Comment by greggman2 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by greggman2 | Hacker News Reader

In 2010-11 Singapore there used to be close to zero non-sugary drinks at convenience stores. Even all the teas used to be sweet. Lately they started carrying Japanese brands of non-sweetened tea but for a while if you wanted non-sweet tea you had to make it yourself. Which of course is probably better for the planet but if you're just out and about and wanted a drink from a 7/11 your options were pretty slim.

The big thing lately in Singapore, Tokyo, Malaysia is "brown sugar milk tea". I think it's hit NYC and LA but basically you take a tapoica milk tea but before you put the milk and tea in you coat the sides of the plastic cup with brown sugar syrup. Then, instead of the old tea + milk it's now like tea + cream and far more cream than tea such that it's more like sweetened tea flavored milk than milk flavored tea.

Search for "Tiger Sugar" for I guess the brand the started the new style?

https://www.google.com/search?safe=active&q=tiger+sugar&tbm=...

There are apparently the equivilant of 20 teaspoons of sugar in 1 drink. Compare to 330ml of Coke which is about 7 teaspoons of sugar. The Malaysian government put out a warning as they got super popular.

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2019/07/25/health-mi...

I'm curious why now in Tokyo. Tapioca Milk Tea was popular in Taiwan in the 90s and made it Los Angeles in the late 90s early 2000s. People tried for years to bring it to Japan and I was told it was too sweet for Japanese tastes. But, now it's even sweeter and has some how exploded in popularity to a ridiculous level. It's like every spare store front has started selling.

> Tapioca Milk Tea was popular in Taiwan in the 90s and made it Los Angeles in the late 90s early 2000s. People tried for years to bring it to Japan and I was told it was too sweet for Japanese tastes. But, now it's even sweeter and has some how exploded in popularity to a ridiculous level.

I believe it was around 2011 that the more premium bubble tea vendors in Singapore started offering a choice of how much syrup to add to one's drink (Koi Cafe, which may or may not have originated from Taiwan, might have started this trend).

I'm surprised that this particular service hasn't made its way to Japan.

Koi Cafe and Tiger Sugar are both in Tokyo now as are about 40 other brands, all within the last year or so.

You won't find many non-sugared drinks in 2019 in Singapore either. I only know canned Oolong Tea which has no added sugar, the rest in e.g. a 7Eleven is overly sweet. It's next to impossible to get unsweetened yoghurt in a convenience store.

The brown-sugar tea is all over the place and if you order some green-tea with 0% sugar they look at you like you're an alien and tell you it will be too sour and not taste good.

Try just getting a traditional "Kopi C" with some Kaya toast, that's probably your sugar needs for a day. Then add in the sugar-water soaked fruity, plus the added sugar in most hawker food and you're not exactly on a stunning diet.

I lived there for 5 years and my word it was tough to cook for yourself. Lucky I lived near a wet market, but otherwise your choices aren't greay

I ordered Kopi-O last week and was annoyed to realise they pre-mixed their coffee with sugar. So literally no option to get "pure" coffee at that stand.

I actually try to remember the eating houses that offer ice lemon tea without sugar (very rare). Usually it's even better quality/fresh at that.

They're popular because they're considered Insta-worthy here in Japan, their rise pretty much coincides with that of Instagram.

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