8. Herbal tea
Beverage: Nuoc Sam Dac Che (Ha Tang Cuc)/Herbal Tea
Ingredients: Water, sugar, mesona chinesis, benth, plumena rubra, microcos paniculata, chrysanthamum, lonicera japonica thunb, prunella vulgaria
Appearance: OK, despite that Kew Gardens shopping list on the ingredients label this looks like tea, quite dark tea, but tea all the same.
Aroma: Smells slightly sweet, vaguely tea(ish) and unexotic. Despite the tendency towards Latin in the ingredients list, I'm not getting even the faintest whiff of dusty library textbooks or the vaguest odour of an unwashed, half dead, squinting professor. Just sweet tea.
Taste: OK, in we go... Ooh, it's quite the medicinal slurp innit? But not in a wholly disagreeable way. There's that sweetness (again) which seems to be an ongoing theme this far into our exploration of Vietnamese softdrinks. Another slurp... take away that sweetness and I think you'd have quite a palatable little tipple here. Think sweetened Vietnamese Aqua Libra, but better. Never liked that expensive Aqua LIbra rubbish myself, but I quite like this.
If this drink were a mobile phone it would be a.... an early 1980's brick carphone.
Our survey said... 4.56 out of ten. Drop the sweetness and I think this would hit a 7.
Cost: 3,800VD
"prunella vulgaria" = vulgar prune?
Posted by: FatMan Seoul | July 15, 2005 at 01:36 PM
my first impression from read the text on the can was that it was chrysanthemum tea. a look at the ingredients reveals it does in fact contain chysanthemum though much much more...
i quite enjoy pure chysanthemum tea, and it is usually very lightly sweetened, not sure whether your taste buds are more sensitive to sugar or those other ingredients have to do with it, but pure chysanthemum tea is a real treat usually marked by the yellow flower on the packaging or marked as "Trà cúc".
available either in powder form or as a canned drink also containing the trademark icons
Posted by: dc | July 15, 2005 at 03:22 PM
Thanks dc. I have a can of chrysanthemum tea in the fridge. I'll get to it next week, hopefully. I'm looking forward to that one. I think it's called Misty?? It's in the photostream already.
Posted by: pieman | July 15, 2005 at 06:03 PM
Oh and yes Fats... who you calling a vulgar prune then?
Posted by: pieman | July 15, 2005 at 06:03 PM
i SWEAR i thought that i was going crazy when i saw this post. I thought that you had covered this a few weeks ago and i got so confused as to why I recognized this can. Stupid me...i must've seen it in your Flickr photoalbum!
Have you ever eaten "bo nuong vi?" We're eating it tomorrow at our party. mmm i love eating with my hands.
Posted by: Christine | July 16, 2005 at 08:37 AM
Never understood the whole sweetness thing here. For one thing cakes here are very unsweetened, very bland and I know my colleagues often refer to western food as being too sweet.
But then you buy one of their local drinks and its sweeter than anything you would drink at home.
Weird.
Posted by: omih | July 16, 2005 at 09:17 AM
omih, I'd call it balancing.
Posted by: Van Le | July 16, 2005 at 02:24 PM
I don't think I have had bo nuong vi Christine. Maybe under a different name I have. Hope you had a good one.
Vietnamese cakes are a challenge heh? But the there's a definite north/south thing going on regards sweetness. Northerners hate southern food 'cos it's too sweet. Southerners hate northern food 'cos it's not sweet enuff... oh and it's a wee bit crap too... ouch :)
Posted by: pieman | July 16, 2005 at 04:32 PM
I find your culinary adventures fun to watch.
I'm curious what you read (even if it's not cooking related). According to Ana (http://pumpkinpiebungalow.blogspot.com/2005/06/history-of-5-cookbook-meme.html) you've been tagged at least once already.
Here's a 2nd tag.
Best,
Rose
Posted by: Rose | July 18, 2005 at 06:28 AM