Asia's Salted Cheese Tea Is A Drink Trend Waiting To Happen Here In The US
If you lived through the shock of first hearing about olive oil on ice cream, or the era of adding bacon to pretty much every dessert, you'll know that plenty of food combinations that seem bizarre at first end up being part of mainstream cuisine. So what we're trying to say here is don't let the pairing of the words "cheese" and "tea" put you off.
The first thing you should know about this popular Asian drink it is that it's probably not what you're thinking. The name might conjure up a hot cup of tea mixed with cheddar, which we would totally agree sounds pretty awful. You'll be pleased to hear that the cheese in this case is cream cheese, that's whipped with milk or cream to a wonderfully foamy texture. Some recipes add sugar, but usually the cheese mix is lightly salted.
The foam is layered onto sweet cold tea, which can be green tea, black tea, or matcha, sometimes flavored with fruit. The idea is to drink it without a straw, tipping the cup at an angle to get sweet tea and savory foam in every mouthful.
Cheese tea's second wave
Like the now ubiquitous boba, cheese tea is an Asian concoction, believed to have originated in the night markets of Taiwan around 2010. The trend began to spread across Asia, but it wasn't until Chinese chain HeyTea began to offer premium versions of the drink in that cheese tea went viral, with people queuing up to three hours for their foam-topped tea.
By 2017, cheese tea reached the U.S. and was slated as the next big food trend, with cheese tea stores opening in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. Despite an initial flurry of interest, cheese tea didn't quite reach its expected potential at the time, but we could be on the cusp of another surge in popularity.
Chinese chain HeyTea, which kicked off the drink's international fame, made its first foray into the American market in 2023, with a store in Manhattan. With more locations opening across the country, designer collabs, and unique flavors like cheese yumberry, this could be the move that takes cheese tea into the mainstream in the USA.