A couple of months ago, I noticed the absence of unsweetened Silk brand soymilk at Jenny Wang’s. This is the soymilk that my boys and I consume. I didn’t panic since we had several cases of the stuff. It frequently goes missing from store shelves for a few weeks at a time, so I keep us stocked up. As the absence grew longer, we ordered some online and I even found more boxes at Dee Dee’s market out in Shunyi (yes, sometimes I venture to the “Beijing” hinterland).
All this was well and good until we finally drank our last carton. To date, the only Silk on shelves is vanilla flavored. I’ll say it for most of our readers – ick. Both the unsweetened and original have long been absent. Savvy even tried to order more online and was only able to secure the last 12 boxes of original from one online vendor. Unless you like vanilla flavored Silk soymilk (perhaps in coffee?), China is Silk-free.
Of course we could try other brands (we have before and the ones we like are also out), or switch to some other milk substitute, (we won’t), or even go without (we might). With only three weeks to go until our departure from Beijing, I am prepared to abstain from drowning my granola in soy, but the young lads seem to lack the patience of their father. Kids.
The one lesson I’ve learned from this is that there is money to be made with an online shop selling soymilk. Especially when no one else in China has any product in stock. Moo.
Photo: theimplusebuy (flickr)
