Category: Drinks

Categories
Drinks Groceries

Gaza Cola Sugar Free and Salaam Cola No Sugar – Grocery Review

I saw Gaza Cola being sold at Cairo Takeaway recently, and rather than spend $5 on a single can, decided to maybe buy a case.

I ended up buying a slab of Gaza Cola sugar free and compared it to the memories of some Salaam Cola No Sugar that I had lying around as well as your average can of Diet Coke.

A direct head-to-head comparison was not performed, as the Salaam Cola, which I had first been introduced to by a member of the trade union movement, had somehow deflated in my pantry, and I was not comfortable drinking it.

In comparison to the Salaam Cola, the Gaza Cola was a bit lighter almost as if echoing the comparison between Diet Coke and Coke No Sugar. The bubbles seemed to be a little bit larger on the tongue and the taste was similarly less sharp almost in keeping with the different colours here.

Whilst I might enjoy a Salaam Cola No Sugar on occasion (honestly quite good with a squeeze of lime), I still think that Diet Coke is the most superior non-sugared diet cola for a sugarfree cokehead.

The Gaza Cola Sugar Free was really not that good, and now I have like 20 more of them to go and nowhere to really put them. (I no longer work in Western Sydney).

Maybe I should have just spent the $5 on a single Gaza Cola rather than $39.60 on a 24 pack case if I didn’t know if I’d like them.

Oh well, the more you know.

Gaza Cola Sugar Free
8437021593297

Salaam Cola No Sugar
5070003068135


Categories
Drinks Japanese

Ogu Ogu – Burwood NSW Restaurant Review

This medium muscat grape drink with lychee ($10.50) was actually very yummy, but was it worth 15 minutes of my life spent at work to pay for it, and then another 5 minutes standing around waiting for it to be made?

Probably not.

I do love muscat grape though – the kasugai premium grape jelly beans are out of this world.

Ogu Ogu
127-133 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134

(tagged as bubble tea because even though it’s not bubble tea, that’s the general vibe of it)

Categories
Chinese Drinks

Machi Machi – Burwood NSW Restaurant Review

This is not really a restaurant, and this is not really a review. It is more of a description of a vibe and a general sense of feeling that I get when I drink a small $9 flask of bubble tea.

I don’t think there’s really any argument about the quality of these drinks. They are tasty, they are inventive, and they actually have a number of elements not found elsewhere. The Grapefruit Green Tea Slush with Fruit Jelly ($8.50) is a good example of this, where these guys experimenting with new ideas, for example putting the jelly at the bottom of the cup and not throughout it, actually changes the experience. It tastes pretty good, but again I’m reminded that we just spent $8.50 on a bubble tea.

This Black Milk Tea with Panna Cotta ($9) was also actually very good. Again a daring move from the mochi mochi team putting panna cotta at the bottom of the drink. Very tasty, and I think better than the option from Xing Fu Tang which incorporates panna cotta as a separate element. The price element comes out again though, even more in this case. One of the other things about these teas is that you’re actually not getting a large 700-800mL cup like you would normally. These are quite compact, slim, hip-flask like situations, so I think ultimately you’re paying around 3x the price for what you would pay for a standard milk tea a couple of years ago.

Whilst bubble tea has always been a discretionary spend Machi Machi certainly takes the idea of it as a luxury good to the next level. I don’t think your average public selective school student or university student really has access to buying and drinking these all the time, but there’s always the international student market.

UPDATE JANUARY 2023

We found ourselves back at Machi Machi, this time in Hurstville, about 14 months on for a $9.50 Grapefruit Mango Cream Smoothie with Kanten Jelly. It actually did taste very good, but looked nothing like the picture, and again I’m left wondering to myself – who is the target market for this product? Because it sure isn’t us.

machi machi Burwood
5/127-133 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134

Categories
Chinese Drinks

Xing Fu Tang (幸福堂) – George St Sydney CBD NSW Bubble Tea Review

If you plug Xing Fu Tang (幸福堂) into Google Translate it will tell you that the first two characters – 幸福 – means happy, and the last character – 堂 – means hall. While technically correct, that’s not the full gist of “幸福”.

幸福 (Xing Fu), to my understanding, is more than just a feeling of happiness. It is a feeling of bliss, of comfort, something than just 快乐.

While a nice thought, my experience at Xing Fu Tang was not actually very 幸福. I got a honey lemon tea with additional rabbit panna cotta on top. It was strange that I didn’t realise it at the time, but the panna cotta sat on top of a plastic film, and was not direct contact with the drink. The drink itself was way too sweet, with no option to select the amount of sugar. While honey is obviously sweet, I did not expect it to be just this sweet.

I just didn’t really like it. I’m sure the drinks where you can specify your sugar load would be better, but I just don’t think I’d ever come back.

Xing Fu Tang (幸福堂)
181/569 George St, Sydney NSW 2000
0401 411 040

Categories
Chinese Drinks

Xiaomi’s Yoghurt – Kingsford NSW Bubble Tea Review

Xiaomi means “small rice” in Mandarin, a name perhaps more fitting for this purple rice yoghurt specialty store than the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer (on whose product all of the photos on this blog have been taken).

Xiaomi Yoghurt’s restrictive opening times have meant that despite the many many times we have eaten out in Kingsford it has been very rare for us to see it open. I took the opportunity one evening to grab a mango tea yoghurt ($8) for myself and some purple rice yoghurts for my partner (4 for $20) and her friends and colleagues in the Prince of Wales intensive care unit.

I really enjoyed the mango tea yoghurt. It had heaps of thick fresh mango at the bottom, with a good mix of yoghurt. I particularly enjoyed the strong tea flavour in one layer of the drink. My only regret is that I drank it through the straw whilst driving in my car, and thus I wasn’t able to appreciate all of the layered complexities present in the drink.

My partner liked the purple tea yoghurt. She’s somewhat of a connoisseur, and found it no worse than its competitors but at a better price.

4/5

Xiaomi’s Yoghurt
Shop 1/450 Anzac Parade, Kingsford NSW 2032
+61 405 980 868