Wintermelon Tea with Rock Salt and Cheese

Birch Tree, Ovaltine, Chocolate Mousse and a Baking Book for kids.

Does anyone know how it will come to play as my earliest memory?

Since we’re all friends here, and friends tell friends their embarrassing moments (not for blackmailing purposes, okay?), I’m telling mine. The earliest one, that is.

You see, even as a child (who still has not learned how to read) I love books, especially if it has pictures of cakes and desserts. We had this baking book for kids that has this really amazing illustration of a chocolate mousse. (It escapes me how I knew it was of a chocolate mousse). And the young baker in me thought, hmmm… this is fairly easy. The illustration mostly has brownish part in a tall glass topped with a whitish part.

Young Bake Happy Baker’s interpretation (circa 1986, when she was just four years old):

·         Brown part = Ovaltine

·         White part = Birch Tree Milk

Grown up Bake Happy Baker now knows that  -

·         Brown part = Chocolate, eggs and cream turned into a mousse

·         White part = Whipped cream

Too bad, young Bake Happy Baker didn’t have that wisdom back then. You know what she did? She got Ovaltine, placed heaping tablespoons in a tall glass and topped it off with Birch Tree. No – water – added.

Please don’t let me tell you how -

• ·         she ended finishing up the tall glass to cover up her tracks.
• ·         she got sick of the taste. (It really isn’t fun eating it dry without any liquid to wash it down)
• ·         she may or may not have ended her adventure in the bathroom (this she will neither confirm nor deny)

At least now, when I want to re-create something, I follow the exact instructions J

Like this Wintermelon Tea with Rock Salt and Cheese. I'm not that much of a fan of milk tea but for some reason, after grocery shopping at Landmark, I decided to order one. Cha Time has this interest drink called Wintermelon Tea Mousse that got me intrigued and now I am hooked. That frothy, tangy yet a bit salty cream on top is out of this world! I think I drank three more of this addicting drink when I got to know Happy Lemon's Cocoa with Rock Salt and Cheese. Oh my. My cravings are getting out of hand! This is not good. Could this Rock Salt and Cheese concoction be replicated at home?

Thanks to the power of google, I found out Pepper.ph has already tried to replicate the addiciting Rock Salt and Cheese they based from Happy Lemon. And thank heavens I have all the things I need in the pantry so I got to work. Instead of black tea, I made a batch of wintermelon tea to accompany the Rock Salt and Cheese. 

Pepper.ph's Rock Salt and Cheese Foam
from Pepper.ph

What we need:

1/2 cup cream cheese spread, softened

1/4 cup condensed milk, chilled

1/3 cup whipping cream, chilled well

Himalayan pink rock salt

Here's how:
(1) Combine cream cheese, whipping cream and condensed milk. Whip until thick.

(2) Add Himalayan pink salt.

(3) Add on top of an iced Wintermelon Tea.

Thank you Pepper.ph! This recipe is a keeper! I handed one glass to my dad without saying what it is (thank heavens he trusts me) and said it tasted exactly like Cha Time's Wintermelon Mousse!