19 August 2010

Mr. Kon Green Tea {by @NLi10} (Chinatown, London)


A while ago I reviewed what I called at the time 'Superhero' Iced tea. A commenter by the name of jcafarley translated it to say it was 'Master Kang Black Iced Tea'

While in London I found what appears to be the complementary green tea, only in a different (older?) packaging and attributed to Mr. Kon (which is close enough with the language style differences and rebranding). At first I was shocked by the bitterness of this - I picked it up towards the end of the day with a few other snacks and wasn't immediately impressed by its drinkability.

I popped it into my bag and forgot about it. The following day I was thirsty and willing to give it another shot and actually found it to be much more enjoyable. I'm not sure whether it was that the liquid was now room temperature instead of chilled, or that it was a hot day and I was just more thirsty but I enjoyed it a lot more. I could really taste the tea and the fact that it was brewed and not made from tea extracts, and it had a lovely delicate balance of herbal flavours with very little sweetness.

Since returning to Birmingham I have had this in the New Sum Ye restaurant with a lovely Chicken & Honey dish and it proved to be a really nice counterpoint to the strong flavours of the dish. Green tea isn't to everyone's taste and I'd definitely say that the lemon version is a nicer drink by itself, but with a meal this green tea can't be beaten for refreshing and cleansing the palate.
by @NLi10

2 comments:

jcafarley said...

You should come visit Shanghai, you'd be in heaven! Every time I visit the convenience store I'm greeted by tons of these kinds of tea drinks. Some of them are pretty good, some not so nice. Next time I come back I'll bring a crate!

NLi10 said...

Ha - I'm in heaven in most new countries. :)

Thailand was great for 'finds' but all predate this place. That's where the Pocky addiction started though.

I have the tea in a can Wong Lo Kat to write up, but I'm keeping drinks on Thursdays and 'meals' on Sundays at the moment until I make it through the backlog.