How much caffeine does a Hong Kong-style yuanyang hold?

A 700ml cup of Hong Kong-style yuanyang mixes coffee with silk-stocking milk tea, so it carries more caffeine than a standard espresso and can keep drinkers awake all night. The blend tradition calls for roughly three parts coffee, seven parts tea and a suitable amount of milk, which stacks the caffeine of both drinks in one cup.

The name comes from a waterbird that appears in pairs, which is why it was borrowed for a drink that pairs two flavors. Its origins are traced to Hong Kong dockworkers and to the balance theory of Hoi On Cafe. Compared with americano coffee caffeine levels, one yuanyang can deliver considerably more, so people sensitive to caffeine should approach it with care.

Yuenyeung is a highly representative dual-mix drink in South China and Hong Kong-Macau, combining coffee and silk-stocking milk tea into one, with a rich and smooth taste, yet it also leaves many people unable to sleep all night after drinking it. Why is it called "Yuenyeung"? What versions of its origin are circulating? How high is the caffeine content in a 700ml cup of Hong Kong-style Yuenyeung? This article sorts out the history and flavor logic of Yuenyeung from the origin of its name, the drinking tradition of Hong Kong dockworkers, the "balance" theory of Hoi On Cafe, to the blending standard of "three parts coffee, seven parts tea, and an appropriate amount of milk," and explains why it is more invigorating than espresso, while also reminding people with caffeine intolerance to try it with caution.

I wonder if any of you have had this experience at Front Street: during your student days, the first time you went to a Hong Kong-style cha chaan teng, you spotted an unfamiliar name on the menu, "Yuenyeung," and out of curiosity ordered a cup. It tasted fragrant and smooth, with a rich flavor, but that night you just couldn't close your eyes, and after that you never dared to order it casually again.

It was only as you grew older that you realized this stuff actually has more caffeine than espresso, no wonder many people complain about not being able to sleep after drinking it, and can even be wired all night.

What is "Yuenyeung"?

As the old saying goes, one envies only mandarin ducks, not immortals. In Chinese, Yuenyeung first refers to a waterbird that lives in East Asia and often appears in pairs. "Yuen" is the male bird, and "Yeung" is the female bird, so the word Yuenyeung is often regarded as a symbol of love and partnership.

In today's everyday context, especially for people in the South China F3 (Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan) and Hong Kong-Macau, because "Yuenyeung" implies pairing in twos, it is also often used to refer to food that combines two different flavors. A dual-mix drink made by combining Hong Kong-style coffee with silk-stocking milk tea is what we now commonly call "Hong Kong-style Yuenyeung." Since it has both milk tea and coffee, then logically we could call this drink, widely popular in Cantonese-speaking areas, " Yuenyeung milk tea," or we could call it "Yuenyeung coffee," since it touches on both categories.

The "mysterious origins" of Hong Kong-style Yuenyeung

It has long been widely known that Yuenyeung first appeared in Hong Kong, but around its origin and the reason for its name, several different folk accounts circulate. The most widely spread version says it was related to workers making a living on the docks at the time.

Hong Kong people's habits of drinking tea and coffee were both brought in by the British during the colonial period. In earlier years, British-style milk tea was made by brewing Ceylon black tea, fresh milk, and sugar. Both tea leaves and milk were not cheap and were a symbol of status for the upper class, completely unaffordable for the local working class.

In the 1950s, most Hong Kong people worked in physical labor such as hauling, construction, and seafaring, and needed to refresh themselves and replenish their strength. So operators of dai pai dong improved British-style milk tea: they blended local broken tea with other teas to make a tea base, then used repeated brewing to make the tea flavor stronger, then mixed in evaporated milk, increasing the proportion of sugar and milk, creating a Hong Kong-style milk tea that was strong in taste, high in calories, and cheap.

It is said that at the time, dockworkers had to drink a cup every day of a beverage that could both replenish strength and quickly refresh them, so someone thought of mixing bitter but stimulating coffee into silk-stocking milk tea. After drinking it, not only did it refresh them and quench their thirst, but they also immediately recovered their energy, and this way of drinking quickly spread. A cup of Yuenyeung can be said to have witnessed the parallel development of coffee and milk tea in Hong Kong.

When Front Street looked up relevant materials, it found that besides the dock story, there is another saying that "Hong Kong-style Yuenyeung is related to traditional Chinese medicine." Wong Ka-wo, chairman of the Kam Pui Ka Group and president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades, hailed as the "father of milk tea," spoke in an interview about the birth of Hong Kong-style Yuenyeung: "Yuenyeung appeared around 1955. At the time, some diners said milk tea upset the stomach, but coffee was too heating, so the master at Hoi On Cafe took the balance of the two and created Yuenyeung."

As for naming the drink "Yuenyeung," there are also different explanations. Some say mandarin ducks are inseparable and exceptionally harmonious. The pairing of coffee and milk tea draws on this characteristic. It retains the smoothness of milk tea while also having the unique aroma of coffee, the two complementing each other, hence the name "Yuenyeung."

Others say that coffee and milk tea are clearly two different drinks, with colors one dark and one light, yet they can blend together very well, just like male and female mandarin ducks, which despite great differences in appearance can always appear in pairs. From this, "Yuenyeung" got its name.

Why can't you sleep all night after drinking Yuenyeung?

With the spread of cha chaan teng culture, the "three swordsmen of the tea room," including Yuenyeung, have now spread all over the world, becoming not only a representative of Hong Kong street food culture but also an old taste in the memories of countless overseas Chinese.

It is said that a good cup of Yuenyeung emphasizes "three parts coffee, seven parts tea, and an appropriate amount of milk," that is, three parts coffee and seven parts tea liquor, then blended with an appropriate amount of evaporated milk. "It is neither milk tea nor coffee, yet has neither flavor fully dominating—that is a good cup of Yuenyeung." Wong Ka-wo believes that making Yuenyeung is harder than making milk tea.

Precisely because Yuenyeung mixes two basic categories at the same time, both the coffee and the tea in this classic Hong Kong drink contain a large amount of caffeine, making it a quite powerful refresher for most people. So if it is for children, some cha chaan tengs will use sweet Ovaltine and Horlicks to make a caffeine-free version " kids' Yuenyeung," so that children can also enjoy a bit of adult happiness .

Front Street will also add one more nagging note: someone once converted data from public reports and found that after drinking a 700ml cup of Hong Kong-style Yuenyeung, the caffeine intake is about 510mg, roughly equal to 3 cups of Americano. If you yourself are caffeine-intolerant and do not want to stay awake until dawn, remember not to try this kind of Hong Kong-style Yuenyeung or Hong Kong-style milk tea rashly, otherwise...

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.