Since opening in September 2018, there’s been a constant queue outside Yomie’s Rice X Yogurt in Haymarket. Month after month, I waited for the queues to die down during lunch hour but it never did, so one day in May, I arrived at the store 10 minutes after opening to find myself already the 26th customer for the day! I’ve read some people have waited over an hour for their drinks, but thankfully, mine was ready in just 5 minutes.
This is their signature Yomie’s Purple Rice Yoghurt ($6.30, ice and sugar levels fixed), the most popular drink on their menu.
The drink was a translucent white colour with purple specks throughout and a viscous consistency akin to a milkshake. Consumed chilled (and best within one hour of preparing), the drink was incredibly creamy with a prominent acidity from the yoghurt that’s followed by a mellow sweetness. The purple rice gave a more chewier and firmer texture than tapioca pearls with an enjoyable sticky rice flavour. The combination of the acidity of the yoghurt with the natural sweetness of the sticky rice makes for a refreshing beverage.
This Jujube Purple Rice Yoghurt. This adds jujube, or Chinese date, to the yoghurt mixture before its blitzed, giving the drink an opaque white colour with tiny flecks of dark brown in addition to the larger purple specks of purple rice. Upon tasting, the flavour was very similar, with jujube adding a fresh red apple-like sweetness that tempers the sourness of the yoghurt in the original so its less salivating while remaining refreshing.
Yomie’s Rice X Yoghurt is located at Shop 6/683-689 George St, Haymarket NSW 2000.