The combination of osmanthus, rice wine and milk tea seemed intriguing to me, so I visited this Tastea outlet in Scarlett supermarket at Westgate just to try. Based on what the staff said, they used real rice wine (酒酿 or Jiu Niang), which itself has a small percentage of alcohol (1-2%), so the drink has a bit of alcohol, but it is no doubt a miniscule amount that shouldn't affect anyone except those who need to avoid it for allergy or religious reasons.
This drink came with a lot of default toppings. First, there was this milk foam cap sprinkled with osmanthus flower bits. Next, as you can see in the first picture, there are some things floating around in the drink for us to chew on. These were white pearl jelly (like a white clear jelly in a ball shape so it was like a smooth jelly pearl), fermented rice bits (I believe it is the leftover rice from fermenting the wine) and I believe it was osmanthus jelly which rounded up the last of the chewable toppings.
I loved everything about the drink. I ordered the version with no sugar, so it was perfect, as the toppings and milk foam already had some sweetness to it, and it was just the right amount of low sugar overall.
The drink itself was a very balanced and complex drink. The osmanthus fragrance was strong, and complemented the underlying milk tea well, as with typical osmanthus milk teas. What was better than those drinks was the additional layer of the rice wine taste, which was like rich grainy or even malty notes in the body, and a tinge of toasted rice fragrance in the aroma which complemented the floral osmanthus with a hint of earthy and toasty rice notes.
The three chewable toppings were also lovely. The white pearl jelly was the most chewy and provided the most fun in the bite, whereas the osmanthus jelly was like an aiyu or diluted soft agar layer that smoothed things over. The osmanthus jelly's flavour was not that prominent, however, as the drink already had a strong osmanthus taste. Finally, the bits of fermented rice reminded me of instant oats, which added some complexity to the texture.
Overall, it reminded me of a very satisfying, flavourful Chinese milk dessert bowl. It's really more of a full dessert than a drink, so I would recommend sharing it with someone or leaving a lot of room for it after a meal.
Other interesting grain-based drinks
- Genmai Milk (powdered roasted brown rice pops with milk)
- Purple Sweet Potato Latte
- Pulut Hitam Latte (black glutinous rice with milk)
- Barley & Malt Soymilk
- "Double Black" Soymilk (Sinin rice and black sesame soymilk)
- Roasted Barley Milk Tea with Japanese Mugicha from Saga
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