strawberry smoothie

I've been enjoying strawberry smoothies at home quite a bit: frozen strawberries, strawberry yogurt, ice cubes, and some smoothie powder (I think you can substitute this with dry milk) together in the blender. I'd sometimes add some whipping cream to the mixture, too. Yumminess. Hmmm... strawberry smoothies.


and I like serving (myself) my stawberry smoothies in the strawberry yogurt container.

I also love drinking it with a fat straw (normally for bubble teas)!


It's so good even Yama wants some.

new chairs

We are doing small remodeling at the caffe, and John is putting together new chairs for us right now.



He's doing a really good job, and I am reading and making him yummy beverages for his hard work.


I made him a latte in the whale cup.

Thanks, John!

drink your coffee

Dr. Jonathan Geiger from the University of North Dakota did a research on how coffee can help your brain protect you. I love reading about this kind of news as you can imagine.

Dr. Geiger's research suggested "Coffee may cut the risk of dementia by blocking the damage cholesterol can inflict on the body," because "Caffeine is a safe and readily available drug and its ability to stabilise the blood brain barrier means it could have an important part to play in therapies against neurological disorders."

Some people thought coffee was bad for you. NO. Coffee is good and beneficial to you until you load it with tons of cream and sugar, and have 8 donuts on the side. You can read this article from BBC about this recent research or google other related articles.

I do think bad coffee can still make you sick. So choose wisely, and drink good coffee.

lei cha - NOT!

My mom called me last night and sounded worried. She told me the can of "Lei Cha" she sent us was not Lei Cha. It was a mixture of ground mung beans, almond, and some sort of Chinese herb (I don't remember what exactly she said)... and it was a facial treatment for my sister. She said she totally forgot about it until she read my blog yesterday. She simply used the can as a container for the mixture.

Very nice. No one told me anything until then. I felt bad for John because I made him drink the whole 6 oz. of it and told him it was Lei Cha. I felt a bit stupid, and was not very happy about the fact that my sister did not say anything to me when she saw the "tea can" next to our other tea tins. Oh well.

Just to make me feel better, my parents told me the facial mixture was actually all natrual ingredients that were edible. I guess so. I'm just glad John and I didn't get sick.

So there it was. My first Lei Cha experience was not a Lei Cha experience after all. I guess since I sort of developed some minor interest for the tea (the real kind, of course), I may just find some just to give it a try soon.


On a bright side of this... Lei Cha is probably better than how we thought it was from yesterday's experience.

lei cha

My mom sent us a package that got to us right after my birthday, and inside the package there was a can of Lei Cha. I've heard of this Hakka tea but never had a chance to try any until now.

The can looks nice and it says it's "Lei Cha" but that was pretty much it. No brewing instructions or much of any thing else... I got online and found some instructions on making this tea... pretty much everyone has a different ratio of mixing the tea with water, which confused me a bit, but then I decided to make a 1:6 ratio of the Lei Cha (already grounded) and hot water.

This Lei Cha smells really good, with fragrant from the spices and nuts, and I especially love the hint of almond in the mix... but it it tasted like herbal soup of some sort... and I didn't quite know what sort it was.

John finished the 6 oz. of Lei Cha I made... I think he was a bit confused about its flavor as well, but he finished it anyhow. From what I read online, some people add sugar, and others add salt to taste... hmmm... that makes me wonder. I don't know when I'm going to make it again, but before I do I'll do more extended research on how to make it property, or how to make it yummy... because it really didn't work for me this time. oi!

strawberry horchata

I'm really diggin' Cacique strawberry horchata these days, but then if I drink too much the whole bottle is going out too fast. So I start bleding some of the strawberry horchata with ice cubes. Yummy... and the bottle lasts a bit longer.