White Champaca Milk Tea and Jasmine Apple Milk Tea by Molly Tea

Molly Tea is a jasmine milk tea specialist from China that opened its first branches in Singapore in recent years, so I took the chance to try a couple of their menu items that I've not seen elsewhere before. 
White Champaca Milk Tea and Jasmine Apple Milk Tea by Molly Tea
White Champaca Milk Tea 

The first is White Champaca Milk Tea. This is a tea that is flavoured with the white champaca flower. It makes sense that a jasmine tea specialist would also be selling this variety of tea, because jasmine tea leaves are made in a similar way. It is made with tea leaves that are layered with fresh, unopened white champaca flowers overnight, such that the tea leaves absorb the flower's flavour. The flowers are then removed and only the tea leaves are used to brew the drink. This is similar to the process for jasmine tea leaves, except that jasmine flowers need their petals to unfurl before their fragrance is released and they are layered with the tea leaves.
White Champaca Milk Teaby Molly Tea
Based on online descriptions, the flowers impart creamy and sweet notes reminiscent of orchids and vanilla. So did the drink live up to expectations?

The first impression that hit me upon first sip of the white champaca milk tea is the herby green tea base notes with vegetal grassy bamboo notes. (I later confirmed from online sources that Molly Tea does indeed use green tea for the tea base.) There were also mellow buttery and roasted woody floral notes thereafter, reminiscent of oolong. I didn't seem to taste much of the orchid notes, and while it was floral, it was more like how an oolong is floral, nothing like jasmine floral notes. 

So it was quite different from the online hype. Perhaps the bold green tea notes masked the delicate white champaca flavour and they should have used white tea leaves instead. Otherwise, this was too green tea-forward. This was also the first drink I tried, so I'm certain that my palate was not influenced by the second drink below.

I had it with less ice and without sugar, and am glad I did, because I think the sugar would have masked the subtle flavours and reduced it even further.

In my view, a good quality oolong tea would be more complex and fragrant, and possibly more floral than this. And for something more vegetal, I would rather go for Chagee's Glutinous Green Milk Tea. So if you are trying Molly Tea, I would give this item a pass. 

Jasmine Apple Milk Tea

This was a much better curated item on their menu overall. 
Jasmine Apple Milk Tea by Molly Tea
On first sip, the fragrant fruity and floral apple top notes hit me, before giving way to warm and darker indolic floral jasmine and green tea base notes.

After the foretaste, the mildly exotic hibiscus-like notes of the jasmine also came through clearly in the top notes. And these exotic floral notes complemented and paired very well with the apple's own floral and fruity fragrance.

I would say that the apple flavour is exactly the same as the typical shelf stable 100% pure apple juice you can find in any supermarket. Except there was no sugar, just the flavour. So it was more Western and leaned more fruity, as opposed to the Japanese apple flavours that lean more floral.

I also requested no sugar for this, fearing that they have some minimum level of sugar due to the apple, but it turned out to be completely sugar free. It is a testament to how fragrant the apple and jasmine were, that they came through so strongly even without sugar.

That said, I think a minimum amount of sugar would do well to complement the complex floral and fruity notes, and next time I might try it. Their lowest level is 30% of their default, but I don't know how much grams per 100ml it translates to.

Verdict

Their jasmine apple milk tea is a gem. But their white champaca tea is a solid pass. 

Given how fragrant their jasmine tea is, I think just stick to their jasmine tea range which is their specialty. They have more work to do on their white champaca tea flavour.

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