Cheese Is Delicious, But Do We Really Want It It In Our Tea?

Cheese has worked wonders both on its own, and as an addition to classic dishes over the years. Who could forget all the good its done for nachos? Or pizza? Or the times we’ve watched a small mountain of it grated onto our pasta dishes because we held back on telling the waiter “when” for a few minutes too long. But there’s a new cheese trend emerging that we just don’t know if we can stomach.

Cheese-topped tea.

Refinery29 writes that the growing practice of topping iced tea drinks with cheese originated first in the food stalls of Taiwan, but that it spread to teahouses in China, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and now, right here in the U.S.

The white whipped cheese-topping graces the tops of four different flavors of tea at HEYTEA, a China-based company that's among the largest offering up queso-laced drink according to Condé Naste Traveler, which visited a storefront in Guangzhou to try the unusual combo. At first, it was a big swing and a miss: “The first sip is a mouthful of whipped cheese. It’s so rich, I feel a little ill,” said the author, Kate Springer. But eventually she came around on it, describing it as more of a tea milkshake and explaining that “the salted cheese plays up the tea’s floral notes, and the tea, in turn, tastes smooth and creamy.”

And that…actually, that doesn’t sound too bad.

Refinery 29 reports that the topping is made from a cheese powder, rather than a chunk of actual dairy cheese, and that the final product mirrors the look and consistency of whipped cream.

As of now, teahouses offering the cheesy tea have been reported in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, but if the popularity of it continues, it’s likely to spread to other cities soon.

In the meantime, you’ll just have to make do with boring, cheese-less tea.