Having forgotten about where I spotted a starfruit juice at one the bubble tea shops online a few months ago, I chanced upon it during a stroll around Burwood at Yifang Taiwan Fruit Tea.
The juice is made by soaking green or unripe starfruit in some ‘secret preparation’ for six months, with the resulting mixture saved as a kind of concentrate and a sweetener added. I tried it out of curiosity for something new but it seems to be also regarded as a cure for sore throats and a ‘beauty-enhancing food’.
So, this is Star Fruit Juice ($6.50, +0.6 for aiyu jelly, fixed sweetness, 30% ice). The drink was a clear off-white colour with the darker brown aiyu jelly creating an ombre effect. Consumed chilled, the juice is sour, sweet and salty all at once, recalling a more palatable version of the preserved plum juice that’s more widely available. Together with the natural hint of lemongrass in the aiyu jelly — which is soft without the usual firmness of the canned jelly — the overall flavour of the drink certainly gave the impression of something medicinal that should be ‘good’ for the body.
This Starfruit Juice was purchased at Yifang Taiwan Fruit Tea in April 2019.