's Palm Court. He's from Malaysia, and he told fantastic stories about tea makers there and the process of their teh tarik. It's a kind of tea latte, made of black tea and sweet condensed milk. That in and of itself doesn't sound that out there, of course. It's not the ingredients that make this special, it's the way they're put together.

Across Malaysia and in Singapore, they pour the black tea into one tin pitcher, the milk in the other. The tea then goes into milk pitcher. The mixture goes back to the first pitcher. And back and forth, back and forth, each time pouring from one to the other from a greater and greater distance, stretching arms out wide to pour the tea mixture in long streams into the opposite pitcher. That's what foams the milk. (Beats that hissing thing at the coffee house.) It also brings the temperature down from boiling to sippable.

The tea makers often compete in teh tarik contests. YouTube has several videos showing some of these, silly dancing pours and very bad grainy video. This, however, is a simple quick look at a seasoned pro showing us how it's done ...



Do try this at home. But be prepared for a mess.