Milk tea Tidbits #03

What: Battle of the Taro

Who: Cobo’s Taro Limited VS. Dakasi’s Superior Taro Milktea

When: Now!

Alright alright! Enough with the birthday card format thingy. 🙂 It’s been a while since I’ve able to post a subsequent addition to my Milktea Tidbits.

In case you haven’t read the preceding ones, here and here.

Redeploying further, let’s proceed with our Milktea Tidbits for today! For starters, let me refresh your mind with the basic figures of Taro. (According to Wikipedia)

Taro is a common name for the corms and tubers of several plants in the Araceae family. Of these, Colocasia esculenta is the most widely cultivated and the subject of this article. More specifically, this article describes the “dasheen” form of taro; another variety of taro is known as eddoe.

Taro is native to South India and Southeast Asia. It is a perennial, tropical plant primarily grown as a root vegetable for its edible starchy corm, and as a leaf vegetable. It is a food staple in African, Oceanic and South Indian cultures and is believed to have been one of the earliest cultivated plants. Colocasia is thought to have originated in the Indo-Malayan region, perhaps in eastern India and Bangladesh, and spread eastward into Southeast Asia, eastern Asia, and the Pacific islands; westward to Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean; and then southward and westward from there into East Africa and West Africa, whence it spread to the Caribbean and Americas. It is known by many local names and often referred to as “elephant ears” when grown as an ornamental plant.

And now, progressing with our MT tidbits, shall we start?

Cobo’s Superior Taro Milk Tea

*VERSUS*

Dakasi’s Taro Limited

Round 1 | Physical Appearance

~ Well, at this point in time, bluntly speaking, after all my obsession with milk teas, as I go through my comparing-the-version-of-different-brands-of-diverse-flavors thingy, physical appearance is crudely a plus factor. Though it still matters for almost everyone has its own share of it-looks-yummy-but-I-found-out that-it-doesn’t-taste-good-after-all experience, right? As for the two contending milk teas’ case, it’s nearly a tie, therefore:

Dakasi: 85

Cobo: 85

For this round, IT’S A TIE!

Round 2 | Original Price

~ As for this matter, well, as for some, price really matters to them before purchasing an item, considering it precisely their deciding factor before anything else. For this round, in contempt of the fact that Cobo’s is P20.00 off less than Dakasi’s (Cobo- P85, Dakasi-P115), obviously…

Dakasi: 84

Cobo:89

The winner for this round is Cobo’s Superior Taro Milk Tea

Round 3 | Taste

~ Last but the most significant round of all, how about the taste? Well, to be frank with all of you, Cobo’s Superior Taro MT is my #2 favorite milk tea of all time! (With bursting yoghurt as sinkers, specifically!)
Oops! *SPOILER ALERT* Find out more on my Milktea Tidbits #04 coming this month. Stay tuned! Furthermore,

Dakasi: 86

Cobo: 92

The winner for this round, again, is Cobo’s Superior Taro Milk Tea

 

Furthermore,

*drum roll* The winner overall is…

**Cobo’s Superior Taro Milk Tea!**

Stay tuned for more Milk tea Tidbits, alright?

xx

Awakening Board September-November 2013

Cheery afternoon, my loves! *happy birthday song playing* Oh yes, it’s my 20th birthday last month! And yes, you’re not dreaming. I’m back for good! :3

For that, lez proceed with my awakening board for the three months that gone by. Yes, I know it’s way too overdue for I usually do awakening board for 1 and a half and not three months that have past. So expect this would be most likely my longest awakening board ever, perhaps. Lez proceed anyway, shall we?

(1) Gong Cha’s House Special Milk Alisan MT with Pudding

~ Well, as several of you ascertain my unyielding fixation for milk teas, I opted for the strongest flavor, Alisan, in one of my most adored milk tea brand, Gong Cha (which I bet my fellow milk te crazies would agree). Though this flavor wasn’t my foremost favorite at Gong Cha but aside from my name was included in the title (Ally-Alisan), but it also made my reluctance (before) to try flavors that I wasn’t that accustomed yet. Empirically, that was my rookie-on-milk-teas self. But since milk tea has been a huge essential to me for the past few months, I get used to its novel & hybrid taste. For that, I tend to play with different sinkers & flavors on diverse milk tea brands. Doing some comparing thingy (Stay tuned with copious Milk Tea Tidbits blog posts in the coming weeks!)

(2) Demi Lovato, my-lovatic-self vaunting wildly
~ If you predominantly know me well, you would ascertain how gripped and inordinately fixated I am to Demetria. Hihi! Perhaps, aside from her unrivalled beauty and benevolent heart, I frequently find by myself humming to the beat of one of her songs in a random time of the day. For I can factually relate to it and we’re in the same page in some ways. Like me, she grew up being excessively bullied and she inspire me to be like her, being able to overcome her insecurities & have blossomed like a wild flower flourishing in her field of expertise. Candidly, she’s the principal reason why I started watching X Factor USA last season & the current. And if it wasn’t for her, being on a numerous episodes of Glee Season 5, I would completely lose my interest on watching the latter because my girlfriend, Dianna Agron wouldn’t be in it anymore. *fangirling*

(3) Ze fashion conyo’s official icon/watermark
~ This blog of mine, Ze Fashion Conyo ,had its hiatus for the longest time now. And it breaks my heart to be invisible in the blogging industry for such a longwinded time. I promise I would intently make it up to you. Having said that, I made my new & first ever official icon. Pat on the back, Ally! Tee hee! Stay tuned for my back logs and the watermark I ‘m talking about on my look backlogs & new looks, yes?

(4) Milk tea milk tea milk tea! :3
~ Oops, my bad! How fixated can I get? Sorry if I sounded too superfluously smitten with milk teas, alright? Hihi! Let’s say milk tea is part of me already. My friends & most of my classmates would know it’s me when they see a girl chirpily sipping into the straw of her milk tea & gleefully staring & stirring its sinkers from time to time without seeing my face. Furthermore, stay tuned for my top 8 (or 10, when I change my mind afterwards!) milk teas I ordered the most. It’s predominantly the ones I ordered from time to time. So, it was perhaps, some of my foremost favorites. Here’s a teaser photo!

(5) My boy & girl crushes! ❤
~ I’ve been hankering to dole out all my fangirl-ing in one blog post in the past few months! So, I decided to make a blog post that would feature my top 4 boy crushes & girl crushes (each). Not to spill the beans too much, just spazz with this teaser photo first!

(6) My fashion inspirations
~Here’s some of my fashion inspirations I look intently copiously.

Milk Tea Tidbits #02

Rainy afternoon indeed! And as always, as a milk tea fresco, I’m in the mood for another milk tea tidbits! Can I hear my fellow milk tea sillies say present? Hihi! 🙂 How I wish I can factually hear y’all. Btw, have you seen & read my first ever milk tea tidbits? If not, here.

Furthermore, for our second addition to it, I’m radically sure that all of you is pretty much accustomed to wintermelon, right? For some, they are familiar with the word, but they don’t fully ascertain what it really is.

The winter melon, also called white gourd, winter gourd, or ash gourd, is a vine grown for its very large fruit, eaten as a vegetable when mature. It is the only member of the genus Benincasa. The fruit is fuzzy when young. The immature melon has thick white flesh that is sweet when eaten. By maturity, the fruit loses its hairs and develops a waxy coating, giving rise to the name wax gourd, and providing a long shelf life. The melon may grow as large as 80 cm in length. Although the fruit is referred to as a “melon,” the fully grown crop is not sweet. Originally cultivated in Southeast Asia, the winter melon is now widely grown in East Asia and South Asia as well.

Another one is Oolong. The two are not afar from each other for it was usually paired together at divergent milk tea brands. Perhaps some of you might not know it yet.

Oolong (simplified Chinese: 乌龙; traditional Chinese: 烏龍; pinyin: wūlóng) is a traditional Chinese tea (Camellia sinensis) produced through a unique process including withering under the strong sun and oxidation before curling and twisting. Most oolong teas, especially those of fine quality, involve unique tea plant cultivars that are exclusively used for particular varieties.The degree of oxidation can range from 8 to 85%, depending on the variety and production style. Oolong is especially popular with tea connoisseurs of south China and Chinese expatriates in Southeast Asia, as is the Fujian preparation process known as the Gongfu tea ceremony.

In Chinese tea culture, semi-oxidised oolong teas are collectively grouped as qīngchá (Chinese: 青茶; literally “teal tea”). The taste of oolong ranges hugely amongst various subvarieties. It can be sweet and fruity with honey aromas, or woody and thick with roasted aromas,or green and fresh with bouquet aromas, all depending on the horticulture and style of production. Several subvarieties of oolong, including those produced in the Wuyi Mountains of northern Fujian, such as Da Hong Pao, are among the most famous Chinese teas.
Different varieties of oolong are processed differently, but the leaves are formed into one of two distinct styles. Some are rolled into long curly leaves, while others are ‘wrap-curled’ into small beads, each with a tail. The former style is the more traditional of the two in China.
The name oolong tea came into the English language from the Chinese name (Chinese: 烏龍茶), meaning “black dragon tea”.

Next in line is Assam. Yes, it doesn’t sound that familiar for a few. For you to be acquainted with it, here.

Assam tea is a black tea named after the region of its production, Assam, in India. Assam tea is manufactured specifically from the plant Camellia sinensis var. assamica (Masters).This tea, most of which is grown at or near sea level, is known for its body, briskness, malty flavor, and strong, bright color. Assam teas, or blends containing Assam, are often sold as “breakfast” teas. For instance, Irish breakfast tea, a maltier and stronger breakfast tea, consists of small-sized Assam tea leaves.
The state of Assam is the world’s largest tea-growing region, lying on either side of the Brahmaputra River, and bordering Bangladesh and Burma (Myanmar). This part of India experiences high precipitation; during the monsoon period, as much as 10 to 12 inches (250–300 mm) of rain per day. The daytime temperature rises to about 103F (40 °C), creating greenhouse-like conditions of extreme humidity and heat. This tropical climate contributes to Assam’s unique malty taste, a feature for which this tea is well known.
Though Assam generally denotes the distinctive black teas from Assam, the region produces smaller quantities of green and white teas as well with their own distinctive characteristics. Historically, Assam has been the second commercial tea production region after southern China. Southern China and Assam are the only two regions in the world with native tea plants.

Largely, that’s our lesson for today. Class dismissed! 🙂 For more milk tea nibbles, stay tuned & drop by here at my blog as frequent as you want. You will make me unduly exultant if you do!

xx

Milk Tea Tidbits #01

Fizzy afternoon, fellow milk tea sillies! 🙂 Well, these past few days, I can exceedingly appraise that I’m being hooked on milk teas more and more. I don’t even ascertain why! As what I’ve avowed in my first ever Awakening Board for July-August 2013, had those days when I have 2 or more milk teas per day succeedingly. Frivolous me! Hihi! 🙂 Anyhow, with my first Milk Tea Tidbits, let’s adjudge and compare Gong Cha‘s Earl Grey MT with 3J’s and I-Cup‘s Three Treasures, can we?

First, let’s define Earl Grey Milk Tea. What does it consists? Earl Grey is a tea blend with a distinctive flavour and aroma derived from the addition of oil extracted from the rind of the bergamot orange, a fragrant citrus fruit. Traditionally, the term “Earl Grey” has applied only to black teas that contain oil of bergamot as a flavouring. It is a black tea, so it usually has a bold flavor. Unlike Orange Pekoe (which is a tea grade named for the Dutch royal House of Orange-Nassau), Earl Grey has a citrusy flavor.

Its citrusy taste is due to the addition of natural or synthetic bergamot oil. (Bergamot orange is a type of aromatic citrus fruit that is usually grown in the Mediterranean, and bergamot oil is extracted from the skin of the bergamot fruit.) Although it varies from producer to producer, its taste is often described as bright, refreshing and bold.

Thus, that expounds the more unyielding taste of Gong Cha’s baby in this battle. Let’s concede our criteria for judging.

Physical Appearance- 25%

Price- 15%

Clear cut & One off Taste- 60%

Having said that, let’s shed light into the physical appearance of both parties.

(Gong Cha’s Earl Grey Milk Tea with 3J’s)

 

(I-Cup’s Three Treasures Milk Tea- Sorry I forgot to capture a solo photo of it! Hihi!)

Round 1 winner: I-Cup’s Three Treasures MT- It’s not because of Pork Bibimbob’s cheery presence, alright?

The pudding’s worm-like penchant made me surmised I-Cup as the winner though Gong Cha’s score is not that far from the former.

As for its price, well, I disclose a TIE for Round two! Why? Lez say 5 pesos is not enough to make I-Cup the winner again for this particular round. (Gong Cha- P125; I-Cup-P120)

Moreover, let’s move out with the last but the foremost vital round. As what I’ve affirmed a while ago, Gong Cha’s Earl Grey MT with 3J’s has more comely taste due to its robust citrusy taste. Unlike, I-Cup’s, I plumped for it predominantly of its three toppings in one milk tea thing going on it. But since, Gong Cha’s EGMT has its 3J’s in it, as well, I declare Gong Cha’s Earl Grey MT with 3J’s as the Round 3 winner.

Tabulation of Scores:

Round 1(25%)– Gong Cha (21/25); I-Cup (23/25)*

Round 2 (15%)- Gong Cha  & I-Cup (15/15) – TIE

Round 3 (60%)- Gong Cha (58/60)*; I-Cup (52/60)

Overall Score:

Gong Cha’s Earl Grey MT with 3J’s- 93

I-Cup’s Three Treasures- 90

 

** WINNER- Gong Cha’s Earl Grey MT with 3J’s **

Awakening Board | July-August 2013

[July-August 2013]

Principally, this would be my first ever blog post wherein I would primarily stick out ze things that inspired me for the one and a half month that have past. For this particular post, I would disclose everything/everyone that enthused me for the first half of July and the month of August. This would be like a mishmash of what things I’ve been preoccupied with & things that stirred my nerves and audacity to pull off gears stupendously.

(1) Happy Lemon’s Roasted Milk Tea with Adzuki Bean & Pudding
~ Milk Teas has been part of my life for the past few months. When milk tea craze presided over here in the PH last year, as a fizzy food tripper, I took a crack at it, right away. But I didn’t became like head over heels in love with it that much. But for the past few months, I have no idea what milk teas jabbed into my senses that I suddenly became unduly fixated to it. Even had times when I had two or more milk teas (each) for several succesive days.

Note: The guy from Happy Lemon ill manneredly mispelled my name! Ally not Ali! 😦  I’m not Muhammad Ali, okay?

(2) Carnival’s quaint & capricious feel
~ Oh yes yes. I know I’m about to turn a one year older in less than 3 months from now (the mere thought gives me qualms!). But I ardently deem nobody’s hold for carnivals and pensive cavalcades, isn’t it? For that, I’m hankering for a carnival-themed photoshoot. But then, I think that’s hard to pull off for carnivals were full of people all the time, right? Aww.. 😦

And oh, who are these five lovely ladies over here?

It’s the Fifth Harmony! Where are my fellow Harmonizers at? Holla!

(3) Fifth Harmony’s Miss Movin On
~ Well, I know if it’s just me or the sweather weather that the very bully and insolent Maring (heavy rains) have caused me that I became so vexed on listening to sad love songs nowadays. Though Miss Movin On is pretty much like a survival song for all the broken hearted girls out there. As a matter of fact, when you’ll ask me how many sad love songs I kept on snooping at present, well, got lots of ’em. As what they say, the songs you’re heeding reflects what’s inside of you. As for my case, well..

(4) 2ne1’s Falling in Love & Do You Love Me
~ Divergent of you might not be acquianted with the fact that I’m a dancer, yes? Though, I bluntly don’t dance that much nowadays as much as I do before back in my grade school & HS days (due to health reasons and uhmm.. long story!). Anyhow, ensuing with my Blackjack-self, since they debut with their song, Fire, way back. I always been a staunch fangirl of 2ne1. And so is my frisky brother. Having said that, in order to have our Blackjack fulfillment, we tried mastering Falling In Love & Do You Love Me. And after several nights, well, we succeed a bit. Hihi! 🙂

(5) David Guison

~ I started blogging last December 2011 & became a Lookbook-er last June 2011. As an aspiring blogger, we have our own style inspirations. Notable people we immeasurably look up to. Before, outspokenly, though I’ve known David since I started blogging, I only dwell more to remarkable bloggers in the female division. But as I grew in the blogging and fashion industry, I learned to widen my entreaties by lodging my attention to well-off and outstanding male bloggers in the compelling blogging/fashion industry. Since then, I became one of the trillions and trillions of solid and cray cray fangirls of DG. To the girls out there, I exceedingly suggest that you become one of us, too! Hihi. :3 I promise, it’s all worth it! Kidding aside. Trust me! Here’s a proof.

** Note: Expect that David will always be a part of my monthly (and a half) inspi board. When I say always, I mean it. Why? For he always been one of my foremost inspiration when it comes to blogging & Lookbook. Hihi! :”>

So long, August! Though I’ve encountered/encountering emotional adjustments during your existence this year, you teached me not to waste my time and effort to those people who doesn’t even bother to spend their time with me. Hey, September, we’re the best of friends, yes? Don’t steal my ice cream, alright?

xx

Food Rage: KoCCo Cafe

Hmmm… what are we doing? Where are we? 🙂

We’re at Kitchen of Cakes & Coffee at Tomas Morato, you silly! Hihi. 🙂

Candidly, we went to Banapple at Il Terrazo, Tomas Morato at first. Yes, I know! Banapple is notable for their savory pies & divergent delectable cakes that I assure that is exceedingly infallable!

Orders:

Cakes:

La Vida Mocha | Rate: 6
~ With all honesty, I’m not fond of anything with mocha flavor in it. But what’s shocking is, I’m the one who ordered it among us three. Well, I just apparently took a crack at it. However, let’s just put it this way. Mocha & I don’t go by a wide margin, that’s all!

Toffee Charlotte | Rate: 8
~ Gaaaaaah! I indomitably adorn the palatableness of this one! Though I tend to feel like it’s a bit of nimiety to some extent but since my sweet tooth-self sometimes has its way of subjugating me. Moreover, I unduly love it! 🙂

Giant Whoopie | Rate: 7
~ Le title natters for itself! When it says giant, the cake means it1 It’s too sweet but I love the marshmallow part of it though.

Drinks:

Choco Mochaccino | Rate: 6.5
~ Still educe what I’ve appraised a while ago about Mocha & I? Well, for drinks’ sake, same as the former, I didn’t enjoyed it that much.

Matcha Pudding Pearl Frost | Rate: 8
~ If you thoroughly know me, you wouldn’t be surprise that well, this one is my favorite in the bunch! Simply because I adorn milk teas with pudding, pearl, grass jelly & red bean in it! 🙂

Other branches: SM North (Sky Garden)

** I suggest that you give KoCCo a go!  Stay tuned for a look post in the coming days, alright? 🙂

xx