meh

I saw this drink (the one on the right) when I passed by Dean & Deluca the other day and wanted to try
 

I had the chance on Saturday...lychee, coconut water and a matcha espuma which is similar to whipped cream

They should tell you to mix it well before drinking because I didn't and boy, did it taste weird

The lychee flavor was super sweet and fake

But mixed, it was balanced 

I'm glad I tried it but wouldn't get it again.

iced strawberry matcha latte

V wanted the recipe for the iced strawberry matcha latte....here you go!

Iced Strawberry Matcha Latte : serves 1

3 strawberries, diced

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon matcha

hot water

ice

1/2 cup almond milk (or milk of choice)

Dice the strawberries and add sugar, let sit aside to macerate

Make your matcha...I added some hot water (about 3 tablespoons) then whizzed with my milk foamer thingy, set aside

Add strawberry then add to cup

pour in almond milk, or milk of choice

Add the matcha that you set aside

Stir

Enjoy!

NOTES: I think I used a 200 mililiter sized jar (8 ounces) enjoyed this version more than the one I tried with strawberry jam

I think it might be easier to drink if you mash the strawberries...

We usually don’t have strawberries in summer, so I had to make it now

If you try this, I hope you enjoy it too

hisui lemon tea

Learned about Hisui lemon tea.

Apparently it is a Taiwanese drink and called hisui, which means jade in Japanese, because the jasmine tea they use is green like jade.

Jasmine tea is mixed with lemon and blended into a frozen drink.

By the time I got home, it was completely defrosted, I added ice

This was tasty and refreshing.

A little sweet but for the most part you can taste the jasmine tea.

They blend this after you order it...love!

Got this from Tokyo Doujiang Seikatsu, and would definitely get this again.

banana juice

In Osaka, they have a drink called mixed juice (mikkusu ju-sue)

all sorts of fruits are blended with milk, a liquidy smoothie.

You can find this drink at some Osaka train station kiosks, people standing around drinking variations of this.

You can watch them blend it in a blender, drink your order then go catch the train.

I had some really ripe bananas, so I put this together the other morning.

Serves 2

1 really ripe banana

2 teaspoons kinako (my kinako (soy bean powder) also has ground black sesame and ground almond in it)

1 cup your favorite milk

Whizz until everything is blended

NOTES: sweet from the banana, this was delicious

I'll make this again

umeshu

1st time trying to make umeshu (plum wine).

The directions were similar to when I made ume syrup (5 years ago).

1kilogram ume

1 kilogram rock sugar

1800 milliliters liquor

Here is what I did:

Wash the ume.

Take out the “belly button” with a barbecue skewer.

Sanitize the jar with some sake.

Dry each ume with a cloth.

Layer the rock sugar, and ume 

Pour in the alcohol.

I used kokuto shochu (liquor made from black sugar)

Now to wait a year.

NOTES: the most frustrating thing was waiting for the ume to be delivered.

When I ordered the 1 kilogram of ume, I was told it would arrive between 5 to 15 days after ordering…

Since I ordered it on May 18, 15 days would have been around June 3rd.

The next day (May 19), I got an email that said harvesting would start from June 3rd and he would be sending orders out in the order he received them, so my order would be sent out sometime between June 3rd and 13th

well June 13 came and I had heard nothing from the farm...boo!

Since I noticed on Tabechoku that others were receiving their orders, I emailed the farm on the 13th and was told my order would arrive by the 16th…um I think they should have contacted me to tell me it would arrive later than the 13th…

I received the ume yesterday and they were huge! and was a little more than 1 kilogram.

The farm grows the ume naturally without pesticides, so there were some black spots on the fruit but the fruit itself was still firm.

Drama this morning...I checked on it and it had overflowed (eep!), so I had to scoop out some of the liquid and some ume so that the liquid would come up only up to the base of the neck of the big bottles

Glad I checked and now I know not to fill it to the top! (live and learn)

Crossing fingers this turns out good.

blood orange infused vodka

The peels of the blood orange are so floral and fragrant that I only realized recently that I could infuse vodka with them.

I bought a small bottle of vodka (375 milliliters) and peeled one blood orange with a peeler.

I have about 4 more blood oranges and will add the peels as we eat them.

I put the bottle in the cupboard, excited to see what happens.

max see

Tried a relatively new boba tea place in our area, Max See.

This shop is so teeny!

There were several big orders in front of me, so I had to wait awhile for my drink.

I tried the Uji matcha kokuto tapioca milk tea...whew! say that 10x fast...

Uji matcha (green tea) milk mixture is layered with kokuto tapioca (black sugar tapioca) and milk tea (tea with milk in it).

Choose your drink size (M or L)...I chose M

Choose your sweetness (0-100%)...I chose 25%

Choose the amount of ice (0-100%)...I chose 25%

This was delicious and how cute is the plastic seal on top of the cup?!

I'm glad I tried this place and will be back whenever I am nearby.

Max See (UPDATE:2026 address changed)
7-1-9 Nishikamata
Ota, Tokyo
Phone: 03.6874.9219
Hours: 11:00-23:00

fizzy sakura green tea

Lupicia's Sakura Vert (green tea with cherry blossom leaves) cold brewed in carbonated water...so delicious!

Had to be careful opening up the bottle...

Still a little too nippy for cold drinks but I look forward to having this combo again.

fizzy cold brew coffee

Before it gets too cold here for cold beverages, I thought I should post this.

Since I made carbonated cold brew tea, I thought that I could do it with coffee too.

When I put the instant coffee into the 500 milliliter carbonated water bottle, it started to foam...I should've foreseen what would've happened....

In the past when I had the espresso tonic at Micro Lady Coffee Stand, the barista had told me not to stir the drink too much as it will foam up.

Even the espresso soda from City Bakery had a bit of foam on top too.

So when I opened the carbonated water the next day, I literally saw the bottle erupt...spraying the kitchen backsplash (guess that is why they are called that, yeah?!), leaving me with only a half a bottle of carbonated cold brew coffee.

Still I am glad I tried this, even if I had a lot to clean up afterwards.

If you want to try this, you should dissolve your instant coffee with a little water or use a coffee concentrate in a cup, then add some carbonated water to your drink.

Just be careful, it still really foams up this way too.

I still want to experiment with coffee grains and see what happens, though I may have to wait until next Spring?!

Anyway, did you know that bottled carbonated drinks here have these grooves at the top of their plastic bottles?

I hadn't really paid much attention to it, but recently they had talked about these bottles on tv.

Apparently the grooves help the air escape when you open the drink so that it doesn't go spewing out...I guess they weren't expecting me to make cold brew coffee in their bottle...ha!

Do the carbonated drink bottles where you live have these grooves?

cold brew tea soda

Love social media...all the sharing of information...

Back in August, Chika of She Who Eats, posted about making a fizzy cold brew tea drink.

Just take a bottle of carbonated water or soda and put a tea bag of your favorite tea inside.(I used Mango tea)

Let the tea steep in the bottle in the refrigerator overnight.

According to Chika, the next day, there will be a little less fizz.

When I opened my bottle there was a rush of foam to the top of the bottle, so be careful!

If you want to sweeten it you can, but I enjoyed this as is.

I know it is the end of summer already, but at least next summer I'll have another way to enjoy cold brew tea.

saturday

Saturday, it was so brutally humid.

Still, we wanted to check out the fireflies, so we made our way to Minoo Falls.

Before heading out onto the trail, we stopped into Cafe de Crie for something cold...

Satoshi had a coffee float (iced coffee with vanilla ice cream)

And I got this...a bright bluish greenish mint chocolate drink...loved how it had bits of chocolate in it as well as that thick chocolate drizzle on top.

We only saw a handful of fireflies, and even though it was humid it was nice to be out and about and I'm glad we made it home before the rain.

ume syrup

If you have been following us on Instagram, you'll know we were making ume syrup and jam for the first time.

All these years I've seen it being sold at markets to be made into umeshu (liquor) & syrup, but never thought to try (thought it was too tedious)...I'm glad I finally tried because it was super easy.

1 kilogram ume
1 kilogram rock sugar
3 liter glass bottle

Wash the ume and gently dry with a paper towel or tea towel.
Using a toothpick, take the "belly button" thingy out of each ume (where the stem was), just gently "stab" it with the toothpick and it will come out
Freeze the ume for at least 24 hours

After the 24 hours, layer the ume with the rock sugar.
As the ume defrosts, it starts to melt the rock sugar and also starts the fruit to break down slowly.
Keep the bottle in a dark and cool place.
Every so often for the next 7 days, shake the bottle.

At the end of 7 days, remove the fruit (if not it will rot and may start to mold)
Transfer the liquid into a glass container and keep in the refrig.
The liquid is drinkable (diluted 1 syrup : 4 water or your favorite alcohol) after the 7 days but best after 1 month when all the rock sugar has melted.

Here are the jars when I first started.

I didn't have a 3 liter bottle but did have a 2 liter and 1 liter, so used that.

At the halfway point it looked like this.

At 7 days, I removed the ume.

When we opened the jar to remove the fruit, the aroma was so sweet and fruity!

I poured the liquid and rock sugar into an airtight jar and put it into the fridge.

So thankful I had my mom's jam funnel! (Thank you!)

Last night we mixed 2 tablespoons of syrup with 1/4 cup of awamori and filled the rest of the glass with carbonated water...so good!

From the fruit of the syrup, I turned it into jam...I'll post about this tomorrow...stay tuned.

things I'm liking

It's been awhile since I did one of these...

Ika-ten that we brought back from Onomichi...fried, a little fishy (from the squid), sweet & salty...super good with beer. (did notice it has sorbitol in it though...boo!)

The holiday cups at Starbucks.

Apparently there are 10 different designs by artists from all over the world, 2 designs per beverage size.

Sparkling green tea with yuzu.

I'm usually not a fan of flavored green teas, but this was nice. I liked that they didn't add any sugar and I also enjoyed the fizz too.

Stollen Cacao by Pâtisserie Cri de Coq.

1st time trying their stollen. This version was really rich & chocolatey.

Lombard's Matcha & Caramel Popcorn.

Love how the matcha balances out the sweetness of the caramel popcorn.

Objet by Lee Jae-Hyo.

Amazing to see up close.

This one too.

What have you been enjoying these days?

Have a nice weekend.

matcha tea soda

I recreated the matcha tea soda that I had in Kyoto.

Put 1 teaspoon of matcha into a bowl and add 1/2 a teaspoon of light brown sugar.

Add 2 ounces (about 60 milliliters) of hot water (not boiling) and whisk until frothy.

Add some ice to a glass and pour the matcha in.

Then fill the remainder of the glass with soda water.

NOTES: Not as green as the one I had in Kyoto but still really refreshing. I'm making these again while the daytimes are still warm.

ispahan

Last year we tried Pierre Hermé's Ispahan yogurt.

Well, the same company came out with a yogurt drink version of it...so good!

Love how they incorporated his logo on the drink too.

What are you enjoying these days?

mizudashi

Been making mizudashi (cold brew) coffee these days.

The days are still very warm and it's only in the early mornings or evenings that the temps are comfortable.

Right now, my favorite jar to use is this Bonne Maman...I usually just add ice and milk for an iced cafe au lait and drink it straight from the jar.

What are you enjoying these days?

tea time taiwan

Yesterday I was able to meet up with blog friend, Sheri of Happy Little Bento.

She and her family are on vacation here and she was nice to invite me along to have some boba tea with them.

Unlike Taste Tea, Tea Time Taiwan doesn't allow you to sample your order before they hand it over to you.

By the way, this is their milk tea with coffee jelly in it. The coffee jelly is sweetened so you don't need to sweeten up your tea too much. I ordered it light sugar.

Disappointing was their honey toast...totally hollowed out toast and not even a full or half loaf...

It was so sweet of Sheri to give me a jar of this...I can't wait to try it! (Thank you!)

I hope they enjoy the rest of their stay and I hope we'll be able to meet up again in the future!

Tea Time Taiwan
98-1254 Kaahumanu Street #172 (facing Kaahumanu, street level)
Aiea, Hawaii
Phone: 808.488.8898

blueberry soda

The weather here is far from being summery, but blueberries are in the markets, so it was my chance to try this recipe I saw in "USA Today" when I was in Hawaii last year.

Blueberry syrup : makes about 2 cups from "USA Today: Weekend" Anton Nocito, October 2013
1.5 cups blueberries
1 cup sugar
9 tablespoons lemon juice

you can find a detailed recipe, here.

NOTES: I cut this recipe to 1/4 because I didn't know how it would taste, and because well, we shouldn't be drinking THAT much soda...

The recipe says to strain it, but I left the blueberries in...why waste?!

Also, the recipe says to add 3 tablespoons to a tall glass with ice. But I didn't know how tall the glass had to be, so I just added a teaspoon to my "short" glass and topped it with soda water.

I'm sure you could add more syrup to taste.

This was super refreshing. And it reminded me of the berry soda I had at Corridor.

Too bad our weather hit a cold snap and we are still below 50F...I'd definitely make this one again though.

mint water

Remember that mint water I was intrigued with at La Tour Cafe?

Well, I tried re-creating it the other night.

I don't have specific quantities so until I do, I'll tell you what I put into it.

Mint (leaves, stems of only the young mint plants)
4 cups water
zest of lemon
juice of lemon
zest of an orange
juice of of an orange

Whiz

*you can add the sweetner of your choice, but I just drank it as is

NOTES: My aunties suggested adding a splash of rum or tequila, maybe even blending the whole thing with some ice.

The "texture" of the drink was a little different from the one at La Tour Cafe, but still refreshing. I guess you could strain the whole concoction, but we drank it as is.

I'm making this again.

eat this...

It's the end of June...So many things eaten, so little time to blog about them...here's what's what...

Pure Bar's Dark Chocolate Berry Bar, liked the chewiness and chocolati-ness of this. 18 Rabbits' Haute Diggity Date & Funky Fig & Cherries, both were delish!

Taegu on a plain musubi

Champions malasadas...nuff said.

Kristen's (in Waipahu) BLT...so much bacon...love!

Nanding's lup cheong roll...so good!

Chun Wah Kam's mini plate lunch...can feed several people actually.

Fried noodles, spicy minute chicken and long beans with beef...yum!

Ba-le's lemongrass chicken sandwich...now THAT's a sandwich!

Green smoothie (baby kale, baby chard, baby spinach, apple banana, blueberry yogurt and soy milk)...could've made this thinner but it was still delicious!

Coco Puffs from Liliha Bakery...yum!

Mochiko Chicken Musubi from Tanioka's...still huge and delicious.

Goteborg Musubi...tasty!

K's Bento, we've watch the price slowly go up and when we recently had them, we noticed they didn't have their corned beef hash patty in there...boo!

What are you enjoying these days?