Iced Caramel Macchiato @ Starbucks

Lets talk about Starbucks again. This time it's my all-time favourites among the other drinks I've tasted there. I'll probably skip the introduction as I've explained about them earlier and go on to the drink.

Starbucks Iced Caramel Macchiato is a unique drink that blends in milk, espresso and of course caramel. As you can see from the drink above, the milk is prepared first, followed by the espresso and the caramel to give that nice brown + white colour, until you mix it of course. Lets see how this one rates in my book:

Quality: 5/5
This one is top notch. Full stop. You can't go wrong with this drink, the sweetness of the caramel and the caffeine together makes you want to drink this whole thing in one gulp. The only regret is that when it's finished it's leaving me in tears for more.

Caffeine: 4/5
This is a good drink. One of this I can probably stay awake for a day, unfortunately I don't usually drink one of them nowadays, it's probably 2 because I want to spend more time with me drink :D.

Availability: 3/5
It's a Starbucks drink, so you can only get in Starbucks. Um, duh.

Price: 1/5
I think this drink is very expensive, it's about RM15 (plus tax is RM15.70), it's a very steep price for most people and for me as well, would be really glad if it goes lower.

Overall: 4/5
This drink is the drink I get when I go to Starbucks, if my girlfriend's not complaining of the ice and my number of coffee cups are within limits, I'll definately ring this one up. My only issue with it has always been the price(Starbucks price) and availability(Alor Setar please). My god, just by posting this, I'm going to get one right now!

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Illy's Coffee Ice Latte @ San Terri's Cafe at Plaza Damas

Ok, this review is abit confusing, because there's a brand I want to review and the store itself. So I'll talk about the latte I had and I probably will talk about the brand similar to the nescafe earlier.

San Terri's Cafe is a quiet side cafe in Plaza Damas, just one floor below the conglomerate giant, Starbucks. Quite easily overlooked as it doesn't have a cafe dining area, but rather the cakes and food shown at the shop, and tables and chairs are placed on the mall's roads. Their foods and cakes are quite a charm, as I'll recommend it to anyone who passes by that place, but this blog is about coffee so the coffee it goes:

The first thing you notice about this latte, is how stylish it's made, the milk's at the bottom, coffee then the froth. It's probably one of the more interesting ones I've seen...ever. The illy brand was actually recommended by my friend Harvey, and from this review, lets see if he's got my taste spot on:

Quality: 5/5

This coffee is without a doubt, strong enough to get that roasty flavour in your whole mouth, but just nice enough that it doesn't overpower milk or sugar. I seriously don't put a 5 on alot of things, but this thing is a must when you try. I'm really not sure if all illys coffee are this same, probably I'll buy one a box at bring it home. But for San Terri's it's fantastic.

Caffeine: 3/5

I have a rough share of this caffeine and it's not too bad, it probably could last me about half a day, maybe more, however would be great if there was a bigger kick to it.

Availability: 1/5

San Terri's cafe is seriously hard to find I think. I've found one in Plaza Damas, anyone else find any other branches?

Price: 2/5

I believe the price is about RM7.50 if I'm not mistaken which is abit steep.

Overall: 4/5

I believe the quality has set the bar up quite high. Go for Illy's coffee if you can find, but if you can't then give San Terri's latte a try. You seriously won't go wrong with it and a high vote at that.

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Oldtown White Coffee Iced

Alrighty. This is due to my friend's request Mun Wai who wants me to review this coffee from a chain of kopitiams called Old Town.

Remember when my Dad says that he drinks from this kopitiams selling Kopi-Os, well I don't think he's the only one. New chains of souped up Kopitiams (meaning kopitiams with airconds and nice chairs) are rampaging around Kuala Lumpur and even Malaysia, one of the more famous and has the most shops will most probably be Oldtown (Hey if I can find this all the way to Alor Setar it should have alot of shops).

This is the drink that I usually will buy because their airconds are usually not strong and I'm usually a fan of cold drinks until my girlfriends is trying to get me off the ice-chewing addiction. Anyway this drink is a refreshing coffee drink in the middle of the day after a break from work, a good quickie you might say. Lets get on to the review:

Quality: 3/5
Although I initially am not a OldTown coffee fan (because the environment is quite hard to sit in , chairs don't have backrest) I must admit that their coffeee tastes strong and roasted. Add together with the ice and the milk it's almost a good refresher. The only gripe is that if there's more in a cup because a Nescafe Ice in a mamak has more than this and it's cheaper. But other than that it's coffee essence itself is rock solid.

Caffeine: 1/5
This is probably one of the biggest disappointments about this drink. It's probably flavoured coffee because when I drink this I feel awake for about 5 minutes and I'm back to finding another drink. Sorely disappointing.

Availability: 3/5
It's probably all over the place, and also at 7-eleven shelves, but in regards of this drink I can only find in Oldtown shops, so there needs to be more somewhat.

Price: 3/5
I'm quite ok about it's price, because it's RM3.20, however cheaper will be better because it's not alot in a cup.

Overall: 3/5
As I said, this drink is a refreshing drink that you can either drink on the fly or have a sip with your friends (their chairs are still uncomfortable though). It tastes quite well in my opinion. However it's biggest let down on my end it doesn't keep me awake enough, but I still go there because it's a nice pit stop for 5 minutes before I start my adventures for another cup.


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Hollys Coffee, Cappuccino at the Cineleisure

Ah, my apologies for the delay. After all the work, travelling and necessary time consuming expenses I now have enough time for the update. Ok here's one that I've been trying not because of their drink (hint there) but because of their fantasic wireless internet connection (which didn't work when I was testing this drink for this review).

Holly's Coffee is a Korean based coffee shop in The Cineleisure. Parked on next to a very small mac shop (Mac City) this upmarket brand is struggling to fight against the coffee giants. Lets see how their coffee tastes like.

Their cappuccino looks like a standard one where you can make it with an upmarket espresso machine, and there's not alot of things to shout about it. The size that you see is the largest, though nothing much to complain about the cup, there's nothing to compliment it either. Lets get on to the ratings.

Quality:2/5
It just tastes too substandard. Like I previously mentioned, it probably came out from a RM3000-RM5000 machine (My friend has one of this and technically it's cheaper I drink at his place than here). It's foam is the standard one which you place the milk and foam it up, and the coffee beans isn't as good either. Though a nice effort from their part, I believe they have to improve the beans better, give it a better taste or a better roast.

Caffeine:1/5
For some unknown reason, I can't hold myself out longer with this drink than my friend's espresso. It just doesn't give the kick that I need at all.

Availability:2/5
It's not really a 1 because it's at a very well known place (next to Curve) but then again it's only one branch and most probably you will miss it unless someone tells you about it or like me, how I found it was that there were no more power plugs in Starbucks and I had to use Internet connection in a hurry.

Price:2/5
The price of the drink is RM9.00( w/ tax is about RM9.45 ). For the taste that I had, it's seriously quite high price than I anticipated.

Overall: 2/5
I think we should give then a good attempt for trying to break the giants, but the key to having a cafe is to give us better drinks than them, which allows us to switch to your place. Good luck and hopefully their coffee improves somewhat so that I don't go there just for their internet connection.

Complaints, Flames and Weapons of Mass Destruction? Comment! :D


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Starbucks Cappucino

Woo, I'm a roll. Anyway here's a starbucks one for you:



Starbucks. Berjaya owned in Malaysia. It's brand name either gives fear, hatred or utmost devotion (I'm the latter by the way). It's been known to be called Microsoft of Coffees around the world to the point that some goverments in some countries are banning them from their cities. Total domination? Probably, due to their expansion program, you can see a Starbucks in every corner in the United States, here, it's quite alot in Kuala Lumpur.

My Sri Hartamas area has 3 in a 10km distance, Bandar Utama has 3 at a lesser distance, and the shopping complex One Utama has 2. It's prices are crazy for a cup of coffee, but I kinda believe it's worth it. My dad always says "Your coffee that you spend here can give me 10 cups of coffee back in my kopitiam!", but to each its own. Now on to the review!

The Starbucks Cappucino is a standard espresso drink with frothed milk. It's frothiness is not hard, meaning that if you place sugar, it goes in. I'm seriously not sure if this is a good or bad thing because I have one friend who says that it's good if it's not hard and the other who says that it's bad, but the drink has it's promises. Some ratings over here then:

Quality: 4/5
Being that the espresso taste has been very good (review on the espresso later) it's quite good that the milk doesn't overpower the coffee. It's frothiness of the milk is quite alot, which means that 1/5 of the cup is basically foam, which is why there's a minus in the quality. For the price I pay for a cappucino it's quite lousy that I only have 4/5ths of the coffee. Then again that part is golden. For a hot drink, you get the taste of the milk for a brief period of time and then on to the coffee's black roasted taste. Best of both worlds.

Caffeine: 3/5
I've heard friends before saying that after they had this drink, they couldn't sleep for days. Although it's not really worked so much for me, it's a good drink and one cup of this could definately keep me awake for hours (like 6-8 hours roughly), it's just that I've had longer before and this is probably not tops yet.

Availability: 3/5
It's noticably available, and it's quite easy to order, tell barrista that you want a cappucino, if you can't seem to spell it, show him this blog. however I've put the score lower because Alor Setar has no Starbucks. Why man why? It should be on every state.

Price: 1/5
I believe everyone knows why I've placed this score. It's RM9.50 per tall cup (+1RM for each size). Technically if possible, do get the Venti one (largest size), it's probably a best bet if you're already luxurious to order this coffee, at least get the best caffeine shot for your money. Still, it's quite expensive to alot of people's pockets.

Overall: 4/5
I'm actually abit biased on this review simply because I kinda love this drink. It's a good hot Starbucks coffee drink that has milk in it. I usually recommend this to my friends if they're there because it's taste is solid and it's technically cheaper than the latte. However, it's high price and the foam has let me down abit, so I've placed this at a 4.

Complaints, flames, mass destruction? Comment me. :)

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Nescafe

Ok to my first review:

In Malaysia, I believe that everyone of us will know this brand Nescafe (if you don't, I'm sorry but I don't think you're a Malaysian). It's the leading instant coffee brands out there that we just go out to the supermarket and buy a pack and leave it in our kitchen. Probably at our earliest mornings, we have seriously no time to buy a cup and go to work, so all we do it just get hot water, get a spoon of this and almost off we go. Well, here's my review on it.

Quality: 1/5
Once you open a jar of this, the smell first intices you to give it a try, that I must admit, however without anything (milk or sugar) the taste is horrid. It's so bitter that every time you drink it some parts of your hair in some parts of your skin stands out (even to this day, I have hairs on my neck standing). You might need milk to either neutralize the bitterness and sugar if the dark thick taste upsets you. It's one of my biggest peeves about this drink.

Caffeine: 3/5
It's caffeine levels are also so-so. Get a cup of this and it'll make you awake for less than half a day, where you struggle to find for another cup. Which is why when I want to drink a nescafe, I'll get a cup on the double size (as per pic), if not it'll not do me anything other then a nice tasting coffee-flavoured water.

Availability: 5/5
You most likely can find it in any supermarket shelves. If you can't, call me and I'll try to find it for you.

Price: 5/5
I think this is why though that it's probably popular. A jar of this costs roughly about RM20 (which is a rough estimate since it goes up and up and up without me knowing about it). However, it can make use to about 100-150 cups, which I think it's money well spent and a good emergency backup situation where your caffeine levels are at dangerous levels and need a power refill.

Overall: 3/5
I have to give this guy at a mediocore level. It's coffee is probably the worst that I've tasted, however because if you're dying because you can't find caffeine, this is probably your only survival tool, and because it's everywhere, easy to find and easy to buy, you probably have no choice and gets stuck with it.



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My camera - Nokia E90

Alright, I've got the camera, sort of. It's my current phone the Nokia E90. Here are some pics for some sample baseline for the review later, hope it's looking good! :D:

Picture of my TV

Picture of my VAIO (solid machine, been with me for 2 years)

Hope this will look good. My next posts will be about coffee so help me god! Till then ciaoz.

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