"Venti, please."

So far, this is my favorite non-caffeine drink when I want to hang out in a coffee shop, that is, Starbucks coffee shop :-)

I was first introduced to it a few years ago by Jojo A., a pretty friend of mine. We would meet up quite often then and she would often treat me with this drink (sometimes with the yummy banana bread slice). At first taste, I thought it was nasty. Green tea with soy milk?! Ewww! Good thing she would just order the small cup for me then. Don't get me wrong, I'm not just a coffee-addict. I also love green tea (and earl grey and jasmine teas) but only with honey or a few drops of sugar syrup, but I haven't imagined I'd come to love this one. Its milky soya taste blends well with the quite distinct flavor of green tea. A bit more of the seaweed taste for me, which I really love since I love seaweeds, too. After a few tries, I started to order this drink by myself, and yes even without Jojo around. From the short-sized cup, I immediately moved to the Venti size, the big and tall cup I thought I couldn't finish drinking in one day! It's good that I found out right away that the sizes don't matter, short, tall or venti, they cost the same. It's just like getting a hot green tea, but with soy milk instead of water.

Here's how to order it:

You: "One hot soy green tea, please."
Barrista: "Latte?"
You: "Nope, just the hot green tea, the one with two bags of green teas, then soy milk instead of water."
Barrista: "Oh okay. That would be P125 ma'am; we charge P20 for the soy milk. What size would that be?"
You: " Venti, please. "