lunchcase

[lunchcase]

Oreo Iced Cappuccino

Location: timmmmmm

Price: $3 something cad?

The cream makes it look much more appealing than your usual iced cap. But does it add to the flavour? Let’s find out.

Strong oreo flavours are detected at immediate first sip. Oh this is good. This is oreo goodness that combines with a coffee flavour that complements rather than overwhelms. And the texture of the cookie makes it fun to crunch as well. Visually, flavour, texture, all a cut above the usual iced cap.

[lunchcase]

Brown Sugar Grass Jelly Milk Tea

Location: Fruitti, first markham place

Price: $5.99 cad before tax

It’s! Sweet milky prominent brown sugar flavoured with decent amount of grass jelly chunks! I like how sweet it is, but it might be overpowering the grass jelly a little. Admittedly grass jelly tends to be a medium for flavour (+ medicinal hints) rather than full of flavour itself, so this is not a bad thing. Paw paw says it isn’t “crispy” enough, in a… like when you bite into a piece of watermelon, or an apple, and the best ones are firm and crisp, yet yielding? That. Crispy probably isn't the right word for grass jelly. Unyielding? Firm? Firm.

And I finished all the milk :(

I am essentially a person who likes sweet milk.

[lunchcase]

Starbucks Vanilla Frappuccino

Location: foody mart

Price: sale, $1.7? CAD

Way too sweet on its own. Pictured here: I poured half out and filled the remainder with 2% milk. The flavours have thus been balanced and the world is in harmony. Like this, the vanilla flavour is like a hint in the air, it’s even milkier in texture, the coffee flavour is still strong, and the glass bottle really adds depth to the whole experience.

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Tofu Flower Mixed in Milk and Syrup

I had tofu flower. I had rock salt with ginger flavour syrup. I put them together. I have created. Bubble tea but it’s actually milk with tofu flower so it's tofu flower tea, the most beautiful of names to name a child.

And it is sweet and milky. Genius move.

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interrupting the regularly scheduled drinks to bring you the best god damn fish I have ever tasted in my life, and it was at the George Brown Culinary College student-run restaurant, The Chef's House. I went over two years ago now, and the menu changes every so often, so I'm not sure if I'm correct to say it was probably the pan seared sea bass? That's what I spot on the menu now and I think that lines up pretty close. I don't remember in what way specifically it was good, only that it was good in every way, and I loved it, and I wished there were more of it, and I loved it, pan seared sea bass (allegedly) my beloved

[lunchcase]

Seven Premium Matcha Latte

Location: foody mart

Price: like $3 cad something including tax

Oooooooo from 7-11 ~premium~ brand!! Nothing gets fancier than that.

Nothing.

Smell: promising. Matcha.

Appearance: from the dark crevice which I spy it in, watery. May be wrong.

Taste: watery. Tea. Strong and sweet matcha flavours. Actually really nice! Sure it’s sweeter than most matchas and also completely lack the bitter part of the bittersweet matcha flavour, but as a convenience store drink I think it achieves the goal of being 1) accessible and 2) refreshing. Because it's not so thick and milk, it’s definitely something you can take a swig of after a run if you don’t like any fruit. Or just a big matcha fan. Idk ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[lunchcase]

no official yap for this one. i just like the bubbles :)

[lunchcase]

Koppicinno ????

8.12.2024 me: this drink was filed sometime between January - April 2023. I suspect it's the drink in the image, which is dated Feburary 11th. idk lol anyway back to the reg schmeg program: WAIT HOLD ON I REMEMBER - I think it's from

Location: Fusaro's Italian Kitchen

Price: I don't even really remember the name, but it was on the after-dinner menu.

Two shots of espresso with condensed milk and milk.

Sweet but not overwhelmingly so - the two shots of espresso cancels it out so it’s a pretty good balance.

2024 me: I also got a tiramisu and took a video of the cake so I guess I'll post that too lol. the phots creepin closer and closer

[lunchcase]

Matcha Latte (Hot)

Location: Plearn cafe

Price: $6.95? Cad

Same day post! The thing about a mars bar hangout is that it will last a full work day and will consist of us wandering from cafe to bookshop to cafe to cafe to cafe. And it will always be a great time. For continuity we also always get the same thing: matcha latte, and I believe at this point (I'm writing from the future; how far in the time? You'll never know) theirs was vanilla latte.

I had the cold one last time I was here so now we’re going to compare!

It’s much sweeter than this morning’s from Versus, but the bitter is still hitting, so it’s got my vote. The cold milky foam mixed in with the hot matcha also makes it warm and cozy instead of blistering hot, so I can drink it! Iced matcha dilutes the flavour, but cold milky foam on top creates an ideal balance. I miss the cozy mug though, and for its price, which was more than this morning, there seems to be less to offer here. I wouldn’t be able to wax poetic about the mug, for example. Versus wins.

[lunchcase]

Matcha Latte

Location: Versus cafe

Price: $5? CAD

A bittersweet matcha flavour that balances those two flavours very well. Consider me blasphemous, however, that I prefer a sweeter matcha than the traditional subtle flavours in my drinks. Which isn’t to say this is inferior - there’s a clarity to this matcha that a creamier, sweeter version might not achieve, it’s just that I can sacrifice that.

There’s also something to be said for a solid, voluminous mug.

Yes, I know I drink a lot of matcha. I know it's my go to drink everywhere. I know I should expand. BUT what if I'm doing a cross-cafe matcha flavour profile study???? (I'm not)

The tea powder residue is speaking to me. It's saying: entropy is the destination no matter where the matter goes. Fighting it will only bring suffering. But who doesn't like a good fight? (this does not apply to me I love entropy)

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31.12.2022

Vitasoy - in a bottle!

Drinking straight from the bottle - as it was originally intended - truly has its own special appeal. It even tastes different: sweeter, and I don’t think that’s wholly attributed to cognitive bias. It really does taste sweeter. Holding the chilled glass makes it doubly refreshing, and in the cold you can heat it up. Versatile. Feat. my dog

[lunchcase]

Dreamland Tea

A friend got me (finger gun emoji)

I’ve had a cold the last few days, and having run out of usual sore throat remedies, I scrounged up some tea bags a friend got me years ago. The internet said both camomile and peppermint had antibacterial properties, and I just so happen to have this dreamland tea that contained both, and let me tell you. I have never known the healing powers of camomile and peppermint can be this immediate (albeit temporary). It had a strong scent that cleared my sinuses or whatever the moment I sniffed it, and keeping my nose over the tea soothed it in a way no tissue ever did. Same thing for my throat. It’s the camomile combined with the spicy potent powers of peppermint, and for a good few hours I felt almost human. The taste was good too! Mellow, floral natural sweetness! It’s like if I dunk a bunch of flowers into traditional Chinese blends. I am healed (for 15 minutes). I am also a sucker for dreamy sounding teas.

[lunchcase]

Coconut Milk Saigo + Mango Saigo (not mine)

Location: Fruitti Mix in First Markham Place

Price: $16.95 total for 2 medium, warm :’)

This place has everything and for real cheaps! It serves all kinds of drinks, milk teas, slushies, HK desserts, and also hot crepes, sweet and savoury, french toast, banana boats, steamed rice sets, hk street food, Japanese savoury pancakes, all day breakfasts? The food court already covers a whole lot, and this stall is carrying like half the weight (lmao jk no every stall here kind of goes super hard on variety).

I am giddy the moment I hold the warm saigo in my hands, for that is an option they offered me, and i immediately pounced on it. Warm is, for me, the optimal temperature for most food and beverages, as the heat or cold doesn’t interfere with my ability to truly savour the taste. The exceptions are foods and drinks cooked/brewed specifically for a certain temperature in mind.

Coconut Saigo:

The first sip might not have suggested it, but as you keep going the drink blossoms into a warm, sweet, milky, lightly coconut-y concoction textured with lightly airy bubbles which I find personally much more manageable and appealing than tapioca. Listen, nothing beats a traditional cantonese dessert, and drinking it through a cup and bubble tea straw rather than a bowl and ceramic soup spoon is an updated modern version of ingesting the same thing that I highkey board the train for. It turns the tradition to something you can bring with you on the go, carry around and easily drink. It’s convenient! It’s good! It doesn’t leave tapioca pearls at the bottom for you to painstakingly slurp up! 西米露 revolution!!!

Saigo tangent: the prevalence of this dessert in hk and Guangdong in general is, I think, a testament to the unique cultural connections it shares with Southeast Asia countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, who produces the majority of the world’s saigo. It’s geographical placement has archaeologically/historically meant the region which Hong Kong lives in is a hot bed of cultural interactions unique to the area and it’s actors. Singapore, through its architectural visuals and lifestyles, provide one of the best examples alluding to this interconnectivity. Immediate thoughts, verify veracity later.

[lunchcase]

Gingerbread Latte

Location: Tim’s

Price: $4 something :0

no photo since it's just a timmy cup lol and it's brown inside. shocker

Smells like. Rotten vegetable soup? Is weird. Is bad. Kind of makes me want to throw up. Hopefully the taste is better, but I’m not going to get my hopes up again for a Tim’s seasonal holiday drink, regardless of how excited I am that they do this sort of thing. No, I'm going to get my hopes up again, actually.

The taste is slightly better. It’s really… or rather, it’s not really gingerbread-y. But it *is* creamy and milky, in a nutty(?) kind of way. Sweet. I can kind of taste like. The faintest whispers of gingerbread ginger. Like when you stand on a fainted patch of ground during a historical tour and they tell you where you’re standing was once peasant number 5’s house. I get the impression of it thousands of years after the house has passed. Let me dilute this further by adding more milk.

[lunchcase]

okay lol i said video to follow and i honestly thought i took a more interesting video but it's just milk. here is milk, posted two years after it was poured over some truffles

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Truffettes de France

My brother won it in a Christmas work party.

...And then after fierce defence on our part, we freed it from our mother’s Christmas games prize pool grasp.

The truffle itself is pretty good! Small bite sized shape, soft and sweet mediated by the bittersweet cocoa dust.

So I melted it in milk by blasting the mix in a microwave.

Following the Horlicks method (60 seconds, stir, 50 more seconds) resulted in a milky, creamy, rich chocolatey scent hot cocoa consisting layers of colour. Video to follow. Hoping that translates to flavour and texture.

I think it does, a little. The texture’s surprisingly not as creamy as the scent suggests, but the flavour is interestingly bittersweet. Do I recommend nuking expensive, fancy looking truffles? If it comes in multiples, always save one to nuke.

[lunchcase]

Uji Matcha Latte

Location: Baroness

Price: $6.95? CAd

Hot matcha will always be superior to cold matcha. Whatever it is; the heat that allows the powder to mix in with the water and milk more seamlessly, maybe it’s the water levels, etc etc, hot just brings out the matcha flavour better. It’s like how coke was made to be consumed after chilled and Pepsi was made for room temperature (or the other way round; I don’t remember). Some flavours are meant for certain temperatures. This hot matcha is strong and sweet and milky. Is it worth $6.95? Probably not. Go to a proper matcha place or the most unlikely matcha place for a better quality one, or a cheap yet still astonishingly good one.