Lychee Popping Joy Egg Tart by Joy Luck Teahouse (Review)

I finally got around to trying this most unique egg tart by Joy Luck Teahouse, officially called the Lychee Popping Joy Egg Tart. Two interesting things about it are firstly, that it is a lychee flavoured egg tart, which is actually not very intuitive for some reason. 
Lychee Popping Joy Egg Tart by Joy Luck Teahouse
And secondly, they bake it with popping bobas within the egg custard, such that you cannot see the bobas from the outside. So it is differentiated from the original flavour by a different paper cup that's red in colour. The yellow egg tart to the left that is partially cut off from the frame is the original flavour, whereas the lychee one in the middle of the frame. 

In terms of the taste, I absolutely loved it and was very surprised. But it took me a while to figure out why.

Firstly, I had expected something like a lychee or peach milk tea effect, but this was so much better. I find fruity milk teas a bit too empty in the body and middle notes, and those feel somewhat hollow between the fruity top notes and the earthy milk tea.
Lychee Popping Joy Egg Tart - filling appearance
But this egg tart cured all of those problems, because the thicker egg custard features the umami from the egg, the richness from the cream and the addition of salt to the custard and crust significantly help to fill in the body notes, balancing out the lighter fragrant lychee top notes.

As a result, it has the perfect pairing of colourful fruity top notes with comforting creaminess that is found in fruit milk teas, enhanced with a lot more depth and fullness in the middle.

Secondly, I think the lychee fragrance itself without the sourness turned out to be comforting when paired with creamy vanilla-esque custard. So it blended well despite adding some spunky colour to the top notes. As a result, there was added complexity that wasn't jarring.

I was also wondering how the popping boba would affect the texture, but I think because of the crust already being crunchy (I had the cookie crust version), the slight popping of the boba wasn't really noticeable next to it. I also mistakenly cut it with a knife to take a picture of the boba, but the knife unfortunately punctured those in the middle, so it reduced the number of pops I experienced. The photo below shows some whole boba buried under the part that I bit off.
Lychee Popping Joy Egg Tart - lychee popping boba in the egg custard filling
Overall, I think this is an awesome innovation and idea. I think the technique of using popping boba to infuse the lychee flavour is genius, because apart from the added fun of the boba popping, it probably also preserves the lychee syrup as a distinct flavour that acts like a drizzle over the egg tart. 

If it were mixed into the custard, it might have gotten lost in the mixture or else might have caused the custard to curdle due to the acid. While there are some patisseries such as Beard Papa that have fruit-flavoured custard, it appears that the custard must be made separately and with some special additions such as starch and careful processes to prevent the curdling. However, with popping boba, you can use the exact same custard as the original flavour and just add the popping boba in. So it is extremely efficient operationally and a stroke of genius at reducing cost while preserving the taste pairing.

On a tangential note, I found it interesting that popping boba doesn't burst while baking. It seems very convenient indeed, and I wonder why more pastries and cakes don't experiment with them. This lychee egg tart turned out to be such a hit that Joy Luck Teahouse graduated it from a seasonal offering to a permanent menu item, and I would love to see them experiment with different flavours in the boba, such as fruity or floral milk tea flavours including rose, oolong, peach, apple, sakura and osmanthus. (For example, I tried a White Peach Castella by Minamoto Kitchoan and Sakura Castella by Quolofune and thought the peach- and sakura-egg pairings were quite delightful.)

Finally, here's a picture of the full box I tried, including two pandan egg tarts which somehow look lime green in the picture.
Box of 4 egg tarts from Joy Luck Teahouse including pandan egg tart, lychee popping joy egg tart (top right) and original egg tart
Discover other interesting tarts and fruit-inspired pastries

Comments

Post a Comment