halfwhiteboy

Coffee, art, and what have you at Restock. I'm not really one who seeks out new places to dine, have coffee, and the like but last month I finally found myself at Restock Coffee and Curiosities with Kwittiegirl. Located along Guijo Street in Makati City, it's not really a new place although it's still less than a year old. You might have been here already or heard of it at least. If not, then read on.

A self-confessed coffee lover but one who shamelessly admits I want my coffee sweet and creamy, I fell in love with Brownbag Coffee Solutions . It was one of my standout personal discoveries from last Nov. 16's Blogapalooza 2013 . Oh yes, and I'm just as shameless in admitting I had more than one cup that Saturday. There I was standing in front of their booth, perusing their goods, and I was offered a cup of awesome. It was love at first sip, that rich coffee flavor still dominant over the sugar and cream that I messed it with. I'm no coffee geek but I believe I know good coffee when I taste one (most of the time at least), and this one was definitely good. This was validated when a friend sampled a cup after I blabbed about how good it was and he basically shared my opinion. The Brownbag Coffee Solutions booth at Blogapalooza 2013. Spilling the beans Brownbag's main man Enrico Curioso, who curiously picked "Chief Caffeine Junkie" as his job title, g...

It's been more than two months already but I still haven't forgotten our overall pleasant experience at Cafe de Lipa . We were driving from Laiya, Batangas and thought of dropping by somewhere for coffee. After some Googling, My Bibe found out about Cafe de Lipa in, well, Lipa City, which was just along our way. However, the thought of negotiating our way through the traffic-ridden streets of Lipa didn't sit so well with me. Good thing My Bibe read that there's a branch just right outside the city, at a Shell gasoline station along the Star Tollway. Perfect! Different coffee variants for sale at the coffee shop. Interiors and ambiance As with most coffee shops, Cafe de Lipa went for that familiar warm feel, this even if you see yellow and red paint inside. At least in this particular branch, shelves line up a portion of the glass windows where everything from coffee to bottled pickled goodies is on display and for sale. And then there's the familiar mishm...

Thanks to a colleague who's a diehard Koreanovela fan, I got introduced to Caffe Bene . And who knew there was one just a few steps away from our office? The Caffe Bene exterior along the Valero Access Road in Makati City. Love that brick wall and decorative clock! So the uninitiated in me learned that Caffe Bene is a Korean chain of cafes, the leading one so to speak. We tried the one along the Valero Access Road one afternoon, which is located rather inconspicuously at the ground floor of the Multinational Bankcorp Center right next to LKG Tower. Much like myself, I don't think many people know that such a cafe existed in the area.

I wrote last Monday that my officemate, Gay, gifted me with four sticks of Starbucks Via ( see here ), and that I would be posting something after I've tried them all. So here's the order in which they were consumed and my thoughts about each. A general note, though: in all four instances, I added creamer and a little more sugar to suit my taste. I like my coffee creamy, that's why. While flavored, this batch of Via was black. 3-in-1 - probably - but the third was not creamer but the flavoring.

I was having a really crappy morning earlier - what with the crazy traffic, a-hole jeepney drivers, cars that carelessly want to get in your lane, and all that crap. Then when I arrived at the office, still unfinished building inspection works from over the weekend have left a mess. Dust was everywhere despite the janitor's lousy attempts at cleaning up the place. So my anger escalated even further. Gay arrived later and handed me a paper bag. She promised me my morning's gonna be good. And what was inside...

Last week my officemate JM arrived from a vacation in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. I was lucky to be given this: It's a 3-in-1 coffee mix in a really huge stick (and yes, pang-isang timplahan lang siya ). It instantly dwarfed my Via, look:

I'm hoarding! Why?

Dropped by a Starbucks this afternoon to replenish my Via stash. Surprise, surprise! It was Buy 1, Get 1 for my favorite instant coffee. And I'm not talking of a free stick here. If you buy a pack of 3, you get another pack free; if a box of 12, then another box is yours for the taking. There is no promo period, as the offer is good until supplies last. I was so excited I though I should hoard. Unfortunately I didn't have my wallet with me and my cash was only enough for two boxes of 12. So I got myself one Columbia (plus the free box): And one Italian Roast Decaf for My Bibe (plus the free box): While checking out my stash at the cashier, I asked them why it was on sale. According to the barista, it was to "move" stocks. Okay, I thought. But on second thought, were stocks near expiry? So I checked my purchase.

Had a taste of the Via Christmas blend from Starbucks last November courtesy of my officemate, Gay (Gay, by the way, is a name and not a sexual orientation). I was excited since the Philippines was listed alongside first world countries as the U.S. and Japan where this special edition Via was available. I liked it so I had to buy, but then there were no more stocks at any branch I could possibly find. So I took solace in this instead: