Assam Milk Tea

... is good. It's very very good. I have never tasted milk tea as refreshing as this. Assam Milk Tea is a product of Indonesia and is among the many beverages with labels I can't for the life of me translate stacked in Thaiki grocery, the biggest Asian supermarket in Sydney. Thaiki has everything, well, Asian, including the infamous weird Kit Kat flavors of Japan as well as Jack and Jill chips of the Philippines.

I was in Chinatown looking for pork floss-- one of the rare instances I want something made in China, but all I could find were made in Thailand. My Indonesian friend took me to Thaiki but it was no different. Aside from not trusting Thai made pork floss, they are absurdly expensive at $7 per air-filled bag.

I didn't want to leave the grocery empty-handed, having dragged my Indonesian friend all the way there. I was going to get an aloe vera drink when he recommended the milk tea. I was persuaded so I bought one plus a wintermelon drink in tetra pack out of curiosity.

Instead of plain milky tea, Assam Milk Tea has a melon-y/apple-y taste that makes you sip nonstop. It's not as creamy as those found in Chinese restaurants and Lipton's tend to be, and just lightly sweet. I imagine it to be good with any food whether sweet or salty, but only when it's properly chilled.

The tetra pack is a hefty square that's bigger than those I'm used to at home. You can see from the packaging that it passes itself as something for the lifestyle. It's sizeable enough for the office coffee break or to tide one over before lunch or dinner. I'm just not sure about the actual tea content though. I never really got the point of milk in tea and I like mine plain, preferably green. The more awful it tastes, the more healthfully beneficial I imagine it to be. I just thought it's how things work. But if I'm looking for a creamy dessert-like drink that's cheap and not as heavy as the fresh milk laden gourmet coffee, I certainly might consider Assam Milk Tea.