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
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
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
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.
