I'm posting this a little late because I kind of kept forgetting to, and because my cousin reminded me that the next time we visit our grandmother again, we definitely need to take the weird coffee again.
So over the holy week holidays here, some family from my mom's side gathered at the family house in quezon. That's still in metro manila but is in the border of the province so it basically has a really provincial vibe already. Not much establishments are around and everything near our house is a little overpriced because the market is an hour away from our house.
So imagine my surprise when I found this really cute cafe just 15 minutes away from my grandmother's house! Yes, a 15 minute walk. And we all regularly go on walk too. This was probably the only cafe in the area and what's more impressive was that the beans they used were basically home grown. They weren't people from there, they were from the province already but they had relatives that lived there and they decided to open up a business in the area.
The place was called kubo kopi! For obvious reasons since the cafe was in a nipa hut. Something we call "bahay kubo" here. It's one of the earliest forms of housing here and is still used in the provinces and as a sort of luxury for some rich people because sleeping in a nipa hut is just so relaxing and comforting plus the breeze just naturally flows into the hut so you don't even need a fan when living or sleeping in a hut like this.
Anyways, The ambiance adn the bean source weren't the only things impressive about this little cafe. Everything was quite interesting.
The menu choice, for example. They have... some explicit items on their menu that they sometimes hide. They call it their secret menu that they showed me and my cousins when we visited. If you could notice the menu board that had "Kratom coffee" And that was an interesting one because it contained CBD oil from sativa. So the hit really wasn't that strong. Me and my guy cousin tried it XD
We also found one that had an aphrodisiac and the last time I saw that kind of coffee was when I was still an intern in the local FDA laboratory and my supervisor accidentally drank it... and I witnessed a lot of action between her and her husband as soon as he came to pick her up after an "emergency call" from her. So I know aphrodisiac in coffeee can be quite powerful so maybe I'll give this a shot when I find myself a boyfriend XD
On a side note: The CBD coffee tasted awesome! And the high from the CBD oil just made us giggly as heck, nothing more, nothing less. We told them we've never tried CBD before so they gave us a mild dose. I don't understand why this oil is so controversial when it feels just soooo relaxing.
We all fell in love with the chill ambience there though. And I loved that they kept aquatic plants and actually put fishes in there and they really took good care of the beta fishes in those water tanks! It was so cute. It gave lonely guests something to look at aside from their phones. The owner said the main point of the fishes was to become a distraction from phones because fishes are just so relaxing and I have to agree with her.
We also found this freedom boad on one wall of the cafe and we all left a little something to leave our mark XD
There's my attempt at doing a 5 minute quick sketch because there was only one pen and my cousins and sisters were pressuring me to finish fast, but I keep telling them they can't rush art. either way, I finished in 5 minutes ad put my note at the center so people can see that I see them XD
When our orders came, the owner offered to let us play with the games they had in the cafe and they lent us this sungka board. She even taught us how to play since none of us knew how to.
Sungka is actually a traditional game here in my country where you take turns filling shells in the holes. the biggest holes are considered your bases and the goal is to empty all the holes and get as many shells into your bases. And although she called it a game that doesn't require you to think... well.. we ended up establishing a few strategies.
She called it a battle of the brainless and the high XD
Because again, sungka was literally a game created to pass time, not a game that really requires one to think XD
I do think she had a blast watching us get high while playing.
So that was basically how we spent a few days at my grandmother's hhouse. I think we came back 2 more times after that first visit and we tried the other things on their menu. Everything was all suoer good and very fresh since the ingredients they mostly used was from their farm in bulacan, so it was definitely a great weekend experience!
How was your weekend experinece? This was mine w