Black and White Evaporated Milk: Hong Kong's 85-Year Culinary Staple
Quick Look
Black and White brand full-cream evaporated milk, imported from the Netherlands, has been a crucial ingredient in Hong Kong's daily life for 85 years, particularly in milk tea and local diner culture, becoming a symbol of the city's culinary identity.
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Why It Matters
For 85 years, Black and White evaporated milk, imported from the Netherlands, has been integral to Hong Kong's daily life and diner culture, particularly in milk tea.
A single canned ingredient imported from the Netherlands has quietly fuelled Hong Kong’s daily hustle for the past 85 years, evolving from a simple dairy product into part of the soul of local diner culture.
For decades, the Black and White brand of full-cream evaporated milk has been a crucial element in Hong Kong-style milk tea culture and craftsmanship, giving the popular drink in the city’s cha chaan teng – local cafes – its signature fragrance, thickness and smoothness.
“Everything starts from a cup of Hong Kong-style milk tea,” said Jayden Looi Ji-houng, consumer dairy commercial director at FrieslandCampina Hong Kong, whose parent company in the Netherlands created the brand exclusively for the local market back in the 1940s.
“Our vision is to position Black and White as the ‘true taste of Hong Kong experience’ and to play the role of promoting food culture in a wider range instead of just milk tea,” Looi said, noting that the product was also essential for making red bean ice, egg tarts and baked buns.
The distinctive white-and-red cans, featuring an illustration of a Dutch Friesian cow, are a ubiquitous sight stacked at local diners, a visual testament to a cross-continental identity that Looi described as “owned by the Dutch, born in Hong Kong”.
