This is the Hōjicha•Strawberry Milk Tea in Wuyi Dahongpao ($9.50; less ice, little sugar) from Tea & Co, featuring strawberry compote, Wuyi Da Hong Pao milk tea and hōjicha.
The beverage presented with a layered appearance, with deep red strawberry compote at the base, followed by the light tan hue of the Wuyi Da Hong Pao milk tea and finally the deep brown-grey of the hōjicha at the top.
Mixed well, initial contact delivered a smooth, dark roasted hōjicha profile. Through the mid-palate, rich strawberry sweetness emerged with a soft, puréed and pulpy consistency, providing textural interest while adding depth to the dark roasted hōjicha and creating a strawberry-chocolate-like pairing. Towards the finish, floral orchid notes from the Wuyi Da Hong Pao came to the fore, leaving its characteristic long-lasting sweet aftertaste and complementing the beverage’s progression from roasted to sweet.
Some pieces of strawberry were too large to pass through the straw and needed to be consumed separately at the end. Despite requesting little sugar, the strawberry compote was the main driver of sweetness, and a reorder would warrant no added sweetness.
Overall, a layered milk tea with a roasted-to-sweet flavour trajectory and varied textural integration, resulting in a progressively fruitier profile with dark roasted depth and a floral tea finish. The hōjicha established the opening, strawberry added richness and pulp through the mid-palate, and Wuyi Da Hong Pao provided the longest-lasting aromatic finish. The strawberry compote was sufficiently sweet that no added sugar would likely be preferable.
This Hōjicha•Strawberry Milk Tea in Wuyi Dahongpao was purchased from Tea & Co in Sydney, Australia in September 2026.