Cafe
Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Workshop
The workshop was both exhilarating and tasteful. It was held at the CBTL, Alabang Town Center branch on the 11th of December. The workshop was successful because they procure their goal to enlighten the crowd with enough knowledge about the different process on making a certain beverage- and they did prove to the people that the ingredients the cafe use are indeed authentic and high class. And not only that, but we were all given the change to create our own signature drinks. Spoiler Alert- Andee and I won.
These were all the drinks produces by each who took part of the said event. (credits to @cbtlph on ig for this artistic shot)
Me and my best friend, Andee teamed up with Ate Cams (girl in stripes) She was really nice, patient and helpful, not only to us but also towards the other teams. The other baristas were accommodating too- and knowing about their job made me realize that there's more to it than just mixing and blending our favorite drinks. Being a barista requires precise skills and knowledge. So, kudos to all the baristas out there!!
Before we were told to create our own beverages- We were first taught about the different kinds of coffee and tea and how well different it is to make each kind of beverages from the said cafe.
These are the 'capsules' I've mentioned above we were taught that each color represents a certain flavor. Black for brewed espressos such as Intenso Espresso and Premium Decaf Espresso. Silver for teas like Moroccan Mint Tea or Chaii Tea. And of course Brown is for brewed- coffee. The machine works automatically. I say: it is real easy to operate the machines since it only involves buttons and pressing. Insert your capsule inside the machine, click the desired amount of shot needed and viola! you have your brewed beverage.
You can actually buy these capsules from any CBTL branches. (Check out all other capsules HERE)
Do you know that that it only takes 10 seconds before an espresso becomes a 'bad shot'? This is why baristas works quick when mixing up your espressos, we wouldn't want our espresso go to waste, right?
Anyways.. when we were creating our signature beverage and we had few conflicts upon making it since it was really our first time in doing this. Good thing we have help on our side.
So at first we wanted to make a peppermint coffee drink with a little vanilla. Don't get us wrong because it tasted good, but that was it. It has nothing special about it. 4 made up beverages and 23 cbtl paper cups later; the host announced that time is up and we don't even have the right drink to submit.
We were like "Screw it" Andee is a coffee enthusiast, while I'm a tea lover myself- so quickly mixed up both home brewed coffee and chaii tea to have a balanced taste, added almond milk and vanilla for a little twist and presto! Yes, we did it for like 5 minutes and submitted the drink without even having a final taste.
We were so shocked when we were announced as winners, we kept laughing because it was totally unexpected. Who would have thought that the product of our indecisiveness and procrastination can result to something award worthy?
I went up front for the team to explain our the contains of our signature drink. We call it "The Ultimate Crammers Drink" hence the name, we were cramming like hell while creating it. You see- it doesn't really look appealing compared to all other drink entrees (see top photo for reference) but I guess it's all about the taste and flavor.
The best part is- we get to bond over this workshop. We had real fun and we owe it to CBTL.
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