Georg Peck: Not Just Another Taiwanese Drink Shop, Plaza Semanggi

With so many Taiwanese drinks stalls, cafes -or whatever, you name it- coming up lately in Jakarta, there is a place that I found recently in Plaza Semanggi. Georg Peck is not necessarily an easy name to remember, but quite catchy and weird enough to catch my attention. This brand originally comes from Taiwan, the country of bubble drinks and pearl tea, but was started with different main product, which is fruit smoothie, which is claimed by Americans as the second healthiest drink after water. The first Georg Peck stand was opened in Taichung, Taiwan, selling fresh tea mixed with local fruits and it gained much positive responses. 

Nowadays, Georg Peck serves not only fruit smoothies, but also milk tea, coffee, slushes, fresh juices, and many more. I am so impressed by how much variety they have by looking at the menu, and honestly, they all look so attractive and interesting.

What I love about Taiwan and its culture is that they are very similar to Japan as it was occupied by Japan for quite some time. Some of old Taiwanese people even consider themselves as Japanese because they grow up and live with the culture. *heart* Same with the food and beverages, some of them are very much related to Japanese ones, and who can beat Japanese in term of their matcha or green tea drinks? Well, in this case, I applaud Georg Peck for exceeding my expectations in matcha drinks, because this one tasted TERRIFIC, period. It was real matcha taste with slight bitterness which was balanced perfectly with the sugar. The pudding was soft, fragile and not too sweet, which was great for the drink.

Before I start with this one, I want to say that I LOVE THIS DRINK WITH ALL MY HEART AND SOUL!! Geez, I didn’t expect that a drink like this can be THIS good. The mountain green tea was full of aroma, tasted so beautifully strong, sorry, I can’t even put the taste into words because it was just TOO GOOD! The sugar cane was also aromatic, sweet but not too much, and yes, it was fresh like, seriously fresh. There was no additional smell like I usually found in not-so-fresh sugar cane drinks, and honestly, it was heavenly good!! I picked the Aiyu as the topping and turned out it was also great to accompany this fab drink. Aiyu is a type of ice jelly which is made from seeds of certain fig that grow in Taiwan and some East Asian countries. It is basically similar with usual jelly but the texture is softer and smoother.

In the other side, the milk tea tasted a bit too bland and because I used only 50% sugar, the bitterness of the tea overpowered the drink. The pearl and grass jelly were nice, though!