10/02/2024
The Hong Kong Ice Tea, our play on a Long Island Ice tea served in a VLT lemon tea box will always be on the menu. Some people had call this drink “gimmicky” and while I can understand the sentiment, serving this cocktail in its original tea box means more to me than you’ll ever know.
This juice box holds a lot of my childhood memories. From Hong Kong to the United States, Vita Lemon Tea was there for alot of my meals. To this day, I still drink it (although I like to cut it with seltzer because too much sugar is not good for me 😆)
In Hong Kong, after school my parents often took my brother and I to the neighborhood Dai Pai D**g to eat. I always ordered a VLT Lemon tea box. My parents packed it for school, and at family BBQs there were always boxes of cold lemon tea for the kids.
When we immigrated to America, I remember how excited I was the first time I went to Chinatown and saw this box at the Chinese market.
My parents never forced us to become Americanized, they allowed me to explore and create my own journey. The journey has led me here. Someone who speaks better English than Cantonese, can’t read or write Chinese, loves trashy reality TV, and someone who doesn’t get all the pop culture references from my generation. 🤷🏻♀️ I used to be ashamed of this, feeling like I was neither. Now, I celebrate it by creating a space like MAKfam where I can showcase the two cultures that influenced my life.
So while this drink might be gimmicky to some, for me, it’s my journey and my experience growing up in the 3rd culture.
(Also Long Island Ice Tea was my first drink experience at a club in college, it holds a special in my heart 😂)
