This is the TopTea Lychee Ice Tea with Sticky Rice Smoothie ($13.90; 50% sugar) from TopTea, featuring hand-peeled Lingnan lychees from China, a premium fruit celebrated as one of the region’s four great fruits for its delicate translucent flesh and floral sweetness.
The beverage presented with a layered appearance, with translucent lychee pieces settled at the base beneath an opaque white smoothie containing visible ice fragments, finished with a sprinkling of dried rose petals. Aroma opened with fragrant floral lychee supported by light dairy notes.
Initial contact was dominated by the exceptionally thick smoothie, which made the beverage difficult to consume through the supplied cardboard straw and prevented the lychee from integrating with the smoothie. After allowing the drink to melt slightly, the fresh lychee became the clear focal point, delivering an intensely floral tropical sweetness with a crisp bite that contrasted markedly with the syrupy character of canned lychees. Through the mid-palate, the smoothie contributed a mild milky profile, though the sticky rice imparted surprisingly little of its characteristic glutinous rice flavour. Its texture was similarly inconsistent, with some grains remaining noticeably firm while others were very soft, and the overall quantity was too limited to establish a meaningful presence within the drink. Large pieces of lychee occasionally blocked the straw, further interrupting the drinking experience, while the cardboard straw itself softened quickly and lacked the rigidity needed for such a thick beverage.
Towards the finish, the lingering floral sweetness of the fresh lychee comfortably outlasted the subdued dairy notes of the smoothie. Aftertaste carried fragrant lychee and light creaminess, with the sticky rice remaining more noticeable for its inconsistent texture than its flavour. While the quality of the fresh lychees justified their prominence, the smoothie lacked sufficient flavour and structural integration to support them, and the choice of straw detracted further from the overall experience.
Overall, a layered fruit smoothie with a rising flavour trajectory centred on exceptional fresh lychee but uneven textural integration, resulting in a drink whose premium fruit substantially outperformed its supporting components.
This Lychee Lychee Ice Tea with Sticky Rice Smoothie was purchased from TopTea in Sydney, Australia in July 2026.