27 April 2013

Coffee Milk Tea (Day In Supermarket, Birmingham) [By @SpectreUK]


Now we all experimented when we were children and I don’t think any child didn’t offer to make their parent a “special” hot drink at some point or other. This would probably consist of coffee, tea, hot chocolate and anything else they could lay their hands on. This experimentation has spawned coffee mixed with chocolate drinks worldwide, but little did I know that you could buy coffee mixed with tea as a drink in some parts of the world too. As an avid tea drinker the idea horrifies me that someone would mix both of these hot drinks together. This Coffee Milk Tea was produced by Shih Chen Foods in Taiwan. Dubbed as “3:15pm Milk Tea anytime anywhere”, I thought that there was a contradiction in the title, because if you can drink it anytime then it shouldn’t state 3:15pm. In protest at this statement I decided to have a cup of this coffee tea at 5:25pm. The instructions stated that the teabag should be put in a 7oz. cup (well my mug is a lot bigger), then to fill it half way with boiled water, leave the drink for three to five minutes before removing the tea coffee bag and then filling the cup with ice. Being in England in mid April it was raining and not exactly warm outside. I really didn’t feel like an iced coffee tea drink. So I filled my mug with freshly boiled water and squeezed the living daylights out of the tea coffee bag to make the hot drink as strong as possible. As the coffee tea bag already had non-dairy creamer inside I decided not to add any milk. I must admit that I felt a little guilty at completely ignoring the serving suggestion, but also fairly rebellious at the same time. I waited a while for the concoction to cool and was surprised that this drink actually really worked. There was a creamy coffee smell with a hint of black tea in the background in the aroma of the drink. On first taste there was a creamy sweet flavour from the non-dairy creamer and refined sugar in the bag, followed almost immediately by the coffee. I thought the taste would stop right there as coffee can have such a strong flavour that it can block out anything else, but no, the black tea said; “hey, I’m here too, and I mix well and taste great!” This drink goes to show that you don’t have to do what you’re told when preparing a drink, especially if it’s something new. It also goes to show that coffee and tea really can work together to make a great hot drink. Maybe I’ll try one of the other five bags in the box as an iced drink... but with this weather, I doubt it!
By Spectre


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