HEYTEA Cloud Mango

The HEYTEA Cloud Mango is $9.99 for a regular cup at 225 calories, and it is the drink most people are handed when they ask a HEYTEA regular what to try first. Mango pulp, jasmine green tea and a cap of cheese cloud, in that order from the bottom up.

The mango is the whole argument. It goes in as pulp rather than syrup, so the base has body and a colour that shifts from deep orange at the bottom to pale gold where it meets the tea. There is fibre in it. You feel it on the tongue and it slows the drink down, which is a good thing in a cup this sweet.

Jasmine green tea sits underneath the cheese cloud and does the work of stopping the mango from taking over. On its own the fruit would read as dessert. The tea adds a floral, slightly astringent edge that keeps pulling the flavour back. That contrast is the reason this tastes like a tea drink rather than a smoothie.

Then there is the cloud. A salted cream cheese foam, thick enough to hold a spoon mark for a minute or two, sitting on the surface rather than mixed through. Take the first mouthful over the rim and the salt lands before the fruit does. It is a strange combination on paper and it works, which is roughly the story of every cheese tea HEYTEA has sold since 2012.

At 42g of sugar this is not a light drink, and the calorie count reflects that. It is best treated as an afternoon thing rather than something to have alongside food. The default pour is Less Sugar, which is already restrained for a mango drink; going to Light Sugar makes the tea more prominent and some people find the fruit thin at that point.

The large cup runs $12.99 and adds mostly tea and ice rather than more cloud, so the regular holds its balance better. If you are ordering for someone new to cheese tea, the regular is the safer introduction.

For the same cheese cloud over a tarter fruit, try the Cloud Crisp Grape. If you want mango without the dairy cap, the Coconut Mango Boom keeps the fruit and swaps the cloud for coconut milk and sago at $8.99.