Ask anyone who has ever been to a 7-Eleven in Taiwan, they’re going to tell you it’s pretty sweet. First off, they’re everywhere. Every time you blink your eyes, you see a different one. Ok maybe every 3 blinks, depending on how fast you blink… or how long it takes you to pass a block.
Even in remote places in Taiwan, you’ll still be greeted by a couple of 7-Elevens with their bright lights glimmering and shining as though beckoning you to go in. To give you things in perspective. Taiwan is about 14,000 sq miles. That’s about the size of only two Hawaiis or half of South Carolina. Yet Taiwan has 5000 7-Elevens while the United States only has 8,000 7-Elevens.
In most boring 7-Elevens, you could get snacks and beverages, alcohol and tobacco, maybe some freshly baked pastries or buns, a small selection of meals and other little things here and there… like a typical convenience store. But in the 7-Elevens in Taiwan, you get extra mind blowing array of services like print, fax and copy, dry cleaning, mobile phone charging, train and concert ticket reservations, traffic fine and utility payments, mail drop offs and pick ups, and ATM or wire transfers with no fees. They also offer “take out feasts” catering from small Chinese New Year reunion dinners to huge banquets with 88 reunion dinner dishes including roasted suckling pigs that rotate in a battery operated spit. Not a typical convenience store, I’d say.
On top of these, they serve three meals a day with their wide array of choices of lunch boxes or ‘bentos’ which the staffs will happily heat them up for you. While you sit and wait, you can enjoy free TV, newspapers, magazines, or Wifi before the food is served to you. Oh, did I mention they are open 24 hours a day?
In the midst of all that in a 7-Eleven lays something very important to me. Something very dear to my palate. It’s pink. No, it’s not Hello Kitty. It’s…. it’s….. it’s strawberry milk. But not just any strawberry milk. It’s the perfect strawberry milk. A flawless balance of strawberry sweetness in wholesome milk that gracefully glides in my mouth down my throat.
It seems I have a history of hopelessly falling in love with sinful commercial beverages. Thankfully, this is one of those that’s not difficult to replicate at home. In fact, it’s quite easy. So much so that it’s potentially easier and faster to do this at home than going to a 7-eleven to buy a carton of strawberry milk…. even in Taiwan. And that says a lot since 7-Elevens are literally everywhere there.
Two ways I make my strawberry milk. From strawberry syrup or straight up from fresh fruit.
#1. Strawberry syrup Serves 1
Mix 3 tablespoons strawberry syrup + 1 cup milk
#2. Fresh strawberries Serves 1
Blend 1 cup fresh, hulled strawberries + 1/2 cup milk + sweetener of choice
If using frozen strawberries, thaw it first or the consistency of your milk will become a thicker instead.
How do you make your strawberry milk?
