Cheese Foam Tea

For those who have never heard of cheese foam tea—rest assured, it’s not as heavy or as funky as it sounds. There are no actual chunks of cheese floating around. In fact, the term cheese foam is bit of misnomer because it is, in reality, more texturally similar to the foam cap on top of a silky cappuccino than Cheez Whip. You’re meant to sip it slowly—the creamy foam provides a lovely contrast to the crisp iciness of cold tea. And contrary to its name, there isn’t a lot of cheese in cheese foam. Most recipes only use a spoonful of cream cheese or cheese foam powder, which adds a subtle savory note. 

The actual cheese foam can be a lot of different things. The base of it is almost always a heavy whipping cream flavored with either whole milk, condensed milk, milk powder, cheese foam powder, or cream cheese. A hit of salt ties it all together.

Every store has a different way of doing it, though the texture is generally the same: a velvety foam cap that’s slightly more liquid than a cappuccino foam, yet not as stiff as whipped cream. The addition of milk and/or condensed milk loosens up the texture a bit. The powders and cream cheese are used sparingly as flavoring. I used whole milk and cream cheese for accessibility reasons; they are much easier to procure than fancy cheese powders, the latter of which is usually made with non-dairy creamer mixed with artificial cheese flavoring and sugar. 

“We add milk powder, cheese powder, and sea salt,” says Bacon Huang, a 26-year-old store manager at Jiate, a high-end Taiwanese cheese foam shop. It’s whipped up to order with a hand mixer, and then scooped over a drink—usually a plain iced tea (of any flavor like oolong or black) or a fruit tea. “Cheese foam on passionfruit tea is a really popular combination,” says Huang. Adding boba—or tapioca pearls—is completely optional. “Not many people order it with boba, but those who do just want something to chew on,” he says. You can add boba into the beverage if you’d like. Most people don’t do it, but I do because I like the chewy texture of the pearls. 

While sometimes described as a new twist on boba tea, cheese foam tea is actually a completely different trend altogether. While eccentric, it’s also nothing new: Cheese foam tea is a popular beverage in Taiwan, where it was invented over two decades ago. “When I was in university, we’d drink the tea just to get a foam mustache,” says Remy Hsu, a 31-year-old film producer in Taiwan who grew up enjoying the drink. “You’d take a picture, put it on your blog, and people would think you were trendy.” 

Taiwanese purveyors started adding cheese foam on top of sweet iced tea in 2002, a phenomenon which eventually caught on in China and spread like wildfire with brands like HeyTea. The beverage became the hottest drink of the decade in the region, often commanding two hour–long wait times. While the peak of the frenzy has since subsided, there are now cheese foam tea stands all across Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, and beyond where it is still considered a staple. 

But for Hsu, cheese foam is so much more than just a trend; it brings back fond memories of his school years. In the early 2010s, he and his friends frequented a popular Taiwanese tea shop called Lattea, one of the first tea chains to bring the drink to the mainstream. “Cheese foam is something you drink when you hang out with friends,” Hsu says, noting that his social life back then revolved around the beverage. “It was just a cheap way to hang out and Lattea would let kids sit there all day. Before cell phones, we played board games there. Then in university, we played video games there on our laptops.”

At the end of the day, the foam is meant to be an indulgent topping on an ice cold drink and provides a unique textural and flavor contrast. It’s also incredibly easy to make: add your ingredients to a bowl in stages, whip it up until it becomes aerated and cloud-like, then scoop it over tea. Serve in an ice cold tall glass and enjoy immediately—preferably with friends around. “Unlike boba milk tea, which can be grab-and-go, cheese foam is something you have to sit and drink,” says Huang. “It’s for the texture. You can’t let it sit for too long because it’ll melt.” 

In a way, this drink is better at home. Instead of slapping a to-go cap on it and drinking it in a rush, the beauty of making this in the comfort of your own kitchen is that you can really savor it.