Tea Soda and Tea Donuts and Tea Ice Cream, I think China likes Tea

So I was in the supermarket the other day, planning to buy my bi-weekly big jug of water when I came across this.

The character in the upper right reads “新” or “New!” The three characters in the lower right “冰+茶味” read “ice+tea flavor”. I was really curious about this. I didn’t know whether it would just be tea flavored soda under the label of Sprite or a Sprite + ice + tea flavor extravaganza! Needless to say, I had to try it!

As you could probably tell by the picture of an empty bottle I already drank the whole thing. For the record I’m unsure whether it was tea flavored soda or sprite and tea flavored soda, but it was OK at best. It tasted a lot like tea, but with carbonation… which is weird as hell. In a pinch I’d drink it again, but it’s actually a good deal more expensive than normal Sprite so I’ll probably keep my distance for a while.

This tea flavored Sprite is merely the latest in a “LET’S PUT TEA IN EVERYTHING WE GET FROM THE WEST!!!” movement China and, I can only assume, the rest of Asia have had for some time.

Most people who have spent any time in China or Korea or Japan can attest to green tea flavored ice cream. It’s everywhere. I’m not a fan… it’s way too much “tea” for me. When you drink tea it’s diluted in water. There’s a clear barrier between the leaves and you, no matter how many of the little fuckers you stick in there. I like my tea bitter as hell too. I made some tea for a British coworker of mine and she was all “SUGAR AND CREAM STAT!!!”

Donuts, I think, are the next big thing in China. If you have some capital, come on over and start a Dunkin Donuts or Krispy Kreme franchise and I can guarantee you’ll clean up. I’ve noticed more donut shops opening up here than anything else. Hangzhou has at least 3 chains that specialize in donuts. They all do VERY well. When I came to Hangzhou last summer, we went to Hefang Jie. That’s like the big pedestrian market street in Hangzhou. While there it had one franchised building, a McDonald’s. While I was there a bit over a month ago it had added two stores specializing in baked goods, one entirely in donuts. These were, by the way, right down the street from other stores of the same franchise. And much like Dunkin Donuts on a Boston morning, they were all packed.

They have all sorts of wacky flavors you won’t see in western donut shops as well, for better or worse. Such flavors (as referred to colloquially by the expat community) as “that gross flossy meat stuff”, or “that stuff that might be cheese…” and of course, green fucking tea.

Green tea donuts are the most pleasant experience of the bunch though. This COULD be because it’s loaded up with a pound of sugar or not, but it does have a very distinctive tea flavor. I’d prefer a chocolate, strawberry or red bean (One of the few Eastern impositions that works wonders.) donut myself, but it ain’t too bad if only for the novelty.

There are also green tea [insert snack here]. I could fill a novel with all the cookies and cakes they’ve stuffed green tea into over here. What’s weirder? I’ve never even seen a Chinese person eat a green tea flavored snack.

PS. As you can notice, WordPress is for some reason unblocked over here again! We’re about to lose google, so you win some and lose some I guess.