Jasmine Cloud Latte by Luckin Coffee

After a good experience with Luckin's Cloud Cold Brew, I was eager to try the new Jasmine Cloud Latte. I love cheese foam and milk teas, so I thought this would be a good idea. The cheese foam is the white layer on top, and the white layer below is the milk.

Jasmine Cloud Latte by Luckin Coffee

However, it turned out to be a disappointment.

The main issue was with their jasmine tea quality. But before I get into that, I first wanted to qualify that I was very impressed with their ceylon tea offerings, namely their Ceylon Yuan Yang and First Crush Tea Latte. I also thought that there was potential for a good jasmine flavour from their Gardenia-flavoured Pair Hug Latte, which combines gardenia flower notes and pear flavour. (The scents used for gardenia are apparently overlapping with jasmine, because gardenia oil is difficult to extract.) I also loved their Oolong Tea Latte and their Summer Breeze Yuan Yang (which combines citrus, green tea and coffee). So this poor experience with their jasmine tea is unusual.

The most unpleasant part of the experience was that the jasmine flavour was too heavy with the indolic bitterness and tannin-like tastes, and somewhat lacking in the bright flowery fragrance that I experienced in their Pair Hug Latte. Perhaps the brighter jasmine notes were drowned out by the bitterness, possibly because of over-brewing. 

As a result, the bitter taste failed to pair well with the salt and the creaminess without the aromatic overtones. Just imagine bitter milk with salt... not a nice or popular flavour at all. 

Incidentally, I had a similar experience with their Jasmine Blossom Yuan Yang - I found it too bitter and indolic, which is why I never reviewed it. The Ceylon Yuan Yang and First Crush Tea Latte avoid the problem because their ceylon brew was a lot more fragrant, and I almost didn't notice any bitterness, even when combined with the coffee in the yuan yang version.

Otherwise, the cheese foam was of standard good quality, similar to the Cloud Cold Brew. I thought the salt was slightly more prominent in this drink compared to the cold brew version, and it balanced better with the overall sweetness and milkiness, so I preferred the cheese foam and milk aspect in this drink. The sweetness level for this was "least sweet". 

Nonetheless, I would recommend avoiding this, and to either get the Cloud Cold Brew if you're looking for a cheese foam drink from Luckin, or else their First Crush Tea Latte, which is their ceylon milk tea.

I hope they reformulate their jasmine tea brew to have less indolic bitterness... the balance between the fragrance and creaminess was perfect in their Pair Hug Latte even with coffee, so if they can pull that off for their jasmine brews, they would be a lot more enjoyable.

Also from Luckin

Other interesting coffees

Comments

Post a Comment