🍷 Blanc de Zindafel - L.A. Cetto

"If a glass of wine is good for you, imagine what a bottle can do"

 I was never a wine person, my go to drinks were always Sake (which I know, it's also wine) and beer. But lately, I've been really into it too, specially into Rose Wine.

I'm not expert here and I've only tried a couple but I thought it'd be nice to share some of them every now and then as I try new ones.

I feel like I say this constantly but, remember I'm just a happy drinker so, most information about the wine will be from researching online plus, my personal opinion based on what I like.

Today we have the Blanc de Zindafel - L.A. Cetto which is a beautiful rose wine, it's color is more like a coral pink. From what I read, it's origin is from Croatia but it was made in Mexico. It goes well with Oriental food, slightly spiced food and even dessert. I honestly had it even with snacks... hehe. (I'm not a fancy lady when it comes to drinking wine...)

It has a "fruity aroma" that includes peach, apple and strawberry notes. The taste is also slightly sweet, which I really liked. 

It has 11.5% alcohol and, to me, it was really nice and friendly to drink. I usually have my wine cold, even if you're not supposed to have all of them like that. I know that's how you're supposed to drink Rose Wine tho.

Anyway, this is what I've been drinkin lately~ Let me know if you'd like to read more post like this one (hopefully I'll become better at this, haha).

Starbucks Pike Place Roast Coffee

 Some of you already know I love my Starbucks (especially if you follow me on IG). I mean, I love coffee in general but Starbucks is one of my fav places, despite what people can think or say about it. That's why I wanted to share this coffee with you guys.

I am a coffee lover but I'm no expert at all. I'm not someone who can describe notes, types and all that fancy stuff, I'll just share my opinion here along with info from the package and the Starbucks website.

The Starbucks Pike Place Roast Ground Coffee was a gift I recieved last month. It is a medium roast with chocolate & toasted nut notes. It says is 100% ground Arabica coffee. 

The smell is strong and delicious, you can definitely find the chocolate in it. Taste wise, it is not super strong, that's why I like to add more coffee than suggested 😅 and I don't drink it when I want my coffee to wake me up in the morning. It's more like a coffee you'd like to enjoy on a rainy afternoon. 

It's still pretty good tho, not bitter at all and the nuts and chocolate notes are defo there. 

I've only had it black with some sugar, because I do like my drinks to be sweet, but I've heard it's also good with some milk. Mayble I'll try it like that one day.

Café Loraine, my new happy place!

A few weeks ago I was introduced to this café and I knew I had to go as soon as I scrolled down their Instagram account. Everything is just too pretty!

My friends & I decided to go last weekend and try some of their seasonal drinks as well as their food. They have lots of Sakura stuff right now, and you know how much I love sakura.

It is called Loraine. They said their inspiration comes from the Hanami culture. They actually have a "hanami experience" event thing every Thursday. I wish I could go!

I'm gonna start with the decoration cuz I just loved it! Everything is white and pink, super cute and super girly. It has lots of spots where you can take nice pics and even the tiniest things have details that make this place special. 

It is not a big café and we did have to make a reservation because of the pandemic. The sanitation measures were great from the moment we arrived to the place, they even gave us a small paper bag to put our masks in while we ate and stuff. 

At the beginning we sat in the "common area" I guess, which was really nice and cute but once the VIP zone was free, we were moved there, which was great because we were super separated fromthe rest of the world (only 2 other tables) and well... we're too loud so, it was better for everyone. Hehe 😅

We were hungry so we started with fresh drinks and lunch.

We all had lemonades: Purple lemonade, pink lemonade and Manhattan lemonade.

Shepperd's pie, I didn't tried this one but the smell was great!

Caprese sandwich with salad. The bread was pink!! I took a bite and it was delish.

I had the Loraine Quiche. It also came with salad and I really, really liked it.

And even tho we were tempted to order dessert, we decided to try hot drinks instead. 

I had the Cappuccino Sakura of course. It's one of their seasonal drinks, it's the perfect mix between stong coffee and sweet cherry. It also had marshmallows on top.

Diana had another seasonal drink: Chai Latte Sakura. The whole presentation of this drink is just beautiful and the taste was pretty good too. Not super sweet.

And Eonni had the Taro Latte, this one wasn't exactly sweet but very... taro-ish!

The 3 of us were happy we got the chance to go. We literally spent hours catching up! The staff were very friendly and service was great. Prices wise I wouldn't say it's cheap but isn't expensive either. To me, the whole experience was worth it. 

And well, one of the girls from the staff helped us to take some pics so, I'm gonna share them here. Apparently their decoration changes every 2 months or so, depending on the season.

They open Tue - Sun from 9am to 8pm. They also have take out service, especially now. Totes recommend this place. I truly think it'll become one of my favs now! 

Night Snack~

 

I've been eating a lot lately and, I can't blame the Holidays for it, haha. I love night snacks, especially midnight snacks which, I know, they aren't exactly the healthiest. 

Today I wanna share a super simple snack that I really, really liked and made me feel a little fancy in a way. Plus, it's pretty because of the colors, hehehe. Am I sharing it because it was cute to look at? Maybe! But who cares? It was still pretty yummy.

I'm gonna start with the drink. Y'all know I love my sake, but I wanted to try doing something different with it. I started looking for options online to mix with it. I chose Lipton Green Tea because it was easy to find. 

The thing here was to pour cold sake to your liking and then mix it with the green tea. I added some ice and... done! It was surprisingly good and really refreshing! 

I had my sake with a few crackers (more than what you see on pics) with the prettiest goat cheese ever on top.

Extra Special Goat Cheese with blue cranberry, Mom bought it at walmart. It's very creamy and slightly sweet. Like eating a cheescake! The cheese has this type of jam as you reach the middle. I haven't tried it yet. It doesn't show much.

Crackers gave me a hard time, they break so easily!

It's purple! ♡

I think it is my first time trying goat chesse and I quite liked it. At least this one with the cranberries, I could obsess! If you haven't tried it yet, I defo recommend it!!

I'm curious to see what else can I eat it with... any idea?

So, there you have it. A super fast and yummy snack I've been enjoying lately.

x

Hot Choco Bombs with a twist!

I recieved Chocolate Bombs from Chez Moi Reposteria, proudly made by my friend Jonathan. I've been obssessing with these cute bombs since I tried them earlier this month. 

If you havent tried choco bombs yet, I have a post dedicated to them and the whole experience, hehe.

Let's talk about these bombs first:

The 4 balls came in a cute, pink box 

They came in two different, festive colors...

Red and silver

Green and gold

The four balls are made of dark chocolate and filled with colorful marshmallows. They were really good!

This time I wanted to give a little twist to this drink, keeping it seasonal. I still had some eggnog and decided to add some to the hot chocolate to spice it up a little. Hehe.

To make this you just need milk, a choco bomb and some eggnog.

Prep your mug...

...add the hot milk and enjoy how pretty this is!

Pour eggnog to your liking and stir to mix everything

And, there you have it! The mix of the chocolate with the hint of alcohol is pretty good. It's super easy to make, it's festive, pretty and perfect for this cold weather.

Cheers!!

Hot chocolate Bombs!

Who doesn't like a good hot chocolate with marshmallows on a cold day? I know I do.

I'm pretty sure you've seen these babies around. They are everywhere and they are super cute. Chocolate bombs are basically chocolate spheres filled with cocoa powder and marshmallows. (or any other ingredient you'd like, like peppermint!). The idea is to put the bomb in a cup and pour hot milk in it, once the milk metls the chocolate, the cocoa powder and the marshmallows are released so you can mix it all together. 

I know, I know. In the end, it's jist hot chocolate. But the experience is worth it. Hehe

These particular ones are from The Cookie Shop, they came in a set of 4, 2 white chocolate bombs and 2 dark chocolate ones. The decoration on them is really pretty, it's almost sad to have to eat them. But, they give your milk a nice gold color after everything melts and blends together. 

I know not everyone is a fan of whilte chocolate but the kind of chocolate they use for both (dark and white) has really good quality and tastes delicious. You can customize your box too tho.

In my opinion, these bombs would make a great gift for my fellow chocolate lovers out there. They are fun, cute and delicious!

I defo recommend you to try them if you have the chance. Also check out The Cookie Shop if you're around the area, they have other yummies worth trying.

Favorite seasonal drink: Eggnog!

 Do you have a favorite drink this season? Mine is defo eggnog.

Eggnog is also known as "milk punch" and it's a milk based drink that also includes cream, sugar, wipped egg whites and yolks, vanilla and one or more alcoholic goodies like rum, brandy or bourbon.

It is a super thick(?) and heavy drink that is perfect to drink in the cold, winter weather. You can drink it cold or hot, both ways is really good.

The one I usually drink is from Costco, lol. Mom and I love it! But I've tried some homemade ones that are as good!

This eggnog from Kirkland comes with 1.75lts, it's huge! It has 14.75% alcohol including whisky, spiced rum, brandy along with french vanilla.

If you haven't tried it, I suggest you to do it! It'll make you happy, haha. Winter is not the same without eggnog, no joke.

Let me know what seasonal drinks you enjoy the most, share recipes and places to buy them! I love to try seasonal stuff, hehe.