When working or hanging out in cafés, my usual drink of choice is either a frothy cappuccino or a nice boba tea. Lately I’ve found a new addiction: rose milk tea. A pot of the creamy, fragrant, and intoxicating tea with floating dried roses is the perfect companion for an afternoon of writing (or blogging.). And in Haidian, the university district, rose milk tea is as ubiquitous as free wifi.
Rose milk tea is pretty simple to make. Some cafés use loose tea that comes with dried roses, while others just steep a bag of black tea in water and milk and add the roses after. Just like chrysanthemum tea, you drink the tea with flowers floating in it. I use at least one and a half packs of sugar per pot, just because sugar seems to bring out the taste.
I’m usually fond of the rich taste of Hong Kong milk teas, which use condensed milk. But here in Beijing cafés tend to use regular milk, which I don’t mind when it comes to rose milk tea. Regular milk is lighter-tasting than condensed milk and doesn’t overwhelm the floral fragrance.
Sculpting in Time
Building 12, 1 Huaqing Jiayuan, Chengfu Lu (across from Wudaokou lightrail station)
Haidian District, Beijing
8286 7026
O2Sun Bookstore’s Reading Café
Building 1, Huaqing Jiayuan, Chengfu Lu (across from Wudaokou lightrail station)
Haidian District, Beijing
8286 3032/33
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
That looks wonderful! I recently just made Rose ice cream, but I think next time, I will marry it with black tea. That sounds yummy! Hopefully, I will try those cafe’s when I’m in Beijing!
This sounds truly terrific – I love rose flavored tea and I imagine it’s even better with milk! Do you have a recipe?
I just made a cup of rose tea for myself. Yummy. I used 1%milk, green tea, rose water, and vanilla syrup to sweeten. I find rose water in middle eastern grocery stores. I live in southern CA. and am fortunate to have a variety of ethnic groceries near my residence. Also, Rose Ice Cream can be found in these same grocery stores. These have added pistachios and/or saffron to the rose ice cream.
One idea for the addition of rose water: baked goods, pudding…. I’m sure there are many other great goodies to be made with chemical free roses or bottled rose water.
Instead of rose water, I think these teas are made with regular green or black tea, then infused with dried flowers. Dried roses, like dried chrysanthemums, are pretty much in every supermarket here in Beijing, but I don’t know how easy they are to find in the US or Europe.
Rose water in tea, and in ice cream, sounds delicious though!
In the Turkish shops here in North London you can get rose syrup which is fabulous for making rose milkshakes and pouring on ice cream. Never thought of having it in tea though. (Not as easy to get dried roses here I shouldn’t imagine.)
I am going to try this until today I had not heard of it.
Thank you.
I make something similar to this using green tea as the base and then adding dry flowers (not always rose petals though). Always a great afternoon drink.
This post couldn’t be more right on