Winter melon tea has a distinctive taste that is incongruous with the flavour of the winter melon in the soups and stews prepared in Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine. The ‘tea’, or more accurately drink, is prepared by boiling peeled and deseeded winter melon slices in water with brown sugar for many hours.

Popular in homes and on streets in Asia, there’s this ready-to-drink Yeo’s Winter Melon Tea in Australia with water, cane sugar and winter melon juice (5%) as its main ingredients.

The drink was a transparent brown straw colour with a sweet cane sugar nose. Served chilled, the sweet nutty flavour distinct to winter melon tea is sustained throughout each sip. There’s limited depth or complexity in flavour, with the sweetness recalling that of rock sugar and the nuttiness resembling a sweet nutty pastry like baklava.The overall flavour was immensely refreshing on a hot day, and there’s is nothing resembling the flavour or mouthfeel of the winter melon in soups and stews.

I’ve not had winter melon tea fresh from street stalls in Asia, but this does taste exactly like the winter melon tea served at Meet Fresh.

This Yeo’s Winter Melon Tea contained 250 ml. It was produced in Malaysia and purchased in Sydney, Australia in 2016.