In China nowadays it’s less a case of “say cheese” and more of “drink cheese”! For some time now, cheese tea has been the drink of the moment.
Did we really say tea with cheese? In China, thousands of cups of tea with a sweet and salty whipped cheese topping are sold every day. At branches of “Hey Tea”, which is credited as having invented the drink, people sometimes even stand in line for several hours just to get a plastic cup of this tea with its frothy topping.
Why was cheese tea invented in China of all places? Probably because the Chinese have an age-old tradition of drinking tea. In the Orient it used to be standard practice to drink tea without milk or cream, but young people have been eschewing this habit for some time now, so cheese tea has simply become popular as a trendy alternative to the traditional drink.
In the past trends have originated in the USA and then spread across the globe, but now the roles have reversed and cheese tea has become a hit in the States, with Chinese retail chains already opening cheese teashops in New York and California.
If you want to try it you can always make cheese tea for yourself. In addition to cream cheese, the topping consists mostly of milk, whipped cream, sugar and a little salt, and you use it to top black tea or fruit tea. In fact, if you Google it you’ll even find people who like to put it on their coffee. Cheers!