This is the Longan Water Chestnut Tea ($9.50; less ice, 50% sugar) from Molly Tea, featuring their Gardenia Longan Tea base of longan flesh purée, coconut water and gardenia green tea made with their ‘cheese bites milk’, with additional silver fungus and water chestnut.
The beverage presented with an opaque off-white hue, with translucent beige-to-tan pieces of silver fungus, longan and water chestnut visible at the base.
Using the thick straw without stirring, as recommended, initial contact delivered the same smooth, sweet milk profile as the base drink, but with the added silky texture of the silver fungus. This gave the beverage an almost slippery viscosity, bordering on a pleasantly slimy quality that may be an acquired preference. Sweetness developed quickly through the mid-palate as the rich sweetness of coconut water emerged, followed by the fresh longan. The longan retained its characteristic flavour while remaining considerably less smoky than dried longan.
Through the mid-palate, the longan gradually transitioned into the delicate floral notes of the gardenia tea base. The milk remained velvety and lightly saline-sweet, providing a creamy texture without introducing any pronounced cheesy character from the cheese-infused milk. Towards the finish, the water chestnut cubes provided a crisp crunch against the soft longan flesh and slippery silver fungus, extending the fruit character while introducing a clear textural contrast.
Overall, a layered milk tea with a sweet-to-floral trajectory and increasingly varied textural progression, resulting in a cohesive combination of fresh longan, gardenia and creamy milk, with silver fungus and water chestnut providing contrasting tactile elements.
This Longan Water Chestnut Tea was purchased from Molly Tea in Sydney, Australia in August 2026.