Food Tasting: Cravings' Sweets and Australia's Di Bella Coffee

Every morning, I start the day by having a cup of coffee. The same goes for most members of my family. We need that fresh cup of goodness to motivate us to bring ourselves out of bed. We usually drink the 3-in-1 coffee mixes though because we either don’t have much time for brewing or we’ve already ran out of ground coffee beans to brew. 

Di Bella Coffee

So it was a privilege to be able to try Di Bella Coffee during its launch at Epicurious in Shangri-La Mall the other day. When I first entered the venue, I was immediately enticed by the wide variety of desserts prepared by the Cravings Group displayed on buffet tables. The fragrance of those sweets along with the aroma of fresh brewed coffee were enough to make my stomach growl. 

But before the food and coffee pairing began, Di Bella founder Philip Di Bella shared his company’s story and his journey on finding the perfect cup of delicious coffee. Philip is a coffee entrepreneur who is passionate in his work. Known as Australia’s “Coffee King”, he inspires others by sharing his own experiences and finding ways to help coffee farmers and Australia’s coffee industry. 

Philip Di Bella

When it was time to give the food, desserts, and coffee a go, I found it hard to start because there were so many to to choose from! 

what to choose?!

Philip instructed us to drink coffee without the sugar, suggesting to drink it along with our desserts. I tried this technique and I was surprised that the blend of sugarless coffee and dessert was really good! 

with my mom and dad

It was exquisite to taste the bitterness of the coffee while the dessert maintained its sweetness at the same time. I was glad to have learned such an impressive style from an entrepreneur of coffee himself. It was a really fun experience to have tried a new combination in drinking coffee and sweets.

Father and Son Bonding at the Robinsons Fit & Fun Wellness Buddy Run

My dad is a running enthusiast who is actually a barefoot runner. He regularly joins many of the fun runs conducted in the Philippines. You can read his blog posts about running in Trails Unlimited.

This past weekend, the two of us joined thousands of other runners as Robinsons Supermarket celebrated its 7th Fit & Fun Wellness Buddy Run at the Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in Taguig. The activity encourages everybody to participate and promote health and wellness of the body as well to stay in shape. This time around though, they required that you and a buddy participate so you can both start and finish the race as a pair. Since I also enjoy running, my Dad encouraged me to join him in the 10k category.

It was my second time running 10k in an actual race. Unfortunately, since school has already started last month, I didn't have enough time to train for this particular run. Right before gun start, my first thoughts was that it was going to be a tough race for me. 

I was right. After running the first 3k, as we were running uphill at the Kalayaan Bridge, the exertion took a toll on my legs because I wasn’t accustomed to running on an upward slope. At 5k, the pain started to take over. 

After crossing the U-turn checkpoint, my legs couldn’t bear it anymore so I started walking. Even though I haven’t had any problems enduring my cardio, the pain in my legs kept me from running. Regardless, I still decided to sprint my way out of the pain just to cover the whole 10k distance. It took a while but my Dad and I finished the race together. It was a tough race for a beginner like me and  I realized that I really need more training in order for me to overcome hurdles like this one in future runs.

* Photos courtesy of RARMartinez Fotorun

My Oishi O'Wow Experience

It was a funtastic day at the Oishi O’Wow event yesterday at W Tower's Skye Lounge in Bonifacio Global City. Not only did I meet celebrities, received free Oishi products, and played exciting games; my team also won the Oishi O’Wow competition with the help of our very enthusiastic team leader, Phil Younghusband!

We were eating delicious food from the buffet while enjoying the open-air at the rooftop venue when suddenly Phil and James Younghusband arrived and sat across us at at our table. My mom asked the two football players if I could have a picture taken with them and they said yes. They are very nice and accommodating. 

After several minutes, more celebrities arrived wearing colored Oishi shirts like Ramon Bautista who wore Green, Slater Young who wore Yellow, and Elmo Magalona who wore Red. Together, they form the Oishi O’Wow team. Their newest member arrived last and it was no other than Daniel Padilla.

After lunch, event hosts RJ Ledesma and DJ Suzy came up on stage and showed us the famous “Kaleidescope World” music video by Mr. Francis Magalona that has been edited to include his son Elmo. We also watched several cool videos of Team O that showed them surprising and delighting people. 

For instance, Kuya Ramon went to a school with Oishi products stuck on his clothes. Then there was that video of Team O riding a jeepney and hiding their faces at first from their fellow passengers. When they revealed who they are, each ride ended up with happy screaming passengers.

After the video presentations, the competition started where each team has to go through several Oishi booths. Everyone needed to complete the whole course and had to finish each obstacle with a team picture in order to win. 

We were the yellow team and we were fortunate to have a strong and energetic team captain. Once the hosts gave the go signal, Phil was off and running, helping us with all the tasks needed. We finished obstacle by obstacle really fast and took pictures as a team in each one. 

When we reached the last challenge, we had to spell the old Oishi brand name using giant Scrabble tiles. Luckily, the answer, which was "Liwayway", was in our Oishi passport.

When all teams were able to complete the whole course, the hosts started announcing the winners for each category. After they have been announcing several teams already, we became worried why our team wasn't being called and thought we lost. But just when we thought it was over, RJ then announced the grand prize winners which was no other than Team Yellow! 

Of course we all shouted with joy because we couldn't believe we were really the fastest team! Too bad Phil was no longer around (they have a game that afternoon) when we received our prizes on stage from Daniel Padilla. But we sure were thankful for his presence and for being such a great team leader. 

Aside from enjoying all the activities, my mom, dad, and I, got to take home a lot of Oishi products. It was truly an Oishi O’Wow day being with my family and team!

If you want to have a chance to also meet some of the members of Team O, join Oishi's contest! Just think of an O'Wow moment you want Oishi to surprise people with and you'll get to see for yourself when they execute that! 

Have an O'Wow day everyone!

*To see more photos taken during the event, please click here and here.