bagged drinks, tangerine juice and taro bubble tea

i know you are asking yourself, "bagged drinks, what the hell is he talking about?" well, let me tell you - thais serve, sell and drink an endless array of beverages - and of course, the best ones are made and sold along the sidewalks and roads of every city and town we have visited so far. while some vendors do offer heavy plastic cups for a few more baht, the vast majority serve their creations over crushed ice in a clear plastic bag with handles and a colored flexi-straw. the only major exception to this would be the bubble tea vendor, but we'll get to that later…
while we know it at home as thai iced tea, chaa jiin, my personal favorite, translates to 'chinese tea.' it is usually a mixture of black tea and dried spices served with granulated palm sugar, sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk - can anyone say type two diabetes??? fortunately, the serving size is never more than a few ounces poured over a ton of crushed ice - plus thailand is full of first class dentists, so some mild tooth decay is no problem.
tea vendors, marked by their two stainless steel pitchers sitting over a steam well, also sell coffee in a similar fashion - stronger and sweeter than their south east asian neighbors in cambodia and vietnam.
in most markets and along city streets, vendors also display a vividly colorful assortment of fresh fruit and vegetable juices - sweet tangerine juice is everywhere, along with young coconut juice (alina's favorite), pineapple, christathamum tea, tomato, cucumber and a rather unusual but refreshing sweetened watercress juice that tastes about as green and healthy (sans sugar) as anything that you could imagine.
there is also a huge assortment of bubble teas ranging in flavor from coconut to pineapple, milk tea, green tea and even more interest taro, pumpkin or carrot - made with large tapioca balls and slurped down with an enormous straw… even more unique are the sweetened ginger and other unidentifiable root drinks made with agar agar thickened little strips that are reminiscent of gummy worms - pretty bizzar, but worth a try for only 10 baht!
we are enjoying thailand's endless options for beating the heat - as alina said, "just their beverage selection alone is enough to make you a happy camper!" no wonder thailand is called the land of smiles. - david