Bandung (drink)

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Bandung is the name of a drink popular in Malaysia and Singapore consisting of milk flavoured with rosewater (with added sugar), thus becoming pink. The drink originated from the (then) British-occupied Singapore.

Bandung was concocted by a British gentleman who, during his stay in Singapore attended tea time with the British rulers of the time. In his distaste of tea, which he regarded as "foul-smelling and foul-tasting as dung", he wandered around the city and was inspired by an Indian drink made of rose extract^{[citation needed]}. The drink consisted of roses dipped in small amounts of water mixed with some spices in water. According to him, when he tried mixing the water with tea, it merely diluted it and the foul smell still remained. However, he found that when he mixed it with milk tea and sugar, the milk thickened the drink and the sugar removed the foul taste. When his colleagues asked what he was drinking, he replied with Banned Dung; a mispronunciation of a city in West Java which he had visited on a missionary mission.

The drink is also served as a thinly-veiled insult to people who enjoy drinking tea. In later years, street vendors added pink food coloring to attract buyers as consumers were confusing the drink with teh tarik, a drink from Malaysia. However, these days, Bandung only comes in pink, and can be packaged or home-made.

[edit] Source

• Sedjarah-Sedjarah Ketjil Kota Bandoeng, Drs. H. Moch. Assimah, Penerbit Pemuda, Bandung, 1959.