Snack Nation: Healthy Milk Tea

This Snack Nation column might as well be called "New Products from Kirin Beverage's Afternoon Tea." In December, we looked at Tea Sparkling, and in February, we tasted the new gourmet Espresso Tea.

With so much prior coverage, we would love to ignore the Afternoon Tea series for a while, but they keep demanding our attention with a whole host of intriguing new products. Over the last few weeks, convenience stores have seen the release of Double Strength Milk Tea, Healthy Milk Tea and Milk Tea in the 500ml carton size. As I am on a self-imposed 'no sweets' diet for the month of March, I thought it would be a great time to test out the Healthy Milk Tea option.

Healthy Milk Tea promises zero sugar and zero fat with the same silky sweetness as the regular Milk Tea. There are only 14kcal in each 100ml of liquid.

The end result is what Diet Coke is to Coke: a synthetic-tasting approximation of the original. The milkiness is fine, but the acesulfame-K and sucralose are pretty brutal. To really capture the feeling of "healthy," there needs to be a much more mild flavor. Right now I feel like the artificial sweeteners may set off some kind of contained nuclear explosion in my mouth with every swig.

My guess is that Healthy Milk Tea is meant for the underweight young female set who want their milk tea but not the calories associated with it. Lucky them. With this beverage failure, sadly I will have to forgo all convenience store milk tea options for the duration of my diet.

Kirin Beverage Afternoon Tea (Gogo no Kocha) Healthy Milk Tea, ¥140.