A cup of black tea with a dash of milk, simple white tea is a very common cuppa in the UK. In Japan, this cup of tea is called “Milk Tea”. Milk Tea in Japan is as common as Britain’s usual cuppa.
The Royal Milk Tea is the nation’s favourite. It is a white tea with much more milk than usual which is usually made with a saucepan by boiling tea leaves with a bit of water and plenty of milk like chai tea.
In 1965, one of the Japanese tea houses in Kyoto made up the phrase “Royal Milk Tea”, when they introduced this new rich milk tea and named it after the British Royal family.
Since then, the famous tea has been establishing its popularity very firmly and even stretching the comfortable zone to 日本茶ロイヤルミルクティー(Nihoncha Royal Tea), the royal milk tea made with Japanese teas instead of black tea.
The very first Nihoncha Milk Tea shop has opened in Tokyo this March. There was an insanely long queue to the shop on an opening day. The popularity and affection towards it in Japan could be equal to the ones for the British Royal family in the UK!