I can see clearly now

There are times when I am looking at something and need to take a double take.  The abundance of clear beverages is one of those things that at first I dismissed, but later thought "wait... What???"  Beverage companies have taken traditionally colored drinks and made them clear.  I don't know why they do these things other than creating a marketing frenzy to sell, sell, sell. 

I noticed the bottles of milk tea labels a while ago.  At first, I thought it was mislabeled to be honest.  But then my husband bought a bottle.  People at his office has been talking about the fancy new beverage.  The clear drink tasted just like milk tea (which is black tea, with milk and sugar, often found in bottles or cartons).  It was the weirdest thing - where the mouth and eyes didn't match up.  While I was surprised, I didn't indulge in this beverage again because I try not to drink too many sweetened beverages.  But it really did taste just like the original.

Slowly, I started noticing other similar products coming onto the market - Coca Cola Clear, clear peach tea, and clear latte.  The clear beverage phenomenon had officially become a trend. 

According to my research these drinks are not just artificially flavored water, which is what I initially thought. The milk tea is made by passing water vapor through loose Assam tea leaves to extract the flavor without the color. Vapor!  Who thought of that?  Then, the ‘transparent milk’ is just the milk extracts of lactose and milk minerals.  They discard the white-colored milk fat and protein.  Once again, science bewilders the mind.

I read somewhere that a clear (alcohol-free) beer has been released recently.  I haven't seen it.  And, honestly, since I don't really like most Japanese beer, I probably won't try it.  But it begs the question: What will they think of next?  And what will become so popular it will be exported?  Only time will tell.