What is Che?

Che: You may notice at our Arkansas location we serve something called Chè. And it’s a delicious fruity drink that you should stop by and try.

Ingredients

Che is any traditional Vietnamese sweet beverage, dessert soup, or pudding. At Pho 95, we have 5 different chè drinks for you to enjoy. The base is coconut milk and enhanced with jellies, beans, tapioca, and fruit. For less than $4, you can enjoy the following:

• Chè Đặc Biệt – Combination of sweetened beans with jellies and coconut milk
• Chè Đậu Trắng  – Sweetened white bean with jellies and coconut milk
• Chè Đậu Đỏ  – Sweetened red beans with jellies and coconut milk
• Sương Sa Hột Lựu  – Sweetened tapioca water chestnuts with jellies, mung bean, and coconut milk
• Xương Xáo Nước Dừa – Sweetened black jellies with coconut milk

Traditional Che

Traditionally, varieties of chè are made with mung beans, black-eyed peas, kidney beans, tapioca, jelly (clear or grass), fruit (longan, mango, durian, lychee, or jackfruit), and coconut cream. Other types are made with ingredients like salt, aloe vera, seaweed, lotus seed, sesame seed, sugar palm seeds, taro, cassava, and pandan leaf extract. These desserts are often prepared with one of a number of varieties of beans, tubers, and/or glutinous rice, cooked in water and sweetened with sugar. In southern Vietnam, chè is often garnished with coconut creme.

Varieties of Che

The preparations are named with the addition of qualifying adjectives referring to a wide variety of distinct soups or puddings which may be served either hot or cold. Each variety of chè is designated by a descriptive word or phrase that follows the word chè, such as chè đậu đỏ (literally “red bean chè”).

While both contain similar elements, the difference between chè and boba is that boba is made with tea. They are both fruity drinks you can enjoy at Pho 95. Either can be relished as a dessert or on their own for a sweet treat in the middle of the afternoon.

These colorful drinks will remind you of summer even in the dead of winter.

Read more about our sweet treats

By Leslie Radford