Continuing from the previous text, the story resumes. I saw the manager responsible for the water bar's products, who every morning pours the Lipton yellow can into a large box specifically for tea leaves, then puts on disposable gloves and mixes the tea powder evenly with both hands. I initially thought they only used the Lipton yellow can to brew tea, and after returning home, I bought the same packaged products and followed the tea-to-water ratio as instructed by the water bar staff to brew it. However, the tea brewed at that time, when mixed with a certain proportion of black and white milk and adjusted with sugar to my personal taste, was not impressive. The next morning, I mustered the courage to ask about it, and the answer I received was simply, "It's self-mixed."

Until the water bar ran short of staff to handle the cup orders, they brought in someone from the floor to help brew milk tea, and that person was certainly not me, but a girl named Amin. The good thing is that Amin is from Kaiping in Jiangmen, and according to ancestry, I am from Taishan in Jiangmen; we share a common dialect and communicate in our local language. The people nearby, who are not from the Siyi cultural region, might not understand. Every time I passed by the water bar, I saw her operating it herself. I would usually ask her in Taishan dialect, and she would reflexively respond in Kaiping dialect. The answer I got was surprisingly simple: just boil for fifteen minutes and then pull the tea. During breaks, I would order takeout from nearby to try it out.

At that time, the most famous brand in Guangzhou was specifically referring to tea shops that focused on Hong Kong-style milk tea and lemon tea, founded by Yang Zhibin (Ben). He had won the championship in the South China region of the Golden Tea King competition. Although he did not win the crown in the international competition, he ultimately secured the international gold for the yin-yang tea. Those years, the promotion on short video platforms was indeed explosive, claiming that the main store on Xihu Road in Guangzhou sold champion milk tea and champion yin-yang tea as selling points. If Ben himself made the milk tea or yin-yang tea (which combines tea and coffee in Hong Kong-style drinks, adding a suitable amount of sugar and milk), it was sold for ninety-nine yuan a cup. Even though my part-time job limited my purchasing power at that time, I was really interested in trying their most ordinary yet representative product. I lived in Henan, Guangzhou, so I ordered takeout from the Tongfu store in Jiangnan West, and the drink was indeed smooth, full of tea aroma, and had an enduring aftertaste.