Trust me, my reaction to hearing the words “cheese tea” were exactly the same as yours. Cheese…and tea? Why would you want to combine these things?

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Cheese Tea originated in Taiwanese food stalls, spread to teahouses in China, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Shanghai, and now we’re seeing them in big cities like L.A, Toronto and Vancouver. A lot of foodies in the know are raving it’s going to be the next big food trend to hit North America and the UK.

So, I decided we needed to try this out for ourselves.

Most of the recipes call for cheese powder which if you call any gourmet grocery stores to ask about, they are SUPER rude about it. Outside of KD, no one seems to have cheese powder or even know what it is. And I didn’t think mac and cheese was the flavour I was going for.

This gorgeous blog post by Leaf used cream cheese though and they are tea experts, so it’s the one I went with.

Whipping together the cream cheese and evaporated milk, I started to think this may be just as delicious as everyone says.

I brewed a lemongrass tea last night so it had a chance to chill.

Cheese tea

(Ignore the pint glasses. They were the only tall glasses we had in the KiSS lunch room.)

Add the whipped cream to my cheese mixture. Pour over the tea and a quick crack of coarse salt.

Drew’s review?

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It reminded us a lot of eggnog. Obviously, the type of tea that you use is going to have a big influence over the taste. But the texture was fine.

The strangest part is your brain piecing together the sharp bite of the cheese and the sweetness of the tea and cream. It’s just not a flavour combination we’re used to.

Will it be the next big thing? Who knows. But we can definitely see people drinking it.

Filed under: food, recipe