The History and Origin of Yuan Yang Coffee: Why Does This Hong Kong Tea-Coffee Keep You Awake?

Have you ever had this experience at FrontStreet Coffee: During your school days, you visited a Hong Kong-style tea restaurant for the first time and saw "Yuanyang" on the menu - something you'd never encountered before. Out of curiosity, you ordered a cup. It was mellow, smooth, and rich, but that night you found yourself wide-eyed until dawn, and afterward, you didn't dare to order it again so easily.

It wasn't until I grew up that I discovered this beverage's caffeine content is actually more potent than espresso, no wonder everyone complained about being unable to sleep after drinking it, even staying excited throughout the entire night.

What is "Yuanyang"?

As the saying goes, "One would rather be a mandarin duck than an immortal." In Chinese, "Yuanyang" first refers to a species of waterfowl native to East Asia that often appears in pairs - "Yuan" refers to the male bird, and "Yang" to the female bird. Therefore, the term "Yuanyang" is often regarded as a symbol of love and companionship.

From today's daily conversations perspective, especially among people in the "South China F3" region (Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan) as well as Hong Kong and Macau, because "Yuanyang" carries the meaning of "two" or "pair," it's often used to describe foods made by combining two different flavors. A mixed beverage of Hong Kong-style coffee and silk stocking milk tea is what we now commonly hear as "Hong Kong-style Yuanyang." Since it contains both milk tea and coffee, theoretically we could call this popular beverage throughout the Cantonese-speaking region "Yuanyang Milk Tea" or "Yuanyang Coffee" - after all, it occupies both categories.

The "Mysterious Origins" of Hong Kong-style Yuanyang

It's widely known that Yuanyang first appeared in Hong Kong, but there are many different stories circulating about its birth and the origin of its name. Among them, the most widespread version is that it's related to the workers who made their living at the docks every day.

Hong Kong people's habits of drinking both tea and coffee were introduced by the British during the colonial period. Early British-style milk tea was made from Ceylon tea, fresh milk, and sugar. Both tea and milk were quite expensive, making it a symbol of the upper class, which local working-class people simply couldn't afford.

In the 1950s, most Hong Kong people engaged in physical labor such as portering, construction, and seafaring, and had needs for both refreshment and replenishing energy. Dai pai dong (street food stalls) owners improved the British milk tea, using local broken tea leaves and other teas blended to create a "tea base," then using a re-brewing method to make the tea flavor stronger, adding evaporated milk, and increasing the proportions of sugar and milk, creating a strong-tasting, high-calorie, and economical Hong Kong-style milk tea.

According to legend, dock workers at that time needed to drink a beverage every day that could both replenish their energy and quickly refresh them, so someone came up with the idea of mixing bitter but stimulating coffee into silk stocking milk tea. After drinking it, not only did it refresh and quench thirst, but it also immediately revived them. Soon, this way of drinking spread. A cup of Yuanyang can be said to witness the synchronized development of coffee and milk tea in Hong Kong.

When FrontStreet Coffee reviewed relevant records, it found that besides the dock story, there's another theory that "Hong Kong-style Yuanyang is related to traditional Chinese medicine." Huang Jiakang, chairman of the Kampery Group (known as the "Father of Milk Tea") and president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants & Related Trades, mentioned in an interview the birth of Hong Kong-style Yuanyang: "Yuanyang appeared around 1955. At that time, some customers reacted that milk tea was too harsh on the stomach, while coffee was too 'heaty.' So the chef at Hoi On Coffee Cafe took the balance of both and created Yuanyang."

As for why the beverage was named "Yuanyang," there are also different theories. Some say that mandarin ducks are inseparable and exceptionally harmonious. The combination of coffee and milk tea takes its characteristics from this feature - it retains the smoothness of milk tea while also having the unique aroma of coffee. The two complement each other, hence the name "Yuanyang."

Others say that coffee and milk tea are clearly two different beverages with different colors - one dark and one light - yet they blend together well, just like male and female mandarin ducks, despite their significant differences in appearance, always appear in pairs, thus earning the name "Yuanyang."

Why Does Drinking Yuanyang Keep You Awake All Night?

With the popularization of tea restaurant culture, including Yuanyang among the "Three Musketeers of the Tea Room" have now spread worldwide, becoming not only a representative of Hong Kong street food culture but also an old taste in the memories of countless overseas Chinese.

It's said that a good Yuanyang requires "three parts coffee, seven parts tea, with appropriate milk" - that is, three parts coffee and seven parts tea soup, blended with an appropriate amount of evaporated milk. "It's neither milk tea nor coffee, without both flavors - that's a good Yuanyang," Huang Jiakang believes that brewing Yuanyang is more difficult than brewing milk tea.

Precisely because Yuanyang simultaneously mixes two base categories, both the coffee and tea in this classic Hong Kong drink contain large amounts of caffeine, making it a quite potent refreshment tool for most people. Therefore, if serving it to children, some tea restaurants will use sweet Ovaltine and Horlicks to prepare a caffeine-free version called "Children's Yuanyang," allowing children to also enjoy the happiness of adults.

FrontStreet Coffee would also like to add that someone once calculated through public report data that drinking a 700ml Hong Kong-style Yuanyang contains approximately 510mg of caffeine, equivalent to about 3 cups of Americano. If you're caffeine intolerant and don't want to stay awake until dawn, remember not to easily try such Hong Kong-style Yuanyang or Hong Kong-style milk tea, otherwise...

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