I was first introduced to O.N.E Coconut water at my bikrams yoga class. It was a drink highly recommended by all the yoga instructors to keep you hydrated during and after the class. Ever since I bought my first O.N.E Coconut water juice box, I was hooked.

It offers 15 times the amount of potassium as most sports drinks with less sugar and less calories. I have since replaced all my sports drinks with O.N.E whenever I can. The thing about O.N.E is that it’s so hard to get a hold of. You can order them on amazon.com and the only grocery store that I know sells them for sure is Whole Foods.

I’ve tried a number of coconut water from different brands, such as Zico Coconut water, I found O.N.E tastes the best.

There are different flavors for O.N.E coconut water, but I’ve always stuck with the original. I love coconut too much to try other things.

If you love coconut, you’ll love this drink. If not, it’s not as bad as you think it’d taste.

I’m not a very big milk drinker. Actually, I pretty much never drink milk. I used to drink 2% milk growing up, and as an adult in my mid-20′s, I swtiched to skim, but hardly ever drink it. The marketing team over at Earth’s Own sent me a few vouchers and coupons to try their Almond Fresh milk, and also the Ryza milk. I was able to find Almond Fresh milk in the same milk section at my local Safeway in 3 flavours – Plain, Vanilla, and Chocolate. This time I opted for Vanilla. It’s a lot more expensive than regular milk as it was $4.99 for a 1.89L carton. Regular milk is like $3.50 – $4 for a gallon usually (double the amount).

The first thing that caught my eye was the expiry date – I bought it on July 16, and it said best before Aug 21. That’s quite a long time given that regular milk usually goes bad in about 2 weeks of purchase. That being said, they do have a note that it’s best to consume the milk within 7-10 days of opening.

Pouring it out, I noticed that it did have a slightly tanner colour than regular milk. The milk was very light, kind of like skim milk, along with the milky flavour. However, being that it was vanilla flavoured I could definitely taste the vanilla. Didn’t taste much almond flavour though. The more cups I drank throughout the week I could taste more and more almond flavour, mostly in the after taste. I think it’s because I started shaking the carton before I drank it.

Here’s some of the nutritional value:

Low Fat & Cholesterol Free:
Almonds can lower cholesterol as part of a diet low in saturated fat.

Excellent Source of Calcium and Vitamin D:
Almonds play an essential role in bone health.

Source of Vitamin E:
Almonds are one of the leading food sources of vitamin E, which supports immunity and healthy skin.

Antioxidants
The vitamin E found in almonds (alpha-tocophenol) is the most easily absorbed antioxidant known. It protects cells from oxidation by removing free radicals, which contribute to aging.

My friend used some sort of Almond Milk with his Cafe Brazil Whey Protein Isolate and said it was amazing. Unfortunately my whey expired so I can’t try it out. Will trying this get me to start drinking more milk? I don’t think so, but with with my other voucher I’ll try the chocolate milk. Also note, I don’t think I’ve ever tried soy milk, so I think I should give that a try first to see which dairy alternative tastes the best.

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A few months ago we received 2 cans of Nabob Coffee from BzzAgent. We received a medium roast Breakfast Blend coffee, and a dark roast Full City Dark coffee.

I’m not a super heavy coffee drinker, but I do need my 1 cup a day. I started with the Breakfast Blend, my first sip, was not too bad. As I drank more, I found the coffee to be pretty weak and light, it wasn’t very aromatic either.

The Full City Dark was a little bit stronger, but still not as rich as an Americano from a local coffee shop. It wasn’t over roasted, and it didn’t taste burnt. We tried to make the coffee stronger by adding a bit more coffee when making it, it kind of worked, but it also had a noticeable acidic taste.

I thought the coffee was very very average tasting, and that’s kind of expected. Just like most pre-ground coffees, it is a cheaper alternative than getting espresso shots.

It’s definitely not the best coffee, but if I had absolutely no other choices, I’d still drink it. If you are a regular espresso coffee drinker and are used to dark roast coffees, you probably would not enjoy this a lot.

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Nabob Coffee

My friend asked if I’ve ever had a screamer, and I said nope. He said I have to try it because it’s so good! So after this VW GTI meeting today, he brought me over to Danny’s Market on Garden City and Francis in Richmond. I’ve actually never been to this part of Garden City, but it wasn’t too hard to get to.

We pulled up to a corner store which was next to an atheltic club which looked kind of dinky. The store also had some pizza and hotdogs. But what they are famous for are their screamers! A drink layered with some ice cream and then any slurpee flavour you want! They even have a poster that says it’s a “Soul Refresher” and most importantly the “Best Drink on Earth!” You can mix your soft serve ice cream with any of their slurpee flavours. We ordered just a small Screamer with Root Beer, and they are about $2.90 or so. They had lots of other flavours, as another lady wanted to put in a big order – and some had blueberry, and even capuccino!

So what did it taste like. Well first off, they need bigger straws, which they had before says my friend. The straws were for slurpees though, because they had a bit of a spoon on the end. My first sip was mostly slurpee, as I didn’t mix it up properly yet, and the ice cream was still thick. You really need to mix it up well before it starts tasting good. It takes quite a bit of mixing to get it into a homogenous mixture, but when it does, that’s when it gets really good. When you get a ice cream and root beer slurpee with each sip. It tasted like a root beer float. It was pretty refreshing and really cold. Would be good on a really hot summer day. It’s not the best drink ever though, gimme some good alcohol anyday haha..

I wonder how much sugar this has…I just ordered a small after dinner, but they also have larger sizes, and even more layering. I don’t know if I’d want to drink that. It would definitely cause many brain freezes.

Try it out! If Root Beer is not your thing, they have lots of slurpee flavours. And sell samosa’s and pizzas and other hot food.

Danny’s Market
9040 Francis Rd.
Richmond, BC

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One of the things I look forward to the most when I go to Bikram yoga was drinking a box of coconut water after the 90 minute work out. My bikram yoga class usually sells O.N.E coconut water, and I’ve always loved it. It has been a while since I did a yoga class, so I was looking extra forward to it. But to my disappointment, they stopped selling O.N.E and replaced that with Zico Coconut Water.

The packaging of Zico is identical to O.N.E, just with different graphics, and without a straw. It has almost identical nutrition values as O.N.E but it doesn’t taste as good as O.N.E. While it was still pretty yummy, it was less sweet, and tasted more watery. I still prefer O.N.E better.

One box of coconut water has only 60 calories, 15 carbs, it has tons of potassium, and electrolytes, it’s an excellent drink to get before or during a hard work out. And it is excellent at re-hydrating you after the work out too. Served iced cold, so delicious.

I’ve been searching for coconut water in local stores but I haven’t had any luck yet. I think I’d have to settle to buy them online. Even with that option, I’d still go with O.N.E coconut water (review coming when I get my hands on one).

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Zico Coconut Water
http://www.zico.com/

This review is based on their bubble teas only!

I think it’s pretty hard to find a cup of bad bubble tea in metro Vancouver nowadays. I’ve been going to Bubble World for a few years now, and they’ve always been one of the better ones since the beginning.

This time my friend and I got a Taro Slush and a Taro Milk Tea with Pearls. I got them for take out because I never liked eating in Bubble World (they also serve Taiwanese food). Then blender is always going off in the restaurant, not a very pleasant environment to eat in. So I really recommend take outs from here.

The Taro Slush was good as usual. It was blended perfectly, no ice chunks in there. The taro flavor was there, and it wasn’t too sweet. I sometimes find they over cook their pearls, but my friend said the pearls were good that night in his Pearl Milk Tea. This is the one part where they are not consistent with, but the drink itself wise is always pretty consistent.

This is a place to consider if you are craving for a bubble tea.

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Bubble World
137-10090 152 Street
Surrey, BC V3R
(604) 585-3399