I don’t understand the meaning.
I’m guessing the first is the Taiwanese style and the second one is Western almond milk.
2 Likes
Is there almond milk in Taiwan? I mean the same stuff you find on the shelves in EU supermarkets.
Yes:
3 Likes
Thanks, see you on Saturday.
No, they are not the same. Almond tea 杏仁茶 is the powdered stuff sold around Taiwan you then add hot water to or the already prepared local almond drink sold at tea houses, etc. It has a strong almond taste and is usually quite sweet. I’m not sure what all is in it (apart from lots of sugar,) but it sometimes includes rice and almond oil/extract. Some almond tea is artificially flavored.
As other posters have mentioned, almond milk 杏仁奶 is what you can purchase at Costco, etc. or what you get when you blend almonds and then squeeze out the pulp using soy milk/nut milk bags yourself. It lacks the strong almond taste.
Another thing to keep in mind is that 杏仁 actually means apricot seeds and not almonds - that was a mistranslation that has taken root in both Chinese and in English so there’s a lot of confusion surrounding both words. So now it unfortunately means both apricot seeds and almonds, so you have to look at the context to see which one is which.
杏仁茶 is traditional and will usually use apricot seeds. It’s made from powdered seeds and is thought to have health benefits in TCM. Sometimes a lot of sugar is added to make it sweet and delicious. Or gelatin is added to give us the yummy 杏仁豆腐. 杏仁奶 is the western almond milk that uses actual almonds. When you buy the sliced ‘杏仁’ those are usually apricot seeds, as almonds actually don’t have exactly the same texture and flavor profile (although they are very similar).
1 Like
Because the taste is not from almonds but from apricot or bitter almond kernel powder (both poisonous - cyanide - when not cooked).
Bitter almonds are a European thing, they will put a little tiny bit in some sweet pudding or something. Never heard of them being used here… the taste is always as per @endy above, apricot kernel, which is particularly disappointing when you are expecting almond.
1 Like
Do they not often add almond extract to the tea as well?
Oh, very interesting~I did not know that. Thanks for the info.
They must use sweet apricot kernels as opposed to bitter. Nonetheless, both contain amygdalin, so if this is the case, best to avoid local almond tea altogether.
There is of course also that ridiculous, pseudoscience/fake cancer ‘cure’ going around in the West that government health departments have had warn against where people are eating apricot kernels (and getting cyanide poison in addition to it to absolutely nothing for cancer.)
I attended a cooking class where the chef used roasted ground almonds, lot of sugar, almond oil and ground rice to make almond tea, so assumed all varieties were of a similar recipe.
Almonds have no flavor by itself.
Amaretto is distilled from apricot kernels and it tastes ‘almondy’!
they must be pretty close in flavour. because almond tea tasted like liquid marzipan to me.
so any cases of people getting poisoned from almond tea? or do people not drink enough of it? it is something you usually only see in night markets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtOplv3LxHs
looks like this is how its made.
almonds, rice, water, sugar. if almond milk is just almonds and sugar why does almond tea taste so different?
See above! Apricot kernel powder!
sure, but we have established that apricot kernals and almonds taste more or less the same. and that almond milk has no taste.
so that if you make almond tea as in the video above it most likely tastes the same as the taiwanese one. nobody is going to call something fragrant almond tea that tastes like almond milk.
No, bitter almonds taste like apricot kernels, not sweet almonds. Sweet almonds have almost no flavor and have flavoring added when made into other ‘almond’ flavored foods.
i never knew there were different types of almonds to begin with. what are you saying? bitter almonds are the one with the flavour? or that almonds have no flavour and everything with an almond taste such as marzipan and almond tea has the flavouring added?
Yes there is and it’s extremely expensive (though Costco’s is probably ok).
Or they have a small percentage bitter almonds in the mix.
BUT they also sell these almond or nuts powder in most traditional markets. Not sure about prices, probably not super economic.
In Europe a litre is like 2 euros? Then you have kefir, rice milk and other new age crap that I can’t find here. I wouldn’t mind to drink that sort of shit every once in a while.