Cheese tea beverage has become extremely popular in the Far East. At some places consumers are standing on the queue for about 45 minutes to reach the counter. Milk is a popular addition to tea, but who would have thought cheese will become this much popular. Now Happy Lemon in London (http://www.happy-lemon.com/en/) claims to have invented the concept of rock-salt cheese topping. Below details have been quoted from an article written to “The Guardian” by Tim Jonze

Can you judge a food trend by people’s reaction to the name alone? If so, cheese tea was facing an uphill battle from the start.

But in some ways, cheese tea shouldn’t sound that wild. Most of us add a splash of dairy to our cuppa, after all, although perhaps this is the problem – triggering memories of that sinking feeling when you take a sip and realise that your milk is on the turn. The thought of a dollop of moist roquefort melting into your drink seems like the nightmare next stage (unless, perhaps, you’re the former Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard, who, when once asked what his favourite cheese was, replied: “Melted cheese”).

Still, there is no denying that cheese tea, or naigai cha, has taken off in a big way – first across Asia and more recently in the US. When the Shanghai branch of the cheese tea specialist Heytea opened last year, customers reportedly hired people to stand for up to three hours in the queue for them. Over in the US, one site boasts an article ranking every single one of the chain Happy Lemon’s salted cheese tea offerings (from light oolong with salted cheese to the possibly diabetes-inducing milk tea with Oreo and tiramisu salted cheese).

It’s a velvety, mascarpone-like foam that has been whisked with sugar and salt before being allowed to float atop your tea. The whole thing looks not dissimilar to a pint of beer. The fluffy cream’s balance of sweet and salt is a dessert lover’s dream, but it’s in the drinking that things get interesting. Environmentalists will be pleased to learn there’s no need for a plastic straw – instead, you tilt your glass to a 45-degree angle and slurp a thick mouthful of sweet whipped cheese before the bitter taste of tealeaves pours through a second later.

It’s an experience that evolves as you drink and the ratio of tea to cheese changes. If you’re quick, you’ll finish the drink before the cheese crown has sunk in, leaving a sweet treat at the bottom of your glass to rival the finale of any Cornetto or Calippo. As for indulgence, the sweetest version contains 22g of sugar, which – given that it feels like a vanilla cloud sliding down your throat – seems reasonable.

References

1.Original Post: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jul/26/cup-brie-cheese-tea-naigai-cha

2.About Happy Lemon: http://www.happy-lemon.com/en/