An unpleasant experience with the Plum Tea begged redemption with this Gong Cha Longan Honey Tea ($5.00 for regular, +$0.60 for pearls).

Despite its name, a quick look up online reveals that this beverage does not contain any true tea from leaf and neither is it longan juice mixed with honey. Rather, it’s made from longan honey, a common honey in Asia produced in the springtime from flowers of the longan plant.

The resulting drink was a cloudy brown colour with a sweet floral aroma. Served chilled, the drink tastes much like how it smells: sweetly fragrant notes of the honey came through from the start of each sip with prominent floral notes developing in the body with tropical hints that recall the fresh fruit ahead of a sweet finish. The beverage was sweet, but there’s a clarity to the sweetness that recalled a richer rock sugar sweetness. The addition of pearls complements this beverage perfectly, being the most popular sweetener used to cook the pearls.

Longan Honey Tea was purchased at Gong Cha in Sydney, Australia during May 2018.