Three Things: To Drink...Maybe?
This year, those of us who live in the Cambridge area got a beautiful shiny gift in the form of an H Mart in Central Square. While much smaller than the Burlington location, it's a game changer for people who don't drive or often find themselves in Central Square due to work and/or other appointments. I happily fall into that latter category.
The thing about H Mart is that it is super slick. Staff clear your trays at the food court once they notice you rising from your seat. On rainy days a person greets you at the door and helps you stuff your soaking umbrella into a plastic bag. This place is oddly classy for what is essentially a supermarket.
Since The Boy is not only my secret weapon when it comes to thinking of blog posts but is also a big fan of dishes that are essentially sauce and meat on rice, I promised him Go Go Curry (more on that another time), if he would join me on a mission to find a whole bunch of weird things and eat/drink for the enjoyment of our readers. 30 mins later, filled with equal amounts of excitement and dread, we left the gleaming H Mart palace of awesome, loaded down with drinks, scary/potentially deadly ramen, and snacks that were chosen purely on how cute the character on the bag was.
And so my friends, I give you round one: Smalerie and The Boy Drink Stuff!
In order to keep with the theme of our three things post, The Boy (with a little help from me) picked out three drinks with various levels of appeal. And yes, I realize that there are four items described below, but that was because I kinda just wanted a milk tea, and I picked it out based on the fact that it was cute and came with its own straw, just like a Sip-it!
Ranking from Most to Least Delicious:
Popular in Japan and very easy to find at both specialty Asian markets and places that just like to carry fancy things, The Boy and I were both shocked by how much we liked this drink. We rarely drink coffee and it is rarer still to find one of us drinking it black or with no sugar. However, this coffee is extremely smooth,and doesn't have any canned or biting aftertaste. It gave me a fleeting moment of understanding why some people can be so passionate about coffee. And if this is in a can, I can't even imagine how the good stuff must taste when it is fresh brewed.
The Boy quote - “It is smooth and delicious, just like a fine whiskey!”
Um OK, why not?
2) Aloe Juice
Full disclosure, I have had aloe juice before. But in the past, I have always chosen the kind that was flavored or blended with another fruit. Straight up aloe juice had me a little apprehensive. The first thing we noticed when we poured this one into a glass was how thick it was, almost syrupy. Aloe juice often contains a sort of soft pulp that I really like, but it also adds to the sticky thickness of the drink. Surprisingly, we found that the drink wasn't as sweet as we expected it to be. If anything, it tasted a bit like concord grape juice.
The Boy quote - “If I burn my mouth on hot food, do you think drinking this might help?”
No idea, but I suppose we could try to have some around the next time we have soup for dinner.
3) Ramu Bottle Soda
I knew exactly how this would taste and how I would hate it so, and yet I still had to drink it. Because really, I know that there are those of you who are reading this just to find out which of these drinks tasted like suffering. Well, congratulations, you read far enough into the article and here you are. See that picture on the bottle that pretty much looks like another bottle screaming.
Yeah, that's kinda how I felt about this one. The funny thing was that I loved this stuff when I was younger. Ramune soda is seriously fun because you get the glass bottles with the marble in them. But looking back on it, I avoided the strange blue label ones in exchange for orange or grape. And really, I was in for for the weirdo bottle. The insult with this one is that it didn't even come in the glass bottle. Instead, you get a boring aluminum bottle with twice the soda. It's like some sort of cruel joke.
Oh and in case you are wondering, suffering tastes like really sweet bubble gum, mixed with lemon and lime, and wrapped in tears.
The Boy Quote - “If someone combined syrup and gross, but then carbonated it, you would get this soda.”
4) Moriyama Tea Latte
There is a bit of differing opinions with this one. You see, The Boy thought this was the worst. I on the other hand, thought it was pretty bad, but would choose to drink this over the Ramu stuff...assuming I found myself in a world where there was no water and my only drink options were Ramu Soda, this stuff, or piss.
The problem with this drink is that if suffers from all the things that can make a bottled milk tea bad. It was watery, yet overly sweet, and had this awful aftertaste which was an odd mix of the bitterness you get when you over brew tea and a tinny preservative kind of taste. I was disappointed because it would have been so handy with its adorable green straw and easy to poke through top. Sadly, like my dream to someday swim through a sea of gold coins in my own private money pit just like Scrooge McDuck, it was never meant to be.
The Boy Quote – “I won't even dignify this with a quote.”
And a good day to you as well, sir!
So there we have it, Round 1: Drinks. Is there anything you guys are big fans of and think we should try next time? Irn Bru? Moxie? Goya Malt? Let us know in the comments!
Next time: The Boy vs Ramen...of DOOM!