Cheese tea

Lore & Background

Cheese tea emerged in Taiwan’s night markets around 2010, where vendors created a foamy, tangy topping by blending powdered cheese and salt with whipping cream and milk over cold tea. By 2012, the trend had spread to China’s Guangdong province, where the founders of Chinese tea drink chain Hey Tea refined the concept by replacing powdered ingredients with real cream cheese and fresh milk, developing a more premium version of the savory and salty topping. Hey Tea is widely recognized for introducing the beverage in China before expanding to other parts of Asia (including Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia), Australia, and the United Kingdom.

Reader's Guide

Cheese tea represents a notable innovation in the global tea and beverage market, blending traditional tea with a savory-sweet dairy topping. Its significance lies in its rapid spread from Taiwanese night markets to international cities, driven by Hey Tea's premium refinement and marketing. The drink's unusual combination—described by food writer Tammie Teclemariam as having 'a Creamsicle-like appeal' and by Tim Jonze as 'a velvety, mascarpone-like foam'—challenges conventional beverage categories. Its popularity is evidenced by long queues: when Hey Tea's Shanghai branch opened in 2017, customers paid others to wait in line for up to three hours. By December 2018, The New York Times noted it was 'already a hit in San Francisco.' In the United States, Hey Tea opened its first New York location in December 2023, and as of January 2025, the chain operates 15 locations in the city. Cheese tea's legacy is as a cross-cultural fusion that has found a foothold in diverse markets.

Did You Know?

• Cheese tea emerged in Taiwan’s night markets around 2010.
• Hey Tea refined the drink by replacing powdered cheese with real cream cheese and fresh milk.
• When Hey Tea's Shanghai branch opened in 2017, customers paid others to wait in line for up to three hours.
• Hey Tea's first U.S. location opened in New York in December 2022, and by January 2025 it had fewer than 15 outlets in New York City.

From Night Market Novelty to Refined Craft

Cheese tea first appeared in the bustling night markets of Taiwan around 2010, where street vendors experimented with a foamy, tangy topping. Their method was straightforward: powdered cheese and salt were blended into whipping cream and milk, then poured over a glass of cold tea. The result was a casual, slightly savory cap that gave the familiar iced tea a new dimension. By 2012, the concept had crossed the strait into Guangdong province in China, where the founders of the tea-drink chain Hey Tea took notice. Rather than simply copying the night-market formula, they reworked it from the ground up, swapping the powdered cheese and milk for genuine cream cheese and fresh milk. This substitution produced a noticeably richer, more premium topping while preserving the signature balance of salt and sweetness. Hey Tea is broadly credited with transforming what was a regional street-market curiosity into a polished, chain-ready beverage, laying the groundwork for the drink's eventual international spread.

Anatomy of the Sip

At its core, cheese tea pairs a base of cold green or black tea with a generous cap of whipped cream cheese. The topping is made by blending cream cheese with either cream or condensed milk, then whisking in sugar and a pinch of salt until it achieves a velvety, mascarpone-like consistency. The final layer can lean sweet or carry a subtle salty edge, and some preparations call for an additional dusting of salt across the surface. The drink is often described as fruity and layered, with the iced tea providing a refreshing foundation beneath the dense dairy cloud. Food writer Tammie Teclemariam struggled to pin down a single comparison, noting a "Creamsicle-like appeal" where dairy met medium-sweet fruit, yet feeling the beverage sat awkwardly between bubble tea, a Slurpee, and a Frappuccino. The Guardian's Tim Jonze offered a more visual shorthand: the whole assembly, he observed, resembles a pint of beer more than anything else in the tea world.

From Shanghai Lines to San Francisco

Hey Tea's expansion turned cheese tea into a genuine cultural phenomenon. After refining the recipe in Guangdong, the chain carried the drink through major Asian markets, opening locations in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia before reaching Australia and the United Kingdom. The hype reached a fever pitch in China when Hey Tea's Shanghai branch launched in 2017; reports at the time described customers hiring strangers to stand in line for as long as three hours so they could secure a cup. The momentum carried westward quickly. By December 2018, The New York Times flagged the beverage as "already a hit in San Francisco," signaling that the trend had crossed the Pacific. In the United States, New York emerged as a key battleground for the drink's growth. Hey Tea opened its first New York location in December 2023, and by January 2025 the chain had scaled to fifteen outlets across the city, cementing cheese tea's place in the American specialty-beverage landscape.

Naming, Perception, and the Cheese Debate

Despite its name, cheese tea has long drawn commentary about what the "cheese" actually means. The Guardian's Tim Jonze called the label "slightly misleading," arguing that the topping is better understood as a velvety, mascarpone-like foam rather than a traditional cheese product. He emphasized that the foam is whisked with sugar and salt before floating atop the tea, a process that produces a texture and appearance closer to a frothy pint of beer than to a slice of brie. Food writer Tammie Teclemariam echoed the confusion, admitting she could not quite categorize the drink: it felt like equal parts bubble tea, Slurpee, and Frappuccino, with a Creamsicle-like interplay of dairy and fruit. The beverage also goes by the name naigai cha, a nod to its layered, milky character. Together, these observations highlight a recurring theme among critics and casual drinkers alike: the drink resists easy classification, sitting at the intersection of sweet, savory, cold, and creamy in a way that defies a single familiar label.