naming the teh

teh ah-lia halia warms the cockles of my heart! :)

teh ah-lia halia is a hot indian tea with milk, condensed milk and ginger. Ahh... :) Last night, I bought a packet of teh ah-lia halia from the railway station after a run. When it had cooled down enough to take a large sip from the straw, it made me sigh aloud in appreciation. Ahh.. it warms the cockles of my heart!

These are the various types of tea you can get at in Singapore.

teh tarik	literally "pulled tea". The guy "pulls" the tea from cup to cup for a frothy cup of sweet milky tea.
teh-O	hot tea with sugar, without milk
teh-C	hot tea with Carnation brand evaporated milk
teh-bing peng	iced milk tea
teh-kosong	hot tea without sugar and milk
teh-ah-lia halia	hot tea with sugar, condensed milk, and ginger
tiao yu	Literally "catch fish", tiao yu refers to Chinese tea because dunking the teabag looks like fishing with a rod.

This is again repeated with the coffee: kopi, kopi-O, kopi-kosong, and kopi-bing peng. As far as I know, there is no kopi tarik or kopi-C. Though for kopi, you can get kopi-gao, which means extra strong coffee.

My friend mentioned that our names for our hot beverages is a mish-mash of languages. For example, "kosong" and "tarik" is Malay, "bing" is Chinese, and "C" is English. "Pak Giu" (Milo) is Hokkien. In fact, surprisingly enough, the English word "tea" originates from the Malay word "teh".

So, what do you like in your cuppa?