Belgian Bliss

Lawson has always been consistent in coming up with yummy new offerings. Presenting my newest discovery.

Belgian Chocolate Milk! As a chocolate milk fan, this checks all the boxes. Creamy. Check! Full chocolate flavor. Check. Not too sweet. Check. Looks like I have a new milk drink on rotation.

Dolce Vita

Chocolate Milk.

It's one thing that I've never outgrown.

As a kid, Choco-Vim was always a part of my snacks and school baon, thanks to the fact that Dad worked in San Miguel Corporation. 

Later on, Choco-Vim became Magnolia Chocolait. Even if the name changed, the rich, choco taste didn't, that's why it was still my choco milk of choice.

During my travels abroad, one thing I'd keep my eyes open for were the "local" choco milk brands. I'd make it a point to scour the supermarkets and convenience stores in search of those.

Through this "obsession," I discovered Choco Lala in Mexico, Vita in Hong Kong, Seoul Milk in South Korea, Chocomel in The Netherlands, Cola Cao in Spain, and so on and so forth.

In the Philippines, Magnolia Chocolait is still my go-to brand. This is closely followed by Nestle Chuckie, Zesto Choc-O, Dutch Maid and Cosio.

Today, another brand was added to the mix.

During my supermarket run, I discovered Selecta Dolce:

As choco milks go, this brand is really good. It's rich and creamy, and the chocolate flavour is full and not watered down. It has that luxe Belgian Chocolate taste that's decadent yet not too overpowering.

Looks like this Dolce will now be part of my daily Vita.

Proceed with Cosio

The first time I tried Cocio was when I was in Europe sometime in 2004. It was quite a common sight in supermarkets, and it was so rich and creamy that I got hooked.

Eventually, some specialty supermarkets started carrying it here in Manila. But it was quite difficult to find, and its supermarket appearances were few and far between.

That's why it's a thrill to finally see it distributed more extensively here. I've seen it in most supermarkets, and I even found it in Family Mart!

Now I've got a new chocolate drink in rotation.

Hello Cocoa!

Yes, one of the things I had to do while I'm in Tokyo is to buy my favorite cocoa drink.

This is going to be a good weekend in Japan.

Seeing double

It's been clearly established that I'm a chocolate milk fan. 

Whether I'm in Manila, Mexico, Hong Kong, Barcelona, Prague or Tokyo, I'm always on the look out for rich, creamy, chocolate milk.

A year ago, I discovered Vitamilk Choco Shake, and it was awesome. A few weeks ago, I discovered that the same brand just doubled up their choco ante and came up with this:

Vitamilk Double Choco Shake!

The product lives up to its name. There's double the amount of choco syrup at the bottom of the bottle, and the color is a deeper brown hue compared to the original choco shake.

Needless to say, I'm hooked. I think I've been drinking this every other day.

Who would've thought that soy milk can be this doubly good?

Cocoa Loco

Here's one thing I was crazy about when I was in Tokyo.

The thing with drinks in Japan is they aren't sweet. As Mark pointed out, even their sodas aren't that sweet.

I guess that's the reason why I like Van Houten Cocoa so much. It has that rich, chocolate flavor, but isn't sweet. So, you taste the creaminess of the chocolate without being overwhelmed by the sweetness of it all.

Despite Mark's warnings, I'd find myself finishing one carton of this in one sitting. And before I flew back to Manila, Mark even surprised me with a small box of Van Houten.

Maybe they have this in some Japanese grocery somewhere in Manila.

Oats taking

As I've written in many, many entries, I'm a big fan of Chocolate Milk. Aside from that, I'm also a huge fan of oatmeal.

So, imagine my surprise when I went to the supermarket and found this:

It's Chocolate Milk with Oats! It's a new product from Oishi called Choco Chug, and I immediately had to buy a pack and try it!

I'm so glad I did! The chocolate milk flavor is rich, and there are little bits of oat that add texture to every sip. This combination makes it both unusual and special, and it's worth a return purchase.

While I'm not replacing Magnolia Chocolait and Knick Knacks X-Blast anytime soon (they're the gold standard in chocolate milk drinks in my book,) the product will definitely be in rotation.