Pike Place's Starbucks

In tune with Starbucks Philippines' annual "planner/diary craze" allow me to pat myself in the back and brag that I claimed mine in less than 2 weeks. A record breaker of sorts since i started collecting this yearly temptation, and chugging down their brews (Signature drinks included) 6 years ago. Now to abstain from entering this caffeinatedly sinfull java hut for the next 2, 3, 6-months even, while I find a way to lose those excess pounds!

While in the festive mood of talking Starbucks and everything caffein, let me share with you our proud experience of visiting their first branch in Seattle, WA - the iconic Starbucks Pike Place which started brewing "the cuppa joe that launched a thousand more branches" in 1971. This place, or "tourist attraction" if I may, is effortlessly oozing with rich history and is of vital relevance to both the now-titanic brand and the Emerald City. Hands down, it solidified Seattle's reputation as the coffee capital of America.

You literally enter a time warp once there, as Starbucks meticulously kept cadence to the original design - from the hardwoods, furnishings and illumination. Oh, I should also mention that they have a signature blend sold exclusively in that outlet, the Pike Place Special Reserve, which I hoarded and brought back home.

Kid not included...

Literally a souvenir shop!

Scratch off another one from our Coffee Geek bucket list!

The band of four,
ONE OF WHICH IS NOT A COFFEE DRINKER (guess who)
mission accomplished!

Black Forrest Latte (Hot & Cold)

Black Forrest is one of the earliest and most popular espresso-based flavor variant used by coffee shops dating back to the  late 90's. It stems from the wave of "drinkable desserts" of that era, with honorable mention going to Tiramisu and Chocolate Mousse.

A healthy, home-made version minus
the whipped cream & garnishing 

Over the years, Black Forrest has either evolved or morphed into many other names (with minimal twist and/or add-on) like Dark Cherry Mocha, Berry Mocha, Mocha Red Velvet, etc., yet the core ingredients consisting of espresso, cherry syrup (cherry brandy/liquor), chocolate syrup/sauce and milk remain.

Here is a cold and hot version of this timeless drink. Pick one depending on the mood you are in, or have both if tummy space permits!

Iced Black Forrest Latte, 12-ounce

Ingredients: Double-shot espresso (30ml per shot), 15ml Stasero Dark Chocolate Sauce, 30ml Stasero Cherry Syrup, 120ml fresh milk

Step 1: In a mixing container combine Double-shot espresso, Stasero Dark Chocolate Sauce, and Stasero Cherry Syrup. Mix well until fully incorporated.

Step 2:  Fill a 12-ounce glass with ice, then pour the Cherry-Mocha mixture into it. Top with whipped cream (optional) and maraschino cherry, and add chocolate shavings for that full Black Forrest effect!

Black Forrest Latte (Hot version), 8-ounce

Ingredients: Double-shot espresso, 15ml Stasero Dark Chocolate Sauce, 30ml Stasero Cherry Syrup, 60ml milk

The do-it-all Jura Ena9 Espresso Machine

Call me spoiled, but this version was simplified thanks to my Jura Ena9 do-it-all espresso machine, with a one-touch LATTE-button. 

With its pre-set feature, one touch of the "Latte Macchiato" button,
it automatically steams the milk for you...

Then dispenses the espresso shot after!

Finished product prepared in less than a minute! 

Garnish this drink whichever way you want, I simply topped this drink with more Stasero Cherry Syrup!

Here's wishing everyone Happy Holidays!!! Caffeinated & Creamy Cheers...

Chunky Choco-Chocnut Frappe

Getting your kid(s) to eat fruits and veggies is every parent's dilemma. Fool them once maybe twice, making it a healthy habit is a taller order. Fortunately for me, my soon-to-be 8 year old has a well-seasoned palette, enjoying healthy/nutritious dishes like pesto pasta, ampalaya (bitter gourd) omelette, minestrone soup (minus the beans), and most fruits available locally (apples, bananas, grapes, etc). My wife and I make it a point to make our dishes "creative", sneaking-in the healthy stuff either as an infused ingredient, sauce or as a garnish. We are also conscious not to define the dishes literally, at least not now, given a child's vast imagination in general. Case in point LENGUA (ox tongue) with mushroom sauce, which kiddo perceives to be "roast beef" is a dinner staple in our household.

For this new post, inspiration was drawn on healthy drinks easily prepared and served in the confines of one's abode - saving you time, cash and best of all the unnecessary calories. Ripe banana is "sneaked in" not only to add a healthy dimension to it,  but to provide added flavor, stabilized body and mouthfeel as well. Proud to mention that the finished product will be used as a Yuletide Signature Drink of a Five-Star Hotel starting next month, with a catchier name to it compared to mine.

Ingredients for a 16-ounce drink:

3 tablespoons (approximately 50 grams) Far Skyes Vanilla Frappe Powder Base
Double Shot Espresso (approximately 60ml), I'm using Boyd's Premium Roast Arabica
10ml Stasero Hazelnut Syrup
1 Ripe Banana
3 pieces Chocnut OR Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
10ml Stasero Dark Chocolate Sauce (for garnish)

Procedure:

Step 1 In a Blender dissolve 3 tsablespoons Far Skyes Vanilla Frappe Base with 2-shots espresso and 10ml Stasero Hazelnut Syrup

Step 2 Add 2 pieces Chocnut and 1 ripe banana and blend for 5-10 seconds

Step 3 Fill a 16-ounce tall glass with ice; pour into blender and blend until crushed & smooth

Step 4 Pour into tall glass and let your creative juices flow by garnishing with Dark Chocolate Sauce, and 1 Chocnut (I topped my drink with steamed milk froth and poured the Chocnut on top of it). Serve and enjoy!!!

Now who says delicious and healthy can't intertwine?! Happy Thanksgiving to all!

so easy to make even an almost 8-year old can do it!

Coffee Review: Trader Joe's JOE Coffee

Those who've been to this cool food and beverage mecca, with branches all over the US of A, are aware that one hour is not enough to scour for affordable gourmet eats! The perennial economic conflict of HIGH QUALITY vis-a-vis LOW PRICE is stabilized in TRADER JOE's, as all items on the shelves are rigorously tried and tested to pass their strict standard.

For almost a decade I've been a regular, yet it was only during this trip in April that I tried purchasing their coffee beans, both as a gift to family back home and for my personal consumption too. But with luggage space as a major constraint, I had to select the safest pick...

so many to choose from yet so little luggage space

TRADER JOE'S  JOE COFFEE, as indicated in the hip nitrogen flushed can (reminiscent of the Planters Cheese Balls/Curls packaging many loved circa '80s) is 100% Arabica Whole-Bean coffee, medium roast. This particular blend is a "safe choice," catering to a wide audience as far as flavor profile, balance, low acidity and body.

My initial sip indicate subtle hints of caramel, with an earthy/woodsy afternote. Quite ideal as an everyday cuppa joe, or a morning wake-me-upper. Nothing euphoric to write home about,  yet with its cost effective price of $4.99 per 14-ounce can, how can you go wrong?!

Lobster Shack, Maine

Located in the heart of Perkins Cove in Ogunquit, Maine, LOBSTER SHACK serves a mean seafood chowder and the much-applauded Boiled Maine Lobster.

Our 10 days 1,000 miles drive around the New England States wouldn't be complete without visiting this institution, first opening its doors in the 1920's. Bottom line, we did our research, traveled from a far-away place, AND we're mad-hungry for what this food shack is best known for.

The scenery was perfectly inviting, setting the proper mood for what is to be one of the best lunches we've had in the US - seagulls hovering in circles, small fishing boats docked, and the smell of the ocean all around! And lucky us, since the day of our visit was Lobster Shack's reopening after a long winter break!

Being the first customers of the day, we rushed to the counter and was greeted cheerfully by the owner Chris Evans, and upon his recommendation we ordered the following:

Seafood Chowder, which my son had and immensely enjoyed. Hearty broth and loaded with lots of seafood (haddock, razor clams and shrimps) and served with oyster crackers...

Lobster roll, for sharing and served w/ a bag of chips and coleslaw. Portion size for $18.95 was worth it, considering the amount (tons) of succulently-sweet lobster meat per sandwich. No fillers, just the right amount of seasoning (paprika dust included) and not drowned with mayo...

Whole Maine Lobster ($25 for a 1.5 pounder) is simplicity at its best. Freshly caught and steamed on demand, best eaten with your bare hands (bibs highly recommended) and dipped in clarified butter for that overall feel of being a "Maine-r" - even for just a day!

Definitely worth the long drive, and dreaming of the day when we revisit!

Fremont Diner, Sonoma

We came for what they are famous for, unmindful of the two-hour drive from San Francisco  - Nifty Southern Cooking, and we left extremely pleased... ♨

FREMONT DINER is  a quaint eating joint along the road between Napa and Sonoma. Upon arriving you immediately get the "deep south" feel, quite nostalgic as a rusty old pickup truck greets you at the entrance. Once you enter the screen door, on your left is a vintage refrigerator filled with drinks of all sorts from soda pops to craft brewskies (nice!). All in all it's a 50's homey feel complete with well-grained wooden tables and chairs, and a stainless counter for order-taking where one gets a front row view of the open kitchen - THE PLACE where the the good food buzz is happening!  

The long cue was a blessing-in-disguise as we were able to scan the chalk-board menu, make new friends and ask around too which are the good eats. As such we ended up ordering the following highly recommended chows even "Aunt Jemima" will be proud of:

Southern Mac N' Cheese

Oyster Po' Boy

Chicken N' Waffles

All dishes ordered effortlessly passed with flying colors. The only setback was my inability to try their equally famous milkshake, no thanks to their humongous portion size that's too much for my third-world appetite. Something to look forward to I guess on my next visit...

 Fremont Diner 2698 Fremont Drive, Sonoma 707-938-7370

Early Christmas gift list–Flavored Coffee from Boyd's

LIFTED FROM CHEF REGGIE ASPIRAS' PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER COLUMN, 8/30/2012, TITLED "EARLY CHRISTMAS GIFT LIST - FROM COFFEE TO 'PINIPIG SUMAN'"

Early Christmas gift list–from flavored coffee to ‘pinipig suman’

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, well at least in the next two days it will. And what better way to celebrate the holidays than by waking up to 12 different flavors of coffee for each of the 12 days of Christmas.

Robert Francisco of Boyd’s Coffee recently came up with a dozen holiday flavors that are unlike many of those available.

Francisco’s coffees are a delight not just for their aroma but also for their taste.

I have been a flavored coffee fan for years. Unfortunately there are many brands that do not allow you to enjoy the whole experience. Some  just  have luscious aroma but have lackluster taste.

This is how Boyd’s coffee is different.

I had the most wonderful time tasting some of the variants during the  World Food Expo; each one stayed true, in character and form—the Cinnamon Ginger Bread, Crispy Oatmeal Crumble and Hazelnut tasted exactly as they should (the hazelnut was earthier, nuttier, muskier than those I’ve tried). Each is well rounded, full—in flavor, with its own identity and not acidic.

The other flavors I have yet to try are Butter Rhum, Caramel Nut, Roasted Caramel, Irish Crème, Butterscotch, Caramel Kettle Corn, Toffee, Caramel Hazelnut Cream and Cinnamon Hazelnut.

I learned from Francisco that he makes his coffee with only high-grown Arabica, which is sweet, nutty balanced and clean, with mild sharpness, perfect for flavoring.

“All our coffee varieties are freshly roasted. We roast, and, in the case of our Christmas coffees, flavor the beans only when you order.”

Francisco’s coffee uses oils based on the quality and their capacity to make their coffee taste as close and as natural to their respective flavors as possible.

Let us enjoy the first of our many Christmas cups of coffee. They’re best enjoyed with milk and sugar, lalo na kung walang true love!

(Call 0922-8745217, 7462233,7462693)

Chef Reggie Aspiras with Franklin Tiu of Far Skyes Enterprise
and Roberto Francisco of Boyd's Coffee, WOFEX 2012

This picture says it all... Three weeks ago it was love at first glance when Chef Reggie Aspiras, one of the most revered culinary masters in the Philippines, visited the Boyd's Coffee & Far Skyes Enterprise booth during the WOFEX 2012 show. What started as an annual "Hi, how are you?" cascaded as the vibrant-crimson foil packaging of Boyd's flavored coffee caught Chef Reggie's fancy. Sampling the various flavors interested her even more, thus it led to her writing about it in her much-read and much-awaited weekly column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

MERCI Chef!  Perfect timing as the infamous over-extended Philippine Yuletide Season begins in a few days! Welcoming the BER months... Flavorful Christmas Cheerios to all!