Yuanyang (drink)

Yuanyang or Coffee with tea (often spelled according to the Cantonese pronunciation Yuenyeung, Yinyeung, or Yinyong) is a popular beverage in Hong Kong, made of a mixture of three parts of coffee and seven parts of Hong Kong-style milk tea. It was originally served at dai pai dongs (open air food vendors) and cha chaan tengs (cafe), but is now available in various types of restaurants. It can be served hot or cold. The name yuanyang, which refers to Mandarin Ducks, is a symbol of conjugal love in Chinese culture, as the birds usually appear in pairs and the male and female look very different. This same connotation of a "pair" of two unlike items is used to name this drink.

There are disputes if there were independent inventions of coffee-and-tea-mixtures in the Western world, some claiming it to be a Dutch serving. Various individuals have combined coffee with tea, sometimes using the name CoffTea or Tea Espress. The concept was suggested on the Halfbakery in 2000, and singer Peter André claimed to have invented CoffTea in an interview in 2004. In an interview in 2006, Sandra Blund recommended combining Savarin with chamomile tea in a ratio of 2 to 1 or combining organic Bolivian coffee and White Rose tea in equal parts. Blund claimed to have met a Cistercian nun from Tennessee who began combining the drinks in 1936 - about the same time when such beverages were invented in Hong Kong.

During the summer of 2010, Starbucks locations in Hong Kong and Macau promoted a frappuccino version of the drink, it was sold as the "Yuen Yeung Frappuccino Blended Cream".

The drink is starting to catch on in America with the concoction being a one to one ratio of Iced Coffee and Iced Tea. In honor of the drink made famous by the golfer Arnold Palmer, the drink is unofficially called the Juan "Chi-Chi" Rodríguez.