Osmanthus milk: what it is and how to make it

The short answer

Osmanthus milk is milk sweetened and flavoured with osmanthus syrup, served over ice. It tastes floral and honeyed, with a soft fruity note. A café makes it by stirring osmanthus syrup into milk, so it takes about a minute and needs no cooking.

What osmanthus is

Osmanthus is a flowering shrub whose tiny cream and golden blossoms have a strong, sweet scent. In Chinese tea houses the flowers flavour teas, jellies and syrups, and “sweet osmanthus” is a classic floral flavour there. In a drink it reads as floral first, then honey and fruit.

Our syrup is an osmanthus-flavoured syrup made with permitted flavour; it does not contain the flowers themselves. Its taste is described on the product page as a delicate floral-and-fruit note with soft apricot and honey, layered with jasmine and ripe peach.

How to make osmanthus milk

This is the method printed for our Sweet Osmanthus Syrup:

1. Add 15–30 ml of osmanthus syrup to the cup as the base.
2. Pour 100 ml of milk and mix well until the syrup is completely dissolved.
3. Add tea if you like. 10–15 ml of black or green beverage concentrate gives the drink more depth and turns it into an osmanthus milk tea. It is optional.
4. Chill with 5–10 ice cubes.
5. Top it if you want. 30–40 g of tapioca pearls, nata de coco or popping boba as the bottom layer makes it a bubble tea.

Start at 15 ml and taste; add more syrup for a sweeter, stronger floral cup. The toppings are separate products. To cook pearls, see how to cook tapioca pearls.

Osmanthus milk price in India

For a café or a home kitchen, the cost is mostly the syrup and the milk. Our Sweet Osmanthus Syrup is ₹525 for a 700 ml bottle (MRP, including GST). Businesses buying by the case of nine bottles get 10% off MRP with a GSTIN, and 20% off with free ground shipping on orders of ₹19,999 and above. It ships across India from Hyderabad within 7 days.

What a café charges for a cup of osmanthus milk depends on its milk, cup size and toppings, so menu prices vary from shop to shop.

Ways to serve it

• Osmanthus milk tea. Add black or green beverage concentrate for a tea backbone.
• Osmanthus bubble tea. Add tapioca pearls, nata de coco or popping boba.
• Osmanthus iced tea. Use water instead of milk for a light floral iced tea, as the syrup’s method allows.

Buying osmanthus syrup

Our Sweet Osmanthus Syrup comes in a 700 ml bottle, nine to a case, made at our FSSC 22000 certified plant in Hyderabad. It is vegetarian and Halal, with no high-fructose corn syrup, and keeps 12 months sealed. Once opened, reseal it tightly and refrigerate. Osmanthus milk itself contains milk, so it is not dairy-free.