Tra Trai Cay Nhiet Doi (Tropical Fruit Tea), Sweetened with Monk Fruit

Name: Tra Trai Cay Nhiet Doi (Tropical Fruit Tea), Sweetened with Monk Fruit
Total time: 390 min
Yield: 14 servings
Cuisine: Vietnam
Ingredients: Fresh fruit including orange, pink guava, pineapple, acerola cherry, strawberry, green mango, plum, apple and calamansi, 2 kg in total; passion fruit 250 ml; kOBE Monk Fruit Blend 450 g; water 500 ml; Jin Xuan oolong tea 10 g; boiling water 400 ml; homemade tropical fruit jam 20 ml; homemade strawberry jam 10 ml; macerating liquid 30 ml; kOBE Monk Fruit Blend syrup 10 ml; calamansi 1; ice cubes

Sweets and drinksDrinksVietnamabout 30 minutes to make, plus 4 to 6 hours chilling the fruit

Tra trai cay nhiet doi steeps a whole basket of fresh fruit into a fragrant jar of macerating liquid, then mixes it with an oolong tea base. Every glass carries several layers of sweet and sour at once.

The hardest part is chilling it long enough for the fruit to give up its scent into the liquid. The tea steeps for exactly seven minutes at one part tea to forty parts water, and going over turns it tannic. A common slip is cutting the fruit too thick, so it never draws and the liquid tastes flat.

This batch weighs about 3.7kg, at roughly 41 calories per 100g.

Nutrition (this recipe makes 14 servings)

41kcal

0.5gprotein

0.2gfat

6.3gsugar

The sweetness here comes from kOBE Monk Fruit Blend and fruit. There is no added refined sugar.

Estimated from raw ingredients; the real numbers shift a little depending on how you cook and what you buy.

This batch makes 14 servings. The jar of macerating liquid with this tea base makes 14 servings, one glass each. Shake each glass as you go and keep the remaining liquid refrigerated.

Ingredients for the batch

Fresh fruit including orange, pink guava, pineapple, acerola cherry, strawberry, green mango, plum, apple and calamansi, 2 kg in total
passion fruit 250 ml
kOBE Monk Fruit Blend 450 g
water 500 ml
Jin Xuan oolong tea 10 g
boiling water 400 ml
homemade tropical fruit jam 20 ml
homemade strawberry jam 10 ml
macerating liquid 30 ml
kOBE Monk Fruit Blend syrup 10 ml
calamansi 1
ice cubes

Method

Cook the tropical fruit jam: blend 176g of tropical fruit flesh (mango, pineapple and guava as you like) until smooth. Dry mix 2g of NH pectin with part of 36g of kOBE Monk Fruit Blend. Warm the fruit to hand temperature, scatter in the pectin mixture, stir well, hold a gentle simmer for exactly 2 minutes, lower the heat and add the rest of the blend with a pinch of salt, take it off the heat to cool for 5 minutes and stir in 6ml of lime juice. This makes about 200g of jam.
Cook the strawberry jam the same way with 176g of blended strawberries, 36g of kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, 2g of NH pectin, 6ml of lime juice and a pinch of salt. Each glass uses 20ml of tropical fruit jam and 10ml of strawberry jam, and the rest goes into a sealed jar in the refrigerator to be used within 2 weeks.
Wash 2kg of fruit made up of orange, pink guava, pineapple, acerola cherry, strawberry, green mango, plum, apple and calamansi, peel what needs peeling and slice everything thinly. Halve the passion fruit and scoop out 250ml of juice to keep aside.
Put the prepared fruit into a container, add the 250ml of passion fruit juice, 450g of kOBE Monk Fruit Blend and 500ml of water, and stir so the blend dissolves and the fruit takes on the flavour.
Leave it at room temperature for about 1 hour until fully dissolved, then move it to the refrigerator and chill for 4 to 6 hours.
Steep 10g of Jin Xuan oolong tea in a brewing pot with 400ml of boiling water at 95 degrees C for 7 minutes, strain out the leaves and let the tea base cool naturally.
Into a shaker put 30ml of the macerating liquid, 10ml of kOBE Monk Fruit Blend syrup, 10ml of strawberry jam, 20ml of tropical fruit jam and 100ml of oolong tea base.
Squeeze in 1 calamansi with the seeds removed, add ice cubes and shake 5 to 6 times.
Pour into a glass, top up with ice and garnish with mint leaves or slices of fresh fruit.

Tips

Without NH pectin, a little xanthan gum works, and the jam thickens as it cools with stirring.
If the jam runs very thin, stir all of it into the glass and the fruit still reads clearly.
Do not steep the tea past 7 minutes, because it turns tannic.
Pick pink guava with green skin turning gold that gives slightly under the thumb, which is when it is most fragrant and sweet.
Cut the fruit into thin, even slices so the liquid draws flavour quickly and tastes clear.

Need kOBE Monk Fruit Blend?

The recipe above is sweetened with kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, measured 1:1 like sugar. See the product page or send us a message.

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