Yuen yeung – the Cantonese pronunciation for mandarin duck – is also the name of a harmonious mixture of coffee and milk tea. Hong Kong’s Lan Fong Yuen, a traditional cha chaan teng (a local style of tea cafe), claims to have created the drink back in 1952, though other combinations of tea and coffee have probably existed elsewhere in the world. This particular recipe for yuen yeung is primarily made of three parts coffee to seven parts milk tea, but can vary depending on the type of tea and coffee used.

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Pretty much every cha chaan teng serves it now, but strangely, it mostly remains off the menu, despite widespread knowledge of its existence. Perhaps it has to do with its popularity. For years, we’ve been living in a binary world of coffee and tea, coffee drinkers and tea drinkers. Rarely have the two converged in any meaningful way.

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But as borders blur and definitions become more inclusive, so have ideas of different tea concoctions and coffee brews that include ingredients which purists would once have deemed blasphemous adulterations.

Finding the right balance of milk tea and coffee is a delicate art form, and finding a good cup of yuen yeung can be trying. When you do, it might prove transformative experience that will have you hooked for life. Maybe that’s the reason the drink was named after the duck.

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In Chinese culture, mandarin ducks are believed to mate for life with one partner, symbolising lifelong commitment and harmony. It’s a myth: Like many in the animal kingdom, the male leaves the female once her eggs have hatched to find a new mate for the next mating season.

However, the tale of idealised monogamy remains – fleeting and rare like an excellent cup of yuen yeung. A true yuen yeung should give you that smooth, creamy, silky texture and bold flavours of milk tea, with the aroma of coffee subtly filling your olfactory senses.

In the early days of Hong Kong, mostly blue-collar workers – construction workers, taxi drivers and those with physically taxing jobs – would drink yuen yeung for its intense, revitalising caffeine and the idea of a balanced chi, or energy: Tea is supposed to be cooling and coffee provides the heat. So when perfectly combined, yuen yeung imbues one with a sense of cosmic serenity.

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Today, the beverage permeates all levels of society, and the traditional drink is served in updated forms at establishments like Teakha with their Sea Salt Yin Yang. Next time, when you can’t decide between coffee and milk tea, just order a yuen yeung and get the best of both worlds.

Where are Singapore noodles from? How are century eggs made? Are French fries improperly named? And what’s the final verdict on where tikka masala was created? With the Origins series, STYLE delves into the often surprising beginnings of iconic dishes or foods, how they’ve evolved over time and the many ways they’re enjoyed today.

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