See you Litre

Went to Serenitea for my usual Lychee Green Tea fix, and got a big surprise.

Literally, big.

Like, a litre big!

Apparently, they have an anniversary promo. If you buy a selected drink (and my Lychee Green Tea was selected), you get a free upside to a 1-litre cup!

That's a whole lotta Lychee! (Not complaining, though.)

Here, Kitty

Talk about longevity.

Hello Kitty was my sisters’ fave When they were kids.

They’d often get their Hello Kitty stash at Gift Gate. Sometimes, they’d get it straight from Japan from Mom’s pen pals. (Yes, that was a thing.)

And many decades after, she’s still around, she’s still relevant, and she’s still everywhere!

Fun fact: Hello Kitty is turning 50 this year!

Hello Golden Kitty!

Happy Meal

My version, at least.

It's been years since I've last had these 2 faves of mine.

First is Hong Kong Style Noodles. I've written about this dish in this blog before. It used to be my go-to quick snack or lunch when they still had that stall in St. Francis Square. (They've closed, unfortunately.) 

Next is Gong Cha's Peach & Lychee tea with coconut jelly. It's so refreshing and the interplay between the 2 fruits is just awesome!

This was definitely worth the wait, and today's meal will definitely make me happy!

Fast Food Feels

Fruit tea and dim sum.

This is one of my go-to afternoon snacks when we were still reporting to the office.

I'd often skippity-hop to the places where I could get this combo.

Closest place would be Lawson at the ground floor.

Another option would be at Robinsons Galleria or SM Megamall food court.

Or, if I had enough time, it would either be at Shangrila Mall or The 30th.

But these days, since we're working from home, those places seem so far away. That doesn't mean, though, that the experience of eating dim sum and drinking fruit tea has to be far away.

Hooray for our dim sum steamer and Yi Fang fruit tea delivery!

And for a fraction of an hour, it feels like we're in a fast food all over again.

End of the (Simple) Line

One of my former students posted this photo of our favourite tea store in front of SSC.

It's a melancholic photo, actually. It shows SimpleLine - boarded up and for rent. Which simply means it's already closed.

They must be another casualty of the pandemic.

I'll miss their Lychee Green tea with Aloe Vera and their Caramel Oolong Milk Tea with Grass Jelly.

I'll miss the Simple joy of SimpleLine.

Here's the Tea

This drink was a discovery a few months ago, and it's been a regular ever since.

It's called Essoil's Calamansi Iced Tea. Off hand, the name is a bit weird since it sounds like something you'd put in an oil burner. But weird name notwithstanding, this drink is really, really good. It has the right blend of sweetness, the flavor of calamansi and lemongrass, and the kick of tea. If I could drink this everyday, I would.

The thing is, it's only available in 7-11, and not all branches have it. That's why whenever I come across one, I drop everything and buy it.

This goes up there with Vita Lemon Tea as my favorite bottled tea drink.

Let's go, Coco!

Long before the milk and fruit tea craze came to Manila, it was something we'd enjoy daily at our office in HKG. There was this stall across AIA which served awesome teas and snacks, and not a week goes by without the creative team noshing on those for our afternoon snack.

That's how my fondness for tea drinks developed. (Vita Lemon Tea included!) That's also the reason behind my constant look out for new tea shops. Yes, my loyalty to SimpleLine and Chatime will always be there, but it's always good to scope out competition.

One such shop opened a few months ago inside Gateway Mall. It's a place called Coco, and looks like another Taiwanese chain.

At first glance, their menu isn't very impressive. They offer the usual suspects in the tea drink universe - pearl milk tea, choco milk tea, passion fruit green tea, and the like.

After almost giving it a pass, an item at the bottom part of the menu made me stop and order. It was a drink called Orange and Grapefruit Mountain tea.

(I feel like a giant in this shot.)

It's really, really good! The mountain tea flavor isn't as strong as the jasmine flavor of green tea, and the fruit combination gave it a pleasingly tart profile. The bonus is that they really use freshly squeezed orange! You could taste the pulp bits with every sip.

Sometimes it just takes one product to change your mind over a brand. And for Coco, this tea is definitely it.