Mr Sun Golden Brew by Mr Sun Tea - Fruity Green Tea with Heineken 0.0 (zero alcohol Heineken Beer)

I love the taste of beer, but not the alcohol in it, and am a fan of zero alcohol beers. So when I saw this unique combination of tea and zero alcohol beers, I made the trip down to try. Mr Sun Tea is a Taiwanese bubble tea chain that came to Singapore not too long ago. This drink, called Mr Sun Golden Brew, is one of their signature drinks, and the only one I know of that currently blends beer of any sort with tea, let alone zero alcohol beer. (The next closest drinks I've seen are rice wine teas, such as Osmanthus Rice Wine Milk Tea by Tastea.)
Mr Sun Golden Brew by Mr Sun Tea - Fruity Green Tea with Heineken 0.0 (zero alcohol Heineken Beer)
Apart from green tea and Heineken beer, there is also a fruity syrup that is added. So the recommended sugar level is 0%, because the fruity syrup already has sugar in it.

The first thing I am told when handed the drink, is that it is apparently layered, so I needed to shake it well before drinking. This is not apparent, as the different components (beer, tea and fruity syrup) are all around the same colour. The only clue is that the fizz sits at the top of the drink rather than bubbling up from below. The photo above is of the unshaken drink, and the bright whitish parts above the darker transparent blocks of ice are actually the fizzy bubbles, which are not visible in the bottom layers.

As for the taste review, it greatly surpassed my expectations. The fruity notes were the most apparent and hit my palate, filling it out with tangy floral and citrusy notes reminiscent of pomela, cape gooseberry and a little passionfruit. There was perhaps a hint of mango notes of the Indian alphonso variety. 

I thought it was this syrup that was the star, although it is not as prominent advertised as the beer. But what goes into the syrup is apparently a secret, so I could not find out from the store managers, but those specific fruits that I noticed were very prominent (and I must say that cape gooseberry is a rather unique flavour). The photo below shows the bits of thick frothy fruity syrup clinging to the straw as I pull it up. (Click to enlarge.) The orangey yellow colour does indeed seem to fit those fruits I mentioned.
Mr Sun Golden Brew by Mr Sun Tea - fruity syrup on straw
The genius of this fruity flavour is that it blended perfectly with Heineken beer, which specifically has green apple and herbal notes not found in most other beers. 

The grassy green tea notes were also perfectly complementary. 

There were multiple matching combinations - the citrus notes of the fruit syrup with the herbal notes of the beer was my favourite. As you know, pomelo citrus notes lean a little bit herby, and there are also herb-like elements in cape gooseberry, so this produced an incredibly complex and exotic combination reminiscent of complex floral perfumes. 

The tropical fruity notes also paired perfectly with the green apple hints in the beer and further widened the palette of fruity flavours, making it a very full and complex mouthful.

Finally, the dark grassy green tea provided an earthy base to anchor all the bright and intricate fragrances swirling around.

While I don't usually like the combination of tanginess like in fruits and bitterness like in green tea, because of the overarching citrus envelope, which naturally pairs bitter and sour in a good way, this mixture of flavours was not a problem at all but further enhanced the complex citrusy experience.

The only slight improvement would be that even at 0% added sugar, the fruit syrup was already quite sweet, so it comes across as a 5% total sugar volume level (like on the Nutrigrade label), which is quite sweet. I am more used to a 2% level, so perhaps halving the amount of fruit syrup might be good, but that would also halve the fruity notes which were the capstone of the drink. Nonetheless, it might work by making the drink lean a bit lighter and more refreshing in flavour profile.

Overall, I would not hesitate to recommend this drink. It was a most fascinating experience.

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