Asian Dolce Latte: Starbucks drink of the month

Guess ending my weekend will be one of the most memorable of all because of my entry was chosen on the last campaign of Nuffnang —Abenson & Nokia campaign, I take home a brand new Nokia Lumia 620 from the sponsors.


Thanks Nuffnang Philippines, Nokia, and Abenson for the phone.

After that wonderful event, I tagged my friend along to buy a new sim —micro sim for my new phone, at the same time to check the "Drink of the month" from Starbucks, the Starbucks Asian Dolce Latte. Dolce Latte is already popular in the Philippines for quite sometimes—the first time I heard Dolce Latte was back in 2011 where Nestle is introducing this one on their events by giving Dolce Latte machine to the visitors—and Starbucks is no stranger when it comes to this one.


Asian Dolce Latte is a another product from Starbucks which was introduced in Asian market this month and the Philippines is one of them; if you are a coffee drinker or a Starbucks drinker, you will definitely know the Cinnamon Dolce Latte. The difference of both products is that the Asian variant is using a different Dolce sauce which is appealing to Asian drinker compare to North American counterpart which they prefer Cinnamon Dolce flavored syrup; the ingredient and the preparation are still the same (whipped cream, steamed milk, and expresso)on both variant.

Anyway, enough of that coffee 101 here and let's go back where we enjoy drinking coffee and frappucino and not thinking anything. We ordered the ice-coffee rather than the hot one which I'm not into it.

This drink have two shots of expresso when serve; so if you are not into that hyper-palpitated thing here, then I would suggest advise the barista just to have one shot of expresso to your drink.

When you are going to take the first sip, you will taste the Dolce cream—for me it taste like a mocha syrup—below the steamed milk; there is a twist here, try to stir the drink, you will taste the strong expresso coffee which will give you that alert feeling.

This drink is ideal for those individual who will work longer hours or to wake up a little longer; perfect for night-owls, bloggers, or folks who are working at night.

If you want to try this then I would suggest you better go to you nearest Starbucks branch and experienced their newest product. Here are more images of Starbucks Asian Dolce Latte iced-coffee.


Contributors

Images/editing/content: Arnold of Arnold S Photogs
Taste-testers: Arnold of Arnold S Photogs and Dave Perez of D Perez Photography
Location: Starbucks Coffee Robinsons Magnolia, New Manila

Jamba Juice - Robinsons Place Ermita

America's famous smoothie store Jamba Juice opens their second branch in the urban city of Manila at the lower ground Midtown wing of Robinsons Place Manila.

The store is easy to find because their place is located near the entrance at the same time just beside Starbucks Cofee.

Tried their Orange-a-peel, their smoothie of the month at their 200 pesos cup.


So what are you waiting for, if you haven't experienced the all American healthy living smoothie store, just go to Jamba Juice Robinsons Place Manila.

Contributor

Content: Arnold | Arnold S Photogs
Images: Arnold | Arnold S Photogs
Location: Lower ground (L1) Midtown Wing, Robinsons Place Manila,Ermita Manila, Philippines

Happy Chinese New Year 2013: Savory Classic

In the Philippines, Chinese New Year is celebrated not only by Chinese but also Filipinos as well as they embraced already its culture.

Instead of preparing the usual Tikoy, famous Philippine street food Fishball, and other Chinese food that we usually prepare in Chinese New Year; we went to the Original Savory restaurant, one of the famous Chinese Chicken house in the Philippines and was established four Chinese siblings which has a humble beginning.

Our family go here every Sunday after mass to take lunch (a typical setup though) at Savory Original in Escolta, Manila —this is the first branch of the restaurant and still exist, near Jones Bridge— and order Chicken spring which is consumable for five persons.

We went to take our lunch with my brother at their nearest branch which is in Robinsons Place Magnolia, located in New Manila.

I was suprised that they have an image of their the Original Savory branch near Sta. Cruz church which we went every Sunday with my family

Simple design and setup of their tables and chairs (I thing feng-shui guided though) but what I like is the images hanging on the wall which will tells you so many stories, story about the history not only the restaurant itself but also history of Manila which I think young generation has no idea about it.

Since I'm with my brother and we unable to order and finished a meal which is consumable by five persons, we ordered one of their popular combo meal. It is composed of their long-life Pancit Canton, Lumpia Shanghai, and their famous Chicken Spring.

This combo meal priced at 295 pesos which is not bad and very affordable in terms of Fine-dining.

At the same time, we also ordered their famous Chicken Lomi as appetizer.

The Chicken Lomi is priced at 135 pesos — consumable by two persons

If you want to experience one of the Philippines oldest Chinese restaurant, I'll definitely recommend theOriginal Savory or Classic Savory restaurant. Gong xi fa cai 2013 guys!!

Contributors

Content: Arnold | Arnold S Photogs
Images: Arnold | Arnold S Photogs
Location: Groung Floor, Robinsons Place Magnolia, New Manila

Jamba Juice - Now in Manila Philippines

One of the most popular smoothie store is now in the Manila Philippines, offering healthy options to the Filipino consumer.

The last time that I heard this brand is from my brother; because he noticed some of his American friends having a list of Jamba Juice stuff on their credit card statement, my brother told me that this was, at first we assume another fruit juice chain that is popular in United States.

So we are strolling at the Robinsons Place Magnolia just to chill out when we saw a Jamba Juice store, out of curiosity, we went there and try their product.

Jamba Juice opens their Manila branch in Robinsons Place Magnolia

As we look on their order list, we noticed that their product are more into healthy living —especially they are the only food store that offers Oatmeal treats to customer, favorable to me because Im into Oatmeal; so only that time a smoothie to check if their product is just similar to other store like Fuzion (one located in Greenbelt 3 Makati) or it will create an impact to Filipino consumer because of its unique taste.

So I ordered a their Peach Perfection smoothies — combination of peaches, mangoes, strawberries, peach juice, apple-strawberry juice— on their largest cup, their largest is price at 200 pesos.

Biggest cup at 200 pesos

When I took the first sip, the first thing that comes to my mind is that this smoothie is definitely an American brand; in my experience, American fruit juices has their own distinction of taste which differs from other fruit juices locally manufactured or manufactured outside US. I really love its taste because it is not too sweet nor sour, just perfect to my taste buds — similar to fruit punch I guess; at the same time, we ordered also Cinnamon pretzel which the taste is comparable to Auntie Annes.

Cinnamon variant Pretzel that is sold by Jamba Juice

All I can say right now is, since that I tried their products in Robinsons Place Magnolia, at the same time, they are in soft-opening; I highly recommend this chain to those who are into healthy living without sacrificing it taste; you'll definitely go wrong with their food product.


Contributor

Content: Arnold | Arnold S Photogs
Images: Arnold | Arnold S Photogs
Location: Jamba Juice, Robinson Place Magnolia New Manila

J.Co Donuts & Coffee: Greenbelt Makati

I'm just curious why people are queuing on line just to avail their donuts, this kind of scenario is very similar to Krispie Kreme and Go Nuts Donuts before. Anyway, I tried to line up, buy their product, and taste what's the difference with this one that other donut shop doesn't have.

The qeueing is starting to build up that time; the first time that we went there thought we are availing our Government documents because the line is congested that the line will reach outside the shop.


An catching yellow box with a Peacock icon is the first that you will observe on their packaging.

FYI, J.Co is a popular Coffee and Donut shop in Indonesia which the company branch out in neighboring country especially in the Philippines which Filipinos are appreciating its Donuts, Frappuccino, and Coffee lattes.


This would be our first time to try their donuts and don't have any idea which are the must have upon ordering, so what we did is we ordered donuts by pairs, here are the list of donuts, by the way, are sold 42.00 pesos each;

Green Tease


Mr. Green Tea

This one thing that I like about this shop is that they are selling Green tea variant on their donuts, so Green tea lovers like me can indulge on the sweetness of their product with the essence of Green tea.


Blue Berrymore - has this filling inside and a Blueberry syrup on it.


Hi Lychee - this variant is unique to our taste because we have this impression of this Nata-De-Coco filling on it.


Why Nut- if you are a Peanut butter lover, then this variant is for you because the filling that they used is a Jiffy peanutbutter.

Berry Spears - same with Blue Berrymore but they used a Strawberry on it.

Overall, the taste of their donuts are just right, meaning that the donuts are not too sweet like Krispie Kream or dull like our local donut manufacturer that are offered in the market.

Another one that they offer is Frappucino, so I tried their Greentea Frappucino which also is offered in Starbucks.

This is just my opinion, all I can say about the Green tea frappucino that are offered in Starbucks is better in terms taste, the taste on this one is similar to those mid-entry level coffee shop around the metro; still its worth every penny on this one just request to be blended twice.

So if you want to try their donuts, the places that I can recommend are Greenbelt in Makati; SM Megamall; and Trinoma in North Avenue; Alabang is way too far for me because I lived in Manila.


Contributors

Content: Arnold - ArnoldS Photogs
Images: Arnold - ArnoldS Photogs
Editing: Arnold - ArnoldS Photogs
Taste Testers: Arnold & Dave Perez
Camera: Samsung PL120
Location: Greenbelt 3 Makati, Philippines

Our Homemade Pizza

Having an unpleasant photoshoot experience that day somewhere in Manila when one of my friend texted me that he has a pizza that he already brought at my other friend's place, the thing is, that the pizza doesn't have toppings on it - assuming hotdog stuff like that.

After watching the Reel Steel on Star Movies, I went directly to my friend's place to have a pizza. At my friend's place, I asked for the Pizza; I was suprised that the Pizza literally has no toppings - I mean nothing on it, like ketchup or cheese.

It is typically a run-over or rejected pan from a Pizza parlor still the pan is still edible for human.

I took home the remaining pan to try something else and add little twist. My brother shell out a hundred for the Hotdog and Ketchup while I am on the cooking and Cheese part.

So we already bought the necessary ingredient, we pre-heat the oven for 15 minutes in order the Pizza will be cooked at the short time; take note that the Pizza will be cooked for 20 minutes in order that the ingredient on the pan will be cooked.

So after 20 minutes, the Pizza is ready for eating and we are happy because of the result of our experiment.

So what's the purpose of the Pizza that we made? For eating right? Happy tummy.

Here are more images of our homemade Pizza, enjoy!


Contributors

Images and Content: Arnold
Camera: Samsung PL120