Betrayal best served cold, and with mint-choc, in Thai politics

A barista preparing an iced chocolate mint drink at ThinkLab Cafe, next to Pheu Thai Party's headquarters, in Bangkok. - AFP

BANGKOK (AFP): Betrayal is a beverage best served chilled in Thailand, as an innocuous chocolate-mint iced concoction takes the limelight -- an unlikely symbol of the kingdom's deep political divisions following May's election.

The country is deadlocked after the Move Forward Party (MFP), buoyed to victory by promises to end nearly a decade of army-backed rule, failed to get its reformist candidate elected PM, forcing it to bow out and allow coalition partner Pheu Thai to try to form a government.