Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’s Red Velvet Hot Cocoa Is Back

I am just happy that this is back! I started to like this the first time I tried it when we first visited CBTL’s newly opened and first branch then here in Abreeza Mall in Davao City.

I loved it since and when we get to visit CBTL during the holidays, I would almost always order this. It’s a fave of mine! So when they took it out after the holidays, I was kind of sad and somehow stopped visiting CBTL.

Now it is back! I have a reason to go back to CBTL when the budget allows me to. You can say this is one of the treat I give myself in lieu of other sacrifices I make.

Well we went around to see what’s new while trying to decide what to eat for snacks. We ended up finding GoNuts Donuts in Gaisano Mall near Red Ribbon at the grocery section for the first time. I have heard a few months ago that they will be opening their second branch in the city at GMall. This is the first time we passed by the said new branch.

I was so tempted to buy donuts but since I am trying to control on the sweets, I decided not to go in anymore. Maybe next time. We could always buy at their branch in Abreeza Mall since we are more often there than here. I would love to try their durian flavored donuts soon!

I have seen this often on display at the Robinsons Supermarket a few months ago when we do our grocery there. I would pass by it curious about how it tasted. I am just put on hold when I saw the price and being an imported product I have not tried before, I was quite cautious until someone I know recommends it. I have heard of it after that from a DB friend Carla who liked it as well. But only recently did we really went to buy and try it when we saw a family eating it inside the grocery only last Sunday. They were all eating the Melona’s Melon Flavored Ice Bar.

Both hubby and me looked at each other as if saying silently “Let’s try it!” We were actually buying our little boy the Kimy Krazzy Banana from Nestle since we discovered it at a recent first food trip to Ice Creaman of Mandarin Tea Garden along Rizal Street in Davao. Hubby said Kimy reminds him of Mochi Creme Japanese ice cream that has a new branch in the second floor of Abreeza Ayala Mall.

We bought its three flavors and we instantly liked the melon flavor among the three! Though it is kind of pricey for us at P49 each. We still bought three actually all out of curiosity clamoring to be satisfied- Melona Mango Flavored Ice Bar, Melona Banana Flavored Ice Bar and the Melona Melon Flavored Ice Bar which is our fave while the little boy seems to like the Banana and Mango flavors more. The Melon is their best seller according to the staff from Robinsons.

I just realized today that the Melon flavor reminds me exactly of the melon juice that one can drink (bottomless or drink all you can) at Nanay Bebeng’s Buffet Restaurant in Davao. We like that juice especially the first fill served during the buffet meal.

This afternoon hubby and I discovered that Victoria Plaza also sells Melona Ice Bar but cheaper at P33 per piece. Cheaper by P16 each. I kept asking why it is being sold way cheaper. The sales lady just replied it was priced at a discount. Hmmmm now we know where to buy Melona if we crave for it!

When you are in Robinsons Supermarket in Abreeza, you can find Melona at the imported section near the meat section (right side).  When you are in Victoria Plaza, they have a small freezer located at the gift wrapping section near Jollibee on the second floor.

It is the first time we saw and tried this one there  while we have been to Cafe Laguna more than a few times. Curious at first at what it was since we honestly don’t know what dessert it was. It was their birthday treat for the little boy actually when we had a post birthday dinner there last Monday. They came to know about the little boy’s birthday and so they sang him a birthday song while they had this for their version of a birthday “cake” treat. It is a sweet and delicious version of maja blanca and we liked it. It costs P60 each and is said to be a best seller among their Filipino desserts. We will order this next time. Try it!

According to my friend, they plan to start a small business since they have somehow been able to save more since they have been working abroad with her husband for more than three years already. She had been encouraging me to venture into my own business as well. If ever I would go into business, it would probably have something to do with food. But since I heard in the news on TV about feng shui in the year of the dragon, it was said that going into a restaurant business this year is not recommended. Hopefully this is not true for I don’t want this to discourage those who are pursuing a restaurant business this 2012. But as for my friend, they are determined to pursue their business this year with the help of a few friends over there in UK. It was a fun yet short business talk over coffee. At the end it left me thinking why not indeed. Who knows one day I’ll be thinking of starting a small business of our own as long as we have the right knowledge and proper funding for capital.

We were lucky we went to SB for coffee while waiting for my friend who we were to meet there for a short meet-up. She was somewhere in the mall that time doing some last minute Christmas shopping and looking for leather briefcases which at first I thought would be a gift to her dad but as it turns out she needed one to bring and use for her official trips as part of her field work since her work requires her to travel and do some inspections several times in a month. A briefcase I once saw while doing some online window shopping would be great for her to use with her field work with a lot of documents she had to bring along just in case she could not find one what she wanted anywhere within the mall.

Well actually in order to claim this free drink, I had to visit a Starbucks site and answer their online survey. It was just an easy survey. After I answered that, we were able to claim the free coffee yesterday which is exactly New Year’s day. I hope this would become like a tradition whole year long that we do get a free coffee drink from Starbucks! Lucky are we if that would actually come true!

Anyway, we only got a tall size free drink but the barista at the register told us that we can upgrade to venti size by just paying P30. I went for it thinking it’s like having my fave Starbucks hot peppermint mocha in venti size for just 30 bucks. That’s a great new year’s treat already. Hubby and I can share with it since I cannot have too much coffee anymore after all those coffee I had to drink over the holidays after getting my Starbucks and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf 2012 planners. Speaking of my Starbucks planner, I claimed it also yesterday and it’s like another new year’s gift for myself. I have to thank two friends way back in college and their hubbies (these couples are vacationing from Singapore and Nigeria) for giving me four stickers when I met them by surprise at Starbucks a night before Christmas eve. That saved me four drinks… thank you my friends!

Yesterday hubby and I are simply grateful for this holiday treat! Thank you Starbucks! We surely want to win another complimentary Starbucks beverage again soon!

A blessing-filled and delicious food tripping all year long for 2012 to all!

Here is what we had for our Media Noche  for the New Year 2012 …

The ham that hubby cooked just about an hour before midnight was a PF jamon de bola which he baked and cooked with pineapple tidbits plus the juice. The pic was taken as we took it out of the oven. We forgot to use the Sprite which we bought for the purpose of cooking it. Ham is a regular giveaway by their company to all the employees. It literally saves us in our budget because we know we always have a free supply of ham for Christmas and/or New Year. Over the years it was usually Papat’s ham. This year for the first time since we remember, it was different – PF. Thanks to hubby’s company!

As for the cake, I seem to have no choice but choose this one since the stock of other cakes at Red Ribbon and Goldilocks were limited and literally selling fast that time we went out to buy a cake at Abreeza. I wish I had ordered from Tiny Kitchen a day before that just like when we did have their Square Indulgence for Christmas. We did not have much time too then as we were rather in a hurry to get something else before we travel to my parents house for that early dinner. So we settled for a chocolate mousse cake from Red Ribbon. My little boy and I are still indulging in it right now. We still got three more days to consume it. Hubby is not much of a cake person but I hope he pitches in eating it. Wanna help? *wink*

The spaghetti was cooked by my SIL. This is often our request from her whenever we have family gatherings. We brought home a little coming home from that dinner we had at my parents’ home. Our little boy loved it.

Our little boy loves grapes since we also bought some for Christmas. So we had some grapes although we wanted to have wine originally but had to forego of that plan. Next time! A kilo of this seedless grapes costs P335 at Robinsons Supermarket in Abreeza. My sis got hers for P200/kilo. Hahaha had I known! Next time. *wink* The cupcake was from Tricel’s bought by my eldest sister. We took one home for the little boy who loved what seems to be macapuno topping.

The simple macaroni salad from my mom’s where we had an earlier New Year’s eve dinner with my family and it was mixed by my SIL this time. We were complete except for my dear elder sister and family who are abroad and could not come home during the holidays due to super busy work schedule. We truly missed her and my nephew during the holiday family gatherings! My sister and I had the same appetite and we both love my mom’s mac salad which is our fave and a tradition in the family being ever present in the noche buena and media noche ever since I can remember!

Oh the baked spaghetti from EPR! It was delicious and yummy with that melted cheese as topping! Fortunately we got the baked spag an hour ahead before they screwed up on our baked macaroni order which we had to come back again an hour after. We were late actually the first time we went to get this. They probably just had too many orders that came in that very day though we had already ordered a day ahead to be sure. They probably could not keep up with the orders which I think should have been avoided had there been a more systematic way like not giving still coming customers’ orders to other peeps. Last Christmas, there was one customer who was in that situation when I came to get our order. I knew her from HS. When that is done many times they ended up with a few unsatisfied customers who waited and waited. Unfortunately for us, we ended up with an order where the mac pasta was overcooked almost burned maybe while we waited for more than an hour after the agreed time. Nasayang lang po kasi ang baked mac! Pinagtiisan pero di po naubos. Good thing their baked spag was still yummy and delicious even if I think the pasta was about close to being overcooked as well. It may take awhile before we’d order again. We have been loyal customers of E’s over the years ordering from them for Christmas, New Year and special occasions in the family. So I am hoping it won’t ever happen again next time if we come back to order again. Dami silang suki so sayang di ba if mawawala over something like this? Consistency of quality for loyal customers is always the key. Yun lang yun! *wink*

Last but not the least, the thirteen kinds of fruits which is a tradition for new year well we went for it. We shopped for these still at Robinsons Supermarket in Abreeza. Until now it remains untouched on display at the dining table! We have to eat them soon!

There is our simple media noche as we greeted 2012 eating these delicious food like as if we were having our own food trip at our simple home to start the year with tummy filled with yummy food. Hope you had a delicious media noche as well!

To more food trips this 2012 hopefully though more important is that we stay healthy and happy! Thank you LORD for the blessings of our food tripping in 2011 and those that we will have in 2012!

We got this extra gift certificate from TGI Friday’s that we actually bought as a gift supposedly but since we were not able to make use of it for that purpose until Christmas day, I decided to use it as a gift to my boys and experience Christmas day dinner at Friday’s using this GC. Indeed it can be the right gift every time you dine at TGI Friday’s. That’s P250 off our bill instead of the usual 20% discount when we use our The Bistro Circle (TBC) card. That’s the nice thing of having gift certificates and coupons, you get to save more!

Yoh Froz Davao Merry Hour Promo for the month of December 2011 with one free refill for every cup that one would purchase makes me want to visit them again and make use of the Treat Card they gave us.I could use one now if only we still have enough time to catch up before fetching our lil kid at school.

I hope we can drop by soon to avail of this promo. I remember the first time we were there with my boys was almost two months ago. We sure indeed enjoyed their yogurt. We  then ordered their mango parfait and plain froz yogurt with one top-in choice of our lil guy which is the mini-mallows.

I wish we had won a gift certificate from Yoh Froz during the Davao Blogger’s Black & White Christmas Ball but no we didn’t. Maybe next time.

Image credit: Yoh Froz

Anyway, I know that they like Max’s and I even saw them twice dining there with her office mates so I thought I should suggest she gets these Gift Certificates Available at Max’s Restaurant in Abreeza Mall Davao. It is available in P500 and P100 denominations. I would be willing to get these certificates if someone would give it to me since the boys and I sometimes dine there when we feel like eating chicken.

I would also be glad to accept any kind of gift this Christmas being a foodie that we are. Or maybe if you would buy those bulk morgan dollars for sale which I was browsing earlier or various other coins since I am some sort of a coin collector as well, as a gift for me this Christmas, well I would gladly accept them as well wholeheartedly. I was actually looking into them when I decided to think more seriously of investing and trading. Maybe I could save more from having less food trips this 2012 and save for something that I can invest in for the future.

But I am still open to accept gift certificates even if it is not from a restaurant as long as I can practically use them.