What it is
Papaya milk (木瓜牛奶, also written 木瓜牛乳) is fresh papaya put through a blender with milk, usually with sugar and ice. It comes out pale orange, creamy and gently sweet. Juice stands and night-market stalls make it to order, and boxed, heat-treated versions are sold in shops.
Where it came from
Nobody knows who first put the two together. One legend credits a night-market hawker who tried milk with all sorts of fruit and found papaya worked best. Several shops have a claim. A story repeated online says Kaohsiung Milk King (高雄牛乳大王) started selling it in 1966 at the entrance to Liuhe Night Market. Changhua's Papaya Milk King (木瓜牛乳大王) opened opposite the city's Confucius Temple in 1968; its founder used more papaya after finding other versions too milky. A drinks trade association credits Chen Hung-tsung (陳宏宗), who ran a stall at Taichung's Zhonghua Road Night Market in 1971.
The background is clearer. In the early post-war years fresh milk was scarce and dear, and most dairy drinks were made up from US-aid milk powder. From the 1960s the government built up dairy farming and urged schoolchildren to drink milk. Breeders developed large, sweet papayas, and Tainung No. 2 (台農2號) became the main commercial variety. Fruit-and-ice parlours (冰果室) were where young people met, and in the 1970s fridges and blenders spread into homes.
How it is made
Ripe papaya is peeled, seeded and blended with cold milk, sugar and crushed ice. Shops differ in how much fruit they use and whether they add water. Papaya contains papain, an enzyme that breaks down milk protein and turns the drink bitter if it stands, so it is made to order and drunk at once. Factories get round this by heat-treating the mix or using papaya powder.
How to eat it
Order it at a fruit-juice stand, a night market or an old ice parlour, and drink it straight away. Some stalls let you choose the sweetness. In Kaohsiung it is also a breakfast or late-night drink, taken with French toast and fried chicken. Some stalls make similar blends with avocado or mung bean.
Around Taiwan
- Kaohsiung
- Kaohsiung has a strong claim to the drink. Kaohsiung Milk King has served it since the 1960s, and Cheng Lao Pai (鄭老牌木瓜牛奶) has blended it at an entrance to Liuhe Night Market since 1965. US troops then based in the city are said to have helped spread it abroad.
- Central
- Changhua's Papaya Milk King, opposite the Confucius Temple since 1968 and now run by the founder's third generation, makes a version heavy on fruit. A trade association names a 1971 stall at Taichung's Zhonghua Road Night Market as the first seller.
- South
- Pingtung County, in the hot far south, has some of Taiwan's biggest papaya plantations. Cheng Lao Pai in Kaohsiung uses Pingtung fruit.
