Yummy Japanese Drinks at Starbucks

Today my friend picked us up and went out to had little snack at Starbucks. Unlikely I didn’t feel like having coffee (I’d already had 2 cups this mowning) so I ordered Double-squeezed Fruits Juice ¥220 (Starbucks brand drink in a paper pack). I didn’t feel like sweets either coz I had 2 donuts this morning, so ordered chicken and roots vegetable salad wrap ¥290.

The location is lovely – this Starbucks is located just near Biwako Lake shore, and I could see many cute ducks floating on the water throu a window. Because it was cold there’s no one siting on the chairs outside. Drive-thru got lots of cars with people wanting to get hot drinks.

My fried ordered caramel latte, cheese cake and pancakes. Looks yummy

My wrap was smaller than I thought : it was just half size. But I felt good eating salad and root vegetables because I’ve been eating meat and fish most of the time here.

It tasted ok.

It was shame I didn’t feel like sweets because I saw a big board with a photo of delicious-looking drinks!

Azuki Matcha Latte…

Matcha White Chocolate!

Soy Ho-ji-cha Tea Latte!

There are cold version of Azuki Matcha Latte & Soy Azuki Matcha as well, but in this cold weather people will go for hot drinks (unless they are thirsty or feel already warm after exercise).

Unique Japanese Drinks

Suntory, one of Japan’s leading beverage companies, is selling something that some people were looking for…..  All Free!  This All Free is a drink with no calorie, no sugar, and no alcohol.  Yap, all free.

Some may ask what’s the reason of drinking this…  Why don’t you drink water or herval tea instead?  Well, this All Free is actually a non-alcohol beer.  It tastes like beer, but has no alcohol, sugar, or calorie.  This is selling well in this busy drinking season…

Georgia, a popular brand of coffee-flavored beverages sold by The Coca-Cola Company in Japan, sells this unique can of coffee.  It’s a mixture of “coffee” x “green tea”.  It’s not green tea latte.  It still has color of coffee, brown, and contains matcha powder from Uji in Kyoto.

Pepsi in Japan sells these unique flavour drinks.  Azuki, Cucumber and Shiso!  I’ve never tried these, but I think shiso may taste better than others.  It’s just my guess…

I love that cute little tirol chocolate – love the cute little square shape, and their variety of flavours.  But I didn’t know that this popular chocolate snack “tirol chocolate” has its drink version!  Tirol chocolate drink tastes like its original chocolate.  It should taste very rich?

Strawberry Infused Iced Tea

While in Japan, there was at least a jug of cold tea being stand-by in my house during summer.  The tea is usually mugi-cha (barley tea). Mugi-cha is the flavour of summer in Japan, and everyone at school brought a bottle of home-brewd mugi-cha to drink during the break and after school activities.

I didn’t have a nice jug here, so I bought one from T2 to make cold drinks in coming season.  The jug I bought is Takeya jug, and it’s meant to be for iced tea.  I love this jug, because the airtight lid prevents spills or splashes and locks in freshness, especially when storing in the fridge.  The lid is so airtight that the jug can stand upright or lay down, and is completely leak proof.   This means that we can bring it for picnic too.

D loved the tea he tried at the store, so we made at home too.  Strawberry infused rose tea.  It’s so lovely.

The strawberries I had were red and ripe, and are so sweet.  They gave great sweetness to the tea.  I mashed them lightly so that all the juice and flavours come out and blend with tea.

I made the tea with cold brew method, which you simply fill the jug with filtered water and tea bags (or leaves) then place in refrigerator until cold.

Meanwhile I picked few leaves of mint from the garden.  I thought refreshing mint would go with the tea, and it did.  Great for lazy afternoon.

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Addicted to Coffee

I’ve been drinking lots of coffee… again. I love coffee, and always had at least one cup a day – since I was a teenager. It may be because of my dad. He loves coffee too, and drinks few cups a day. He goes to a cafe very often, and if he can’t got o a cafe, he gets a can of black coffee from a vending machine which is in front of my house. Vending machines can be found everywhere in Japan, so he is always in the environment where he can get coffee easily.
Oh, he makes instant coffee by himself at home too, sometimes. But I don’t remember seeing him drinking instant coffee as much as seeing him drinking a can if black coffee

I love black coffee (I mentioned about this long time ago on this blog). No sugar nor milk. I love drinking black coffee in the morning, after each meal, with some sweet, and before bed time.

Strangely my passion for coffee stopped while I was pregnant with Hiro. I could drink decaf if I wanted, but I didn’t even want to smell coffee. I was surprised about it because I remember how much I loved the smell of coffee every time I walked pass a cafe.

Now, however, I’m addicted to coffee again.  Just want to say it’s decaf coffee I drink now… because I’m still breastfeeding.  It’s strange, isn’t it? Usually, people can’t stop drinking coffee because they need caffeine fix, or are addicted to it. Decaf coffee doesn’t contain caffeine, but I can’t stop drinking it. Caffeine is not the thing my body is after? Maybe I just like black colored water? :p

Ummm, It will be hard in Japan because they don’t have “decaf” coffee at normal cafes or available from vending machines. They sell only standard coffee with caffeine. I guess I can drink a cup a day, or get non-caffeine coffee or tea from special shops.  I want to try “tampopo (dandelion) coffee” – this is non caffeine drink made from roots of dandelion.  It’s called “coffee”, but it’s not made from coffee beans.  Pregnant women, breastfeeding mums, and people who are into healthy stuff drink this, and I’m curious how it tastes like.  I’m looking at photos on google, but it really looks like coffee.

Talking about coffee – it’s only 6am but I already had a cup of black… with pancakes.

Eating sweets like this makes me long for hot black coffee.  To me, black coffee is the best accompaniment to sweets!

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Sparkling Drink

Many people would probably long for soda drink when they are thirsty.  Coke, pepsi, Mountain Due, Fanta… there are so many kinds in the market.  But, did you know there’re more unique sparkling drinks sold in Japan?

Coffee, tea, chocolate, fruit juice….  you can find them in sparkling version in Japan.  I wonder how they taste like….  I’m sure some of them are not great.  For example, when I’m thirsty I wouldn’t want to drink sweet chocolate.  I would definitely go for a can of coke or soda water.

Kirin, one of the largest beverage company in Japan, started selling this sparkling green tea in their Nama-Cha range few months ago.  This sparkling green tea is lightly fragranced with yuzu juice.  As being a green-tea-lover, I wouldn’t mind drinking this!  It’s not sweet like chocolate.  Well, it’s green tea, so it should be healthier than other soda drinks, right?

Oh, in Japan, ocha (green tea / Japanese tea) is not sweet.  There is nothing added – just tea leaf and hot water.  I really hate sweet tea….  I don’t mean those English tea like earl grey, I mean some sweet Asian tea like Jasmine Green Tea….  Pokka used to sell (or, maybe they are still selling) genmaicha, oolong tea and mint green tea with SUGAR here in Perth.  They are too sweet.  It’s not tea to me!

So, if you think Japanese people drink those sweet tea like Jasmine green tea everyday, you are wrong….  We drink unsweetened tea daily.  Personally I can’t drink sweet beverage with rice and miso soup.

I remember D told me the other day that there’re supermarkets in America selling only soda drinks.  Then I told him “well, I’m not surprised.  If you go to Japan you will see lots and lots of kinds of tea sold there.”.  Even at a convenience store, you will find many kinds of tera drinks, both cold and hot.

I’m sure it’s not only in Japan.  South Korea, Taiwan, and other countries may be the same.  In fact, there are so many kinds of Chinese tea in Japan and they are very popular.

Ummm  I sometimes miss the convenience of living in Japan.  When you are thirsty just look for a vending machine or convenience store, and grab a bottle of dink with one coin.

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