Suanmeitang or sour prune drink was a traditional Chinese beverage made from smoked plums, rock sugar, and other ingredients such as haw, liquorice root and sweet osmanthus. This Gong Cha Plum Tea ($5.90; $4.70 for regular, +$0.60 for large, +$0.60 for pearls) that I unwittingly ordered thinking it’d be more fresh plum than prune is a version of suanmeitang.
The infusion was a cloudy pale brown colour with a sweet plum nose and white sediment from the plums. Served chilled, the infusion is immediately offputting with a slightly salty flavour in the head before somewhat sweet notes of rock sugar came through ahead of prominent sour notes from the sour plums used in its production. Without the rock sugar to sweeten, the beverage would come close to tasting like Chinese medicine, but with it, the beverage begs relief from the salty notes that nudge it into sweet and sour soup territory.
Plum Tea was ordered at Gong Cha in Sydney, Australia during May 2018.