Craving a familiar taste today 🧋

After living in Taiwan for a while, you'll definitely notice: almost everyone has a drink in their hand. Taiwan offers a wide variety of hand-shaken beverages. Just the tea alone can be divided into black tea, green tea, oolong tea, and pu-erh tea. There are also milk teas, fruit teas, winter melon tea, grass jelly tea, and toppings like cheese foam, pearls, coconut jelly, tea jelly, and grass jelly. What's even more special is that you can choose the sweetness and ice level when ordering. Normal sweetness, half sugar, less sugar, no sugar; normal ice, less ice, micro ice, no ice – the first time you order, you'll really be unsure how to answer. Moreover, each shop tastes slightly different. Some shops have a stronger tea flavor, some have a more prominent milk flavor, and some toppings are particularly noticeable. Over time, people seem to gradually find their favorite shops and ordering methods. However, when it comes to Malaysia, what comes to mind are not hand-shaken beverage shops, but kopitiams. In Malaysia, when eating, people often order a "water" to accompany their meal. This "water" isn't necessarily plain water; it could be Milo, teh C, kopi O, three-layer milk tea, or even desserts like 'Momo Cha Cha'. Of course, Malaysia also has chain beverage stores like Tealive or ZUS Coffee, and some Taiwanese brands have become familiar names after entering Malaysia, such as KOI Thé (50嵐) and The Alley (鹿角巷). But for me, the most vivid image of Malaysian beverage culture is sitting in a kopitiam, with rice and noodles on the table, and always a cup of "water" beside it. Thailand also has a very representative Thai milk tea. That orange, sweet, and strongly milky flavor is completely different from Taiwanese hand-shaken beverages and Malaysian kopitiam drinks. Malaysia's 'Momo Cha Cha' has a similar dessert in Thailand called Ruam Mit. Although the taste and ingredients aren't exactly the same, both have coconut milk, ice, and many toppings. Sometimes it's more about being delicious than just good. Later, I realized that drinks are not just drinks. They also represent the pace of life in a place. Taiwanese hand-shaken drinks are like a small joy after class or work; Malaysian kopitiam drinks are like something that naturally appears beside every meal; Thai milk tea is the taste that comes to mind when you think of Thailand. It seems that a cup of drink truly holds the daily life of many places.