Refreshing cranberry and pomegranite juice @ Little mermaid bakery

The drinks cabinet at the bakery were very attractive and a colourful display of fruit juices, the bottle itself was very attractive and looked like a clear cocktail shaker.

I chose the Cranberry with pomegranite and blueberry juice.
Very clear and ruby red in colour, no residue or fruit pulp in it.
It was not too sour or too sweet, but very appetising, the cranberry gives it the sour notes, and the blueberry and pomegranite gives it the sweetness.

The best thing about it, is that it dosnt taste artificial, all the sweetness and sourness is natrual, and there is no after taste.

green tea with passionfruit, and Luscious Lychee @ Jungle juice

Despite the bad reviews, I didn’t feel the drinks were that bad at all, all the drinks came with a frothy top.

On a sunny day, the window side of the café can be a scorcher, so sat on the other end.

Ordered green tea with passionfruit, and Luscious Lychee a mix of lychee, cranberry and grapefruit.

The green tea, was room temperature as the waitor stated, not ice-cold, but just normal cold, and it was not syrupy sweet which was good, with a light taste of passionfruit, the tea’s here are not like the ones from the Taiwanese shops, they are much lighter and delicate.

As for the lychee, I was expecting the lychee to be fragrant with a syrupy taste, but it was not.
On the first sip, it was rather sour, then I could tastes the tones of grapefruit, then the cranberry, and then a faint taste of lychee. I though more lychee should have been added because it is called Luscious lychee, hence you would think it tastes mainly of lychee.

It would be good if they had other branches in Hong Kong, the juice selection is quite good, and they also have the soy selection.

Lovely fruit tea @ share tea

There are so many Taiwanese drink shops available, its so hard to choose, luckily this was a good choice.

I chose the fruit tea, which contained orange juice, passionfruit, apple, and jasmine.

The fruit tea here is different to the other fruit teas from Taiwanese joints, the taste heavily on juice with Jasmine essence.

It was like drinking watered orange juiced without the sourness, with a strong hint of jasmine essense, then after tones of passionfruit. You can actually see the orange pulp in it too.

I really liked it, and hope that there will be a HK branch soon, it seems healthy too as there is real juice in it.
The cup used for the drink was a sturdy plastic cup with a cute handle to hold it.

Pomegranite juice without the seeds @ Korea Well being house

KOREA Well-Being HOUSE is a very unique beverage joint, nearly all the joints are either local shops selling juices or Taiwanese style beverages.
The Korean variety in Hong Kong isn’t as popular as Japanese, currently available is the Korean BBQ, and then the more local Korean food at the Korean alleyway in Kimberly Street, TST.
After the popularity in Korean TV shows, we started seeing Korean cosmetics and skincare appearing in the market, eg Skinfood and Missha, Korean confectionery, chocolates and sweets packaged in cute boxes.
Now finally a drinks house in Wan Chai.

Timber lodge house/garden shed design

 

When I walked past it, it wasn’t as outstanding as the Taiwanese beverage shops, it was earthy, looking like a timber lodge house.
There was not a lot of lighting for the exterior or the shop or any fancy signs, when I stepped inside, I wasn’t quite sure what they were selling, the interior and drinks list were not that apparent.

Hurom slow juicer

 

On the left on the counter, I saw a juicer with samples of juice for people to try, so I couldn’t work out if they were selling juicers or drinks mixtures for people to make at home.
I looked at the drinks list and leaflet again and managed to see a cramped list with many drinks on it.
The A4 leaflet was more like a product list/beauty services leaflet than a drinks list.
The samples of drinks were tempting to try, but there was nothing covering them, they were exposed to the busy traffic, especially the smelly buses that past frequently.
For improvements, I think they should be placed at the counter, and pour them out as needed.
After looking at the drinks list, the variety was quite impressive. The staff told me that all the juices were made from fresh fruit bought daily from the supermarket.
Anyway, fruit juices are a health item, they claim to be healthier from the rest, especially the juices are not diluted or sugared and the JUICER they have is different from the ones on the market.
The Juicer employed is a HUROM SLOW JUICER, a slow-geared grinding mechanism that protects the vegetables/fruit from oxidation heat (from friction) which reduces nutrient breakdown.
Although it is called a slow juicer, the rate of juice produced is actually quicker than a conventional juicer.
It is interesting to watch it in action against a normal juicer, the video can be watched at the HUROM juicer site.
http://www.hurom-slowjuicer.com/eng/juice-extractor.html

Pomegranate juice

 

PoMeGrAnAtE jUiCe
The pomegranate juice was the most impressive, especially the structure of the pomegranate, the tiny seeds are hard to juice in a juicer.
This is probably why not a lot of places offer it, I was amazed because it was actually REAL JUICE, not watered down juice!!!!!!!!
Before I ordered it, I assumed it would probably be made from Pomegranate cordial diluted with water with a few seeds of pomegranate added into the drink.
The Pomegranate juice was just brilliant, it like eating a real pomegranate without the trouble of disposing the seeds. The taste is LITERALLY like a real pomegranate, with slight bitterness from the membranes found in the Pomegranate, making the taste complete.
Colour: The colour of the juice was not as ruby as the fruit seeds, it more pinkish like grapefruit.

yAm MiLk
Impressed by the first drink, I tried the YAM MILK with the knowledge it would be made from REAL FRESH YAM and not the powdered flavouring used in Taiwanese drinks.
Unfortunately, there is no picture for this drink, but it had a frothy layer of foam on top.
The taste was natural, with thick starchy residue of YAM in the liquid, it’s a bit like drinking the residue of the Chinese chestnut soup.
The YAM taste was a bit like cooked YAM, rather than the fragrant dessert type, and there were occasional hints of banana peel. I think the banana taste is the result of mixing fresh yam and milk together, apart from YAM milk, they also had YAM soymilk, which is also probably good too, but as it was my first time trying it, I didn’t want to have the soymilk overpowering the YAM.
Colour: the colour of this was natrual light brown, not purple, it is slightly lighter than the powerdered grains drink shown on the photo.

powdered grains drink

 

PoWdErEd GrAiNs DrInK
Last but not least I also ordered the drink made from powdered mixed grains, this was slightly different to what I was expecting, it wasn’t milky or viscous like the usual health smoothies.
It was slushy with bits of grounded grains in it, the taste was a little different, it tasted like those Chinese peanut crunchy biscuits and the Chinese “foh ma yan” drink made from Cannabis seeds.
The interesting fact is, Cannabis seeds and poppy seeds are edible!! Both made from drug plants!!
On their drinks list they offer over 30 different drinks, with the relevant health benefits.
The main drinks are split into milks, juices and soymilks. The number is a bit weird though on the leaflet it jumps from 3 to 21, so maybe the missing drinks are native Korean items that cant be found here.

drinks list with funny numbering

 

The unique drinks worth trying are definitely Pomegranate, Peach, Grape and Kiwi especially when its nearly 100% juice and not watered down!~!
Although I think some drinks are slightly weird, basically the juices and milk, eg apple soy milk, tomato milk, watermelon milk etc!!
Drinks available: yam milk, black sesame milk, mixed grain powder drink, melon juice, pear juice, peach juice, apple juice, pomegranate juice, orange juice, grape juice, kiwi juice, watermelon juice, tomato juice, tomato milk, grapefruit juice, mango juice, apple-kiwi juice, tomato-watermelon juice, pear-apple juice, carrot-apple-tomato juice, pear-peach milk, melon soymilk, pear soymilk, peach soymilk, apple soymilk, pomegranate soymilk, orange soymilk, grape soymilk, kiwi soymilk, watermelon soymilk, tomato soymilk.

Kiwi juice @ Pacific coffee

I really like Pacific coffee, but their food never changes, it is always the same stuff or rotated every few months.

I got the kiwi juice, but it was syrupy and diluted, yet it still managed to be thick.

The sandwich was ok, the bacon managed to keep crisp inside.

Seriously too cute and sweet for health @ Juicy Bear

This juice bar used to be some Taiwanese beverage joint.

Now it is brightly decorated with a display of fresh fruits surrounding the counter and staff cutting the fruit.

 

The juice bar has a cute bear paw logo with a polar bear inside the paw.

 

The logo and font stands out as it has used blue and orange which are complementary colours on the colour wheel.

On the menu it offers mostly juice, however they also have fruit vinegars and sorbets too.
I felt like a detox so ordered juice.
I thought the fruits were going to be freshly cut and juiced but they already had pre-cut ones in the fridge to save time.
One of the fruits in this juice mixture was HAMI-MELON and while they were preparing to put other fruits in the blender I saw them pour syrup in the blender!!!
Its meant to be a juice bar for the health conscious and they put syrup in the fruit juice!
This is the first juice bar that I have come accross that adds syrup.
HAMI-MELON is super sweet itself that it dosnt need any more syrup.
The staff at the juice bar claimed that all girls liked to have syrup added.
As well as syrup, water and ice were also added.

I just felt that this juice bar defeated its purpose of being healthy by adding syrup!
Just like a restaurant claiming to be MSG free and adding twice as much salt.