These Suntory drinks are creating a storm online as netizens rush to try these Japanese drinks that are colorless and transparent. We are all familiar with colorless flavored water, even cheese tea, but have you tried colorless tea?
Before this new tea series, Suntory has already created the Tennensui series that is a range of flavored water that many other beverage makers have also been producing. Suntory then went on to create the Minami-Alps Tennensui & Yogurina which is a yogurt colorless drink that went viral when it was first released in 2015.
In the first year of its launch, it has reportedly sold over 10 million cartons of the drink.
The successor?
The Minami-Alps Tennensui Yogurina's successor is the Premium Morning Tea series which currently has two flavors: lemon tea (launched in April 2017) and Milk Tea (launched in September 2017). These two drinks are found in almost all convenient stores in Japan, including the popular 24 hours discount store, Don Quixote.
The lemon tea is brewed using premium Lipton tea leaves and organic lemon juice, that gives a refreshing and tart flavor.
The milk tea, is even more mind-blowing, as I couldn't believe my eyes and noses when I first opened the bottle of milk tea. It really smelt like milk tea, and when I drank it, it really tasted like the milk tea that I get in coffee houses.
The milk tea is brewed using Assam tea leaves and milk-based ingredients. Though I could use a little more milky flavor in the drink, it was amazing that the milk tea did not leave an aftertaste in my mouth!
How did they do it?
That would be the most puzzling thing ever! In response to the millions of fans' queries and curiosities, the Suntory group finally released a video to explain how they managed to achieve this amazing transparent drink.
Suntory creates these transparent teas by boiling natural water to create water vapor. They then pass this water vapor through loose tea leaves so that the aroma of the tea is infused into the water vapor. Thereafter, the water vapor passes through a condenser in which it is cooled to form clear water droplets that contain the aroma and flavor of the tea leaves, and voila, the transparent tea is formed!
As for the milk tea, the process is more tricky as they had to eliminate the chalky color present in milk by removing the milk proteins and fats. Still, it was an interesting beverage to try.
Because of Suntory's invention, students can now start bringing teas and yogurt drinks into the classroom where these colored and sweet drinks were normally banned. This makes it much harder for teachers and discipline staff in schools to regulate.
Besides Suntory's invention, I also found transparent cola and calpsi beverages that you should definitely try on your next visit to Japan! Perhaps switching out your regular cup of joe in the morning with this Premium Morning Tea would do you some good?
