So we didn't go home yet since we were a little hungry. We decided to try the Pho Hoa place in Eastwood City for some late night dinner. I ordered the Noodle Soup with Seafood (which the real name escapes me right now) but the highlight of my trip their was their Vietnamese Coffee.

That was the first time I tasted Vietnamese Coffee. The presentation and the ingredients really intrigued me and I couldn't wait to try it. In the picture above, the metal canister of some sort was where the coffee drippings were coming from and you could refill this with hot water just like what you do with a tea bag. It would drip in a mug with ice and condensed milk (the one at the bottom), which made the coffee a little sweet. I was given an extra mug to pour my finished product as I prepared making another cup in the other mug. Of course the second one, didn't taste as strong but it was all good.

This really was a great coffee experience as I really enjoyed it and had fun modifying my drink even if it got a little messy with the pouring of coffee from one mug to another. The service was excellent as I asked for extra condensed milk for my 2nd cup of coffee and they gave me a generous portion.

For everyone looking for some coffee fun in making coffee go ahead and try making a Vietnamese Coffee Cup for yourself. You will enjoy it and will look to going back there. We all had fun night and it was time to go home...Free CBTL Tea Latte..Free Daughtry Concert Tickets and Vietnamese Coffee (Not Free)..Yup! It was really time to go to home...

(Yup! The pictures were pretty bad)

Daughtry Live in Manila

One of the stops of the band Daughtry here in Asia was Manila where they performed at the Eastwood City last July 29,2008. The songs were great, the band played really well, Chris Daughtry sang like he should have won that American Idol in 2006. He sounded really good that for me it was almost like the one in the recording studio. But the greatest part of this whole concert was that we got to see the show for free. Yes FREE!

We really enjoyed the concert as the band played most of the songs in their album like "It's Not Over," which was the eight most played song across all formats on U.S. radio in 2007. They also played "Over You," which is my favorite song of the album since it really shows the range of Chris Daughtry's voice even if he is a rocker. I don't know but in my vocabulary, rockers don't have that much range unless you consider the shouting "range" or more of the same word except for the N - RAGE. Another song they played that was included in the Billboard Charts was "Feels Like Tonight." Of course, the last song (if it weren't for "More, More, More" chants) was "Home." This makes you wonder did they really want to go home already?

Why? Yes, the crowd was into it and they loved the band but for a small place with a capacity of not more than 2000 people, it wasn't full (Don't worry the recent fight of Pacquiao and Diaz also wasn't full also). Where I stayed, I could have easily moved 5 rows forward without anybody in my way. Yup, literally in my way..it just wasn't that crowded.

Despite not having a capacity crowd, I still hope the Daughtry band felt some Filipino love during the concert since those who watched were really into it and they (ok, WE) were singing along. We would love to have them back here in the Philippines. I hope next time they come here, they would have had launched their second album so more people could be into it and it could be held in the Araneta Coliseum. Another thing, isn't it great how many artists/bands have been coming to Manila lately?

We were already tired even if tt was still early since the concert lasted around an hour and 15 minutes "So I'm going home, I'm going home"...

...but wait! [To Be Continued]

What a night it was last night as me, Ada, John, Miko and Gretch spent it having free latte from Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Eastwood City followed by watching the Daughtry concert in their central plaza then me and John finished with Vietnamese coffee from Pho Hoa.



CBTL Free Latte Experience

We arrived at CBTL feeling really excited about getting something free. Even if I had one the previous night, I still wanted another one. When we reached the counter we inquired if they still had free tea latte, unfortunately they only had Tropical Passion Latte and the girl said that they didn't have any cover for the cups anymore if we were to take it out. Well, if you look at it, it was fortunate for the others since that was their favorite. I wanted the Chai Tea Latte and I was really craving for it but having something free that was supposedly good, who would complain right? I used the words supposedly good because I thought it would taste good but it didn't. Our tea was watered down, it really tasted like water with a little tea and a little vanilla powder. So we complained and ask for a replacement and they did replace it.

If you're giving out free drinks to promote your product or for whatever marketing purpose, your drinks should be at par with what the actual drink taste like. Instead of leaving a positive mark to your new customer, you'd actually even drive them away. It was a good thing we love CBTL and we know how their teas and coffees tasted or else it would really turn us off. Anyone who actually tasted the tea we had last night would definitely complain because of its watered down taste.

Another is that by the looks of it they weren't able to anticipate the number of people who would actually get the free tea latte. I guess their process control wasn't that strict since anyone could actually just print the stub even if they didn't go to their website. I raise this up because the other night the CBTL in Greenbelt ran our of tea lattes and the one last night ran out of cover for their cups. We could have had ours in a mug but we had to go to the concert and were afraid if we had it there we might not be able to catch the start.

I guess this will be a lesson for CBTL and for those who would want to do a promotion similar to theirs. Just give the same quality in your product even if it's free. Your purpose is for them to try the real thing and purchase it the next time and not to turn them away with bad tasting teas or whatever it is you're trying to promote. Also be strict with your process control so as not to let people just print your promo stubs out without letting them enter your site. I am guilty of this but I am just assuming that they made a mistake here since some branches say that you have to have a colored printed stub. That makes me believe that they're trying to control people from just photocopying the printout.

Well, that was a fun two days with CBTL despite what happened. It is still free and they changed our drinks when we asked them too so it was all good. I am still a loyal customer and I am thinking of going back there today...hmm...On with the the Daughtry concert first..[To Be Continued]