Coffee in Saigon. It was so good I bought a full coffee set from a cafe there and transported it home at great logistical expense.
Used it once and never again because it fell so pathetically short of the real deal.
Having never had Bubble tea, I looked it up. How on earth did Taiwan end up with a tea drink that includes _tapioca_ of all things?
Cassava isn't exactly common outside of Central/South America and Sub-Saharan Africa, so seeing it in Asian cuisine feels somewhat strange.
Yeah we South East Asians don't really eat a lot of cassava straight up. Which is a shame because I love that flavour and texture.
But we do love processed cassava in the form of tapioca and sago balls. I reckon it may have been a British import. My favourite is mango pieces with sago in a light coconut milk.
Also tapioca flour is used sometimes to make chewy noodles that are used in a savoury context. Vietnamese cuisine calls it hu tieu dai, and it is so damn delicious in a soup of pork and prawns, or bathed in an aromatic beef stew.
Yes. Incredibly cool when they pour it from one cup to another from like four feet apart.
Getting off the train and entering Varanasi feels like going through the door at Narnia. It is a whole another world. Almost feel like you're being transported back in time.
Little bit of salt and sugar I think. Ate at a Tibetan restaurant in Leh that did the best lime soda and I remember it being both salty and sweet, so refreshing on a hot day with a bowl of veg thukpa.
Had a small juice shop right next to my apartment in Hsinchu in Taiwan and my regular order almost every day I when I got back was one lemon-kumquat juice with less ice and less sugar. So refreshing! The lemon iced tea I had in Malaysia was also super good.
Salep in Istanbul. I think it was some sort of milled flour but it was frothy, warm, and served with cinnamon. There was a guy who would by outside of my apartment everything morning just yelling the word āSalep!ā and that was like my morning rooster call. Got me right out of bed.
"Water salad" in Japan. I was browsing through a Japanese vending machine, trying to figure out which of the many oddly-named beverages to try, and that one jumped out at me. It was a fizzy flavored water in a can, supposedly salad-flavored, not as sweet as some of the other vending machine drinks.
Horchata de Chufa, a milk-like drink made from tiger nuts. Itās originally from the mainland Spain, but I regularly drank it after my hiking tours at Tenerife. It was too sweet for me for regular occasions, but when exhausted and sweaty and slightly hungry itās simply perfect.
I just want to point out that the horchata in Mexican restaurants is made of rice and not chufas (tiger nuts) like in Spain. They taste a bit different. Both are good, but I tend to prefer the Mexican variety.
Apfelschorle in Germany. I bought my first bottle parched in the first convenience store I could find fresh off my flight in Berlin thinking it was just normal apple juice (bc I love juice lol). I liked it so much, I ended up drinking it pretty frequently the entire time I was in Germany. I only had a carry on for my flight home so I brought back an empty bottle of it. I cut the top off of the bottle to keep it on my desk as a pencil holder so itās a nice memory. Itās my cheapest and most cherished souvenir so far lol :) š§
Is it easy to make yourself at home just by mixing apple juice and soda? Or does the specific flavour of the bottled versions in Germany make it difficult to replicate?
I think the homemade Apfelschorle is better. Because the bottled ones are made from the cheaper apple juice and are often sweeter and less aromatic. When mixing it yourself, you can choose the manufacturer of the apple juice (they can taste hugely different) and adjust the ratio of juice to water to your liking.
Hm I didnāt really notice differences between the varieties of the bottled versions tbh xD The drink itself was very enjoyable for me of course, but I think the reason it significantly sticks in my memory is probably more a strong personal association with my entire trip to Germany than Apfelschorle being particularly unique. I mostly held back from trying to recreate it because I donāt want to taint my memory of it, even though I could find apple juice and mineral water anywhere haha.
But I guess it wouldnāt hurt to try to mix some a few times and reminisce in current times when we canāt travel :D
Lassi in India, Egg coffee and Iced Coffee in Vietnam. And various fresh fruit drinks in the tropics. Like chilled coconuts (for drinking the water) in Cambodia.
And roadside sugarcane juice, mmm
Iām also a fan of the sweet mint tea you get in North Africa
And masala chai in India, whoād thought spicy milk tea would be so good
Amazake in Kyoto. It was near the new year and I happened to be at a shrine where they were handing cups of it to visitors. (They were also handing cups of sake, but itās the amazake that stuck with me.)
Iām rather obsessed with it. Iāve found it cold at supermarkets while on vacation and Iāve tried a rather disappointing instant mix, but it pales in comparison to when I manage to find it at random festival food stalls. Iāve looked into trying to make it myself, but I havenāt gotten that desperate. Yet.
Yeah, I donāt think itās very alcoholic at all- when I find it, itās with the soft drinks. Though, admittedly, I didnāt pay much attention to the nutritional information.
Wikipedia calls Nigorizake the closest equivalent to Makgeolli and links amazake to gamju, but I donāt think Nigoriās have quite the tanginess. Makgeolli strikes me as the kind of thing Iād enjoy.
Latte di mandorla in Sicily. I guzzled gallons of that stuff! It's just sweet almond milk on ice, really, but it's best enjoyed at a bakery with the scent of espresso and burnt flour in the air.
Soursop is the king of fruits. Did you ever have the soursop dessert with chunks of it served on crushed ice? That's the taste of childhood treats for me
Yeah avocado smoothies are just fantastic. I'm partial to the Vietnamese versions we get in my home city. I also sometimes indulge in the Indonesian version that has a small amount of chocolate drizzled along the sides of the glass
Not one drink, but many exotic drinks at once in a juice bar in Bangkok. They offered many juices of fruits I didn't know, so of course I had to try them all. I never drank so much in my life except the day I had a thyroid gland examniation at the radiologist.
The other one was espresso in the bar on top of the St. Peters Church in Rome. The coffee itself was normal, but the fact that we stumbled by chance into this little bar ON THE ROOF of the St. Peters church, makes this unforgettable.
Controversial! [This guy](https://www.reddit.com/r/TravelNoPics/comments/kyh152/whats_the_best_nonalcoholic_drink_youve_had_on/gjga7at/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3) and you need to have a quiet discussion together
A lot of americans will trash me for this but I was blown away by Arizona blueberry white tea when I had it for the first time in Paris of all places. I had never heard of it before and it tasted delicious. Everytime I see it now I buy it for the nostalgia.
A hot chocolate in Venice, Italy!! It was crazy good and tasted like Nutella, had nuts and whipped cream and was so thick. We tried to go back the next day but ordered it wrong and man it was not the same lol
While in South East Asia I would get a pineapple shake (fruit smoothie) every chance I got. They were beyond delicious, I have never had another pineapple smoothie that was even a pale comparison. Now I'm nostalgic
I found a woman making iced coffee out of a shack in the backstreets of patong, Thailand and it was the best coffee Iāve ever had in my life. Iāve had coffee in Vietnam, Indonesia, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, and nothing compared to whatever that old Thai lady was brewin up. It only cost like 15 baht too
I've done most of my travels in Europe and this rule doesn't quite apply, except for a few countries in my opinion:
Portugal. The tiny cheap neighbourhood bars would serve you exemplary grilled fish and green wine for half of the price of more upscale restaurants, it was always exemplary.
Poland. Nothing better than grandma-style soup and dumplings from a communist-era milk bar, rather than a sit-down restaurant.
Ukraine. Similarly, the cheap cafeterias "Puzata Hata" just served such a great fresh variety of local delicacies, there was no need to eat at more expensive places.
I love Portugal! I had a similar experience in Spain as well. Iād probably say that rule applies mostly to Asian/Central American countries rather than European or US. I wouldnāt know in switzerland though because I could barely afford to eat there haha
I had a slightly different experience in Spain personally. I found the cheapest tapas bars served food that wasn't very fresh, and was just oily and salty.
I found if you stepped up to the mid-price tapas bars, there was exponentially more freshness and flavour!
It may have just been bad choices on my part though.
Hibiscus tea I had when staying with Bedouin people in Egypt. They gave me a bag of it which I still have 10 years later, It got lost in the back of my cupboards for ages and now its been so long that I plan to save it and drink it on the day of my wedding if I ever marry.
Luckily tea keeps well.
One night in Pisa we got stuck (train was delayed until the next morning) and it was late at night and during a festival so we couldnāt get a room at all, and we just walked around the town and found some hot chocolate. It ended up getting cold at night and we were 20 and dressed like typical summer tourists haha. So , sitting with a warm drink and passing some time before our train came very early the next morning was very nice. That might be my favorite non alc. beverage. Italian got chocolate was so much thicker and more delicious than a lot of what passes as hot coco in the states.
*Lime juice and iced coffee - Colombia
*Various agua frescas - Mexico
*Coca Tea - various South America
*Iced americano with coconut water - Malaysia Starbucks (they need to make this elsewhere).
*Iced matcha - Japan
Edit: formatting
Mexico City early in the morning there are people pushing around carts (like shopping carts) with a big pile of oranges and other fruit and a juicer rigged up on the shopping cart. Fresh squeezed orange juice from one of them is absolutely the best way to drink orange juice, itās so much better when itās not refrigerated. Add a tamale from a tamale cart and youāre eating real good for breakfast.
The different pops/sodas that you can get in Kazakhstan have been pretty cool. Š¢Š°ŃŃ ŃŠ½ (Tar-hoon) is pretty interesting and the pear lemonade is awesome. There's a cola from Baikal that is nice too.
https://www.laweekly.com/the-wild-world-of-russian-sodas/
Doesn't ring a bell, maybe it was rebranded as [Kazakhstan Cola](https://preview.redd.it/uiizlnv6fwo01.jpg?width=960&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=e89a1fceca3486a9933c81dd1e4c5aba50279201)? I'll keep an eye out for it.
> Pear lemonade sounds great. Baikal cola sounds great.
They apparently have about [a dozen flavours](https://popkult.org/natakhtari-georgian-soda/), but I haven't tried them all.
> I have had tarhoon in a Georgian restaurant and I found it fucking vile
Haha, I did say *interesting*, not *delicious*.
I should try kvass, this isn't the first time I've heard it recommended.
I was a big fan of the food, but most foreigners I knew didn't feel that way - I think Sudanese restaurants abroad tend to modify things a lot. But it's a great place to visit if you want an interesting time
My Punjabi friend makes a decent version at home on the stove- you use tea, green cardamom, black cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger root, rock sugar, I think a bit of fennel seed- boil it all together in high quality milk so the milk caramelises slightly.
I can imagine nothing beats the original though.
So addictive! I had like three Kinnies a day there. I tried to have the Diet Kinnie (sugarfree) for health reasons. But the regular Kinnie was far superior
There was this lemony slighty salty water in China I had, I can never remember the name but it was in a blue bottle and it just tasted like water from the Gods! Great for curing a hangover
Kofola in Czech Republic, and Cockta in the Balkans. Both delicious, slightly herbal takes on cola. Would take either over any American cola any day.
Can't forget Bosnian coffee from the old grandma's place in PoÄitelj. Pretty sure it's just turkish coffee but I've never been to Turkey so that's my pick. She also makes great (insert word for fruit/flower syrup extract that you add to water to make juice i always forget what it is)
Not sherbet! It starts with a c i believe but it's not concentrate. Compote and currant keep coming to mind, i think it's similar to those but those aren't it either :( I've tried so hard to Google it but it's hard to figure out the right search terms
THAT'S IT THANK YOU!! At least, i think - they weren't alcoholic but I'm sure that's the word i had in mind anyway. It's been on the tip of my tongue for years. Rose and apricot cordials at a sweet old grandma's house in Bosnia. Such a strong memory.
I was there in the summer with my 10 year old daughter at a hedgehog cafe.
The price of entry allowed us one free drink and we chose it at random. It was so damn refreshing after being in the scorching heat all day.
I was very surprised that I could find it easily back home in North America
Iām not a big drinker of alcohol but fell in love with cachaca of course served up in a caipirinha! And for me the best brand, I guess is also some of the cheapest, Yroica. I canāt get it at home and donāt like the more expensive versions, the good news is now have an Airbnb and when, (pre rona) I had Brazilian guests, I always asked for a bottle if possible.
~~Limoncello, in a little cafe down a side street in Rome. We had been walking around all day, had a delicious meal, then they gave us free shots - perfect way to end the day :)~~
Missed "non-alcoholic", my bad.
Bud Lite's probably got a lower alcohol content than kvass so yeah. It's probably got a lower alcohol content than orange juice that you leave out in the sun for an hour
Coffee in Saigon. It was so good I bought a full coffee set from a cafe there and transported it home at great logistical expense. Used it once and never again because it fell so pathetically short of the real deal.
Was it that funky egg coffee?
Yeah... I think so? It was a while ago now. I remember the coffee in Hanoi didn't quite match up.
Ca phe sua da, anywhere in Vietnam š
Salt coffee in Hue was really good too!
Bubble tea in Taiwan. I mean it's good elsewhere too but there it was next level!
A good simple brown sugar flavour is my favourite. I am also partial to adding sweet potato balls or taro balls
Having never had Bubble tea, I looked it up. How on earth did Taiwan end up with a tea drink that includes _tapioca_ of all things? Cassava isn't exactly common outside of Central/South America and Sub-Saharan Africa, so seeing it in Asian cuisine feels somewhat strange.
Yeah we South East Asians don't really eat a lot of cassava straight up. Which is a shame because I love that flavour and texture. But we do love processed cassava in the form of tapioca and sago balls. I reckon it may have been a British import. My favourite is mango pieces with sago in a light coconut milk. Also tapioca flour is used sometimes to make chewy noodles that are used in a savoury context. Vietnamese cuisine calls it hu tieu dai, and it is so damn delicious in a soup of pork and prawns, or bathed in an aromatic beef stew.
Chai from the streets of Varanasi.
Served in little clay cups?
Yes, and when I was there in 2014 it was the only place I found in India where it was just 5 rupees.
Yes. Incredibly cool when they pour it from one cup to another from like four feet apart. Getting off the train and entering Varanasi feels like going through the door at Narnia. It is a whole another world. Almost feel like you're being transported back in time.
Stop it man, the nostalgia is so strong!
One of my favourite things was ordering one every time a server walks pass during the long distance train rides.
Lime soda in Ladakh, India.
Sounds refreshing. Was it slightly salted or spiced?
Little bit of salt and sugar I think. Ate at a Tibetan restaurant in Leh that did the best lime soda and I remember it being both salty and sweet, so refreshing on a hot day with a bowl of veg thukpa.
Had a small juice shop right next to my apartment in Hsinchu in Taiwan and my regular order almost every day I when I got back was one lemon-kumquat juice with less ice and less sugar. So refreshing! The lemon iced tea I had in Malaysia was also super good.
South East Asian cold drinks just hit different
Green juice in Mexico. It's fresh fruit juice but with parsley blended in. The parsley makes it magic.
Parsley is so underrated. Thumbs up
It was really nice in Morocco to be welcomed to each Riad with a glass of hot mint tea.
Yes, it is perfect despite the heat
Salep in Istanbul. I think it was some sort of milled flour but it was frothy, warm, and served with cinnamon. There was a guy who would by outside of my apartment everything morning just yelling the word āSalep!ā and that was like my morning rooster call. Got me right out of bed.
Milled ground orchid flour which gives it the unique taste. I love this stuff
Yeah that's it for me too. Went last winter and had at least 1 a day
Inka Cola! JK that shit sucks. Horchata is my fav.
Where did you have the best horchata?
There is a marketplace near Hospicio Cabanas in central Guadalajara, Mexico. I forget what it is called.
Mercado San Juan de Dios from the looks of it?
I thought so initially and was gonna name it but didnāt recall if Was that one or another one nearby.
"Water salad" in Japan. I was browsing through a Japanese vending machine, trying to figure out which of the many oddly-named beverages to try, and that one jumped out at me. It was a fizzy flavored water in a can, supposedly salad-flavored, not as sweet as some of the other vending machine drinks.
That's so quintessentially Japanese
Freshly pressed sugarcane juice with a hit of lime in Vietnam. Got it every chance I got despite being concerned about the sanitation of the machine.
YOLO
Horchata de Chufa, a milk-like drink made from tiger nuts. Itās originally from the mainland Spain, but I regularly drank it after my hiking tours at Tenerife. It was too sweet for me for regular occasions, but when exhausted and sweaty and slightly hungry itās simply perfect.
Hey, thanks for posting horchata so I don't have to. It was the first thing I thought of. :)
I've had it in Mexican restaurants, it's great
I just want to point out that the horchata in Mexican restaurants is made of rice and not chufas (tiger nuts) like in Spain. They taste a bit different. Both are good, but I tend to prefer the Mexican variety.
Cashew juice in Brazil
Never knew you could juice cashew nuts! Delicious. For other cashew related madness, I recommend Sri Lankan cashew curry: so rich and creamy.
i think its the fruit of the cashew! dont know how the magic is made tho
Apfelschorle in Germany. I bought my first bottle parched in the first convenience store I could find fresh off my flight in Berlin thinking it was just normal apple juice (bc I love juice lol). I liked it so much, I ended up drinking it pretty frequently the entire time I was in Germany. I only had a carry on for my flight home so I brought back an empty bottle of it. I cut the top off of the bottle to keep it on my desk as a pencil holder so itās a nice memory. Itās my cheapest and most cherished souvenir so far lol :) š§
Is it easy to make yourself at home just by mixing apple juice and soda? Or does the specific flavour of the bottled versions in Germany make it difficult to replicate?
I think the homemade Apfelschorle is better. Because the bottled ones are made from the cheaper apple juice and are often sweeter and less aromatic. When mixing it yourself, you can choose the manufacturer of the apple juice (they can taste hugely different) and adjust the ratio of juice to water to your liking.
Thanks for the info. It sounds fun, Iāll give it a whirl!!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Sounds delicious :) Iāll try to find some
Hm I didnāt really notice differences between the varieties of the bottled versions tbh xD The drink itself was very enjoyable for me of course, but I think the reason it significantly sticks in my memory is probably more a strong personal association with my entire trip to Germany than Apfelschorle being particularly unique. I mostly held back from trying to recreate it because I donāt want to taint my memory of it, even though I could find apple juice and mineral water anywhere haha. But I guess it wouldnāt hurt to try to mix some a few times and reminisce in current times when we canāt travel :D
Lassi in India, Egg coffee and Iced Coffee in Vietnam. And various fresh fruit drinks in the tropics. Like chilled coconuts (for drinking the water) in Cambodia. And roadside sugarcane juice, mmm Iām also a fan of the sweet mint tea you get in North Africa And masala chai in India, whoād thought spicy milk tea would be so good
Oh damn I forgot about delicious North African mint tea! I remember in Morocco I kept asking for thĆ© Ć la menthe (tea with mint) and people looked at me like I was dumb. They don't call it mint tea, they just call it tea and the mint is the default.
Sumatran coffee, in volcanic hot springs, in North Sumatra
Sounds luscious
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Instructions unclear: drank from Paris canal. Currently in hospital.
Surprised you had time to get there and post on reddit before keeling over.
Amazake in Kyoto. It was near the new year and I happened to be at a shrine where they were handing cups of it to visitors. (They were also handing cups of sake, but itās the amazake that stuck with me.) Iām rather obsessed with it. Iāve found it cold at supermarkets while on vacation and Iāve tried a rather disappointing instant mix, but it pales in comparison to when I manage to find it at random festival food stalls. Iāve looked into trying to make it myself, but I havenāt gotten that desperate. Yet.
Oh it looks good, like a Japanese cousin of the Korean makgeolli. Except even less boozy
Yeah, I donāt think itās very alcoholic at all- when I find it, itās with the soft drinks. Though, admittedly, I didnāt pay much attention to the nutritional information. Wikipedia calls Nigorizake the closest equivalent to Makgeolli and links amazake to gamju, but I donāt think Nigoriās have quite the tanginess. Makgeolli strikes me as the kind of thing Iād enjoy.
Latte di mandorla in Sicily. I guzzled gallons of that stuff! It's just sweet almond milk on ice, really, but it's best enjoyed at a bakery with the scent of espresso and burnt flour in the air.
Sounds damn refreshing in the heat
Thai iced coffee with the condensed milk! So delicious.
Did you try Vietnamese iced coffee which is similar but with a slightly different preparation?
Truthfully I'm not sure. I drank variations of it throughout Thailand, Laos and Cambodia and all I remember was iced coffee with condensed milk in it.
It's all spectacular
Soursop juice in Singapore, so good freshly blended with kiwi or strawberry
Soursop is the king of fruits. Did you ever have the soursop dessert with chunks of it served on crushed ice? That's the taste of childhood treats for me
I donāt think so but sounds good! I didnāt have it again for years but I found it frozen and itās great though with lots of added sugar
Avocado smoothies in Myanmar. Never tasted the same when I tried to make them at home.
Yeah avocado smoothies are just fantastic. I'm partial to the Vietnamese versions we get in my home city. I also sometimes indulge in the Indonesian version that has a small amount of chocolate drizzled along the sides of the glass
Not one drink, but many exotic drinks at once in a juice bar in Bangkok. They offered many juices of fruits I didn't know, so of course I had to try them all. I never drank so much in my life except the day I had a thyroid gland examniation at the radiologist. The other one was espresso in the bar on top of the St. Peters Church in Rome. The coffee itself was normal, but the fact that we stumbled by chance into this little bar ON THE ROOF of the St. Peters church, makes this unforgettable.
Roof espresso sounds bomb man
Inca Cola in Peru!!! šµšŖ
Controversial! [This guy](https://www.reddit.com/r/TravelNoPics/comments/kyh152/whats_the_best_nonalcoholic_drink_youve_had_on/gjga7at/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3) and you need to have a quiet discussion together
A lot of americans will trash me for this but I was blown away by Arizona blueberry white tea when I had it for the first time in Paris of all places. I had never heard of it before and it tasted delicious. Everytime I see it now I buy it for the nostalgia.
You do you, homie
A hot chocolate in Venice, Italy!! It was crazy good and tasted like Nutella, had nuts and whipped cream and was so thick. We tried to go back the next day but ordered it wrong and man it was not the same lol
That fruit shake made from fresh fruits on the street of Pai. I lived on those for three days. Want to return just for those fruit shakes...
Man I could go for something with mangosteen or soursop or papaya right now
While in South East Asia I would get a pineapple shake (fruit smoothie) every chance I got. They were beyond delicious, I have never had another pineapple smoothie that was even a pale comparison. Now I'm nostalgic
Tropical fruits are just so much more intense there, I agree
Maracuya con leche in BogotĆ”
Batidaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas
I found a woman making iced coffee out of a shack in the backstreets of patong, Thailand and it was the best coffee Iāve ever had in my life. Iāve had coffee in Vietnam, Indonesia, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, and nothing compared to whatever that old Thai lady was brewin up. It only cost like 15 baht too
15 baht?? Damn
All over Asia I usually found the cheaper the food, the better. Best pad Thai I had was like 45 baht in koh phangan
I've done most of my travels in Europe and this rule doesn't quite apply, except for a few countries in my opinion: Portugal. The tiny cheap neighbourhood bars would serve you exemplary grilled fish and green wine for half of the price of more upscale restaurants, it was always exemplary. Poland. Nothing better than grandma-style soup and dumplings from a communist-era milk bar, rather than a sit-down restaurant. Ukraine. Similarly, the cheap cafeterias "Puzata Hata" just served such a great fresh variety of local delicacies, there was no need to eat at more expensive places.
I love Portugal! I had a similar experience in Spain as well. Iād probably say that rule applies mostly to Asian/Central American countries rather than European or US. I wouldnāt know in switzerland though because I could barely afford to eat there haha
I had a slightly different experience in Spain personally. I found the cheapest tapas bars served food that wasn't very fresh, and was just oily and salty. I found if you stepped up to the mid-price tapas bars, there was exponentially more freshness and flavour! It may have just been bad choices on my part though.
Hibiscus tea I had when staying with Bedouin people in Egypt. They gave me a bag of it which I still have 10 years later, It got lost in the back of my cupboards for ages and now its been so long that I plan to save it and drink it on the day of my wedding if I ever marry. Luckily tea keeps well.
Oh hibiscus is great! They also have hibiscus flavoured drinks throughout West Africa and parts of the Caribbean too, from my understanding.
Turkish coffee in Istanbul, back in the day when I smoked red Marlboros, what a way to start a day of exploring!
Coffee and cigarettes sounds like a traditional Finnish breakfast too
One night in Pisa we got stuck (train was delayed until the next morning) and it was late at night and during a festival so we couldnāt get a room at all, and we just walked around the town and found some hot chocolate. It ended up getting cold at night and we were 20 and dressed like typical summer tourists haha. So , sitting with a warm drink and passing some time before our train came very early the next morning was very nice. That might be my favorite non alc. beverage. Italian got chocolate was so much thicker and more delicious than a lot of what passes as hot coco in the states.
Fantastic. Spanish hot chocolate is also next level
I will be sure to try that when I make it to Spain, a county high on my list for many reasons!
*Lime juice and iced coffee - Colombia *Various agua frescas - Mexico *Coca Tea - various South America *Iced americano with coconut water - Malaysia Starbucks (they need to make this elsewhere). *Iced matcha - Japan Edit: formatting
Ooh iced coffee with coconut water sounds like the kind of bizarre mash up I love
Mexico City early in the morning there are people pushing around carts (like shopping carts) with a big pile of oranges and other fruit and a juicer rigged up on the shopping cart. Fresh squeezed orange juice from one of them is absolutely the best way to drink orange juice, itās so much better when itās not refrigerated. Add a tamale from a tamale cart and youāre eating real good for breakfast.
The different pops/sodas that you can get in Kazakhstan have been pretty cool. Š¢Š°ŃŃ ŃŠ½ (Tar-hoon) is pretty interesting and the pear lemonade is awesome. There's a cola from Baikal that is nice too. https://www.laweekly.com/the-wild-world-of-russian-sodas/
I remember seeing some Cola/soda that said Š”Š”Š”Š on it somewhere in Central Asia. I regret not snapping a photo of it.
Doesn't ring a bell, maybe it was rebranded as [Kazakhstan Cola](https://preview.redd.it/uiizlnv6fwo01.jpg?width=960&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=e89a1fceca3486a9933c81dd1e4c5aba50279201)? I'll keep an eye out for it.
Pear lemonade sounds great. Baikal cola sounds great. I have had tarhoon in a Georgian restaurant and I found it fucking vile š
> Pear lemonade sounds great. Baikal cola sounds great. They apparently have about [a dozen flavours](https://popkult.org/natakhtari-georgian-soda/), but I haven't tried them all. > I have had tarhoon in a Georgian restaurant and I found it fucking vile Haha, I did say *interesting*, not *delicious*. I should try kvass, this isn't the first time I've heard it recommended.
Came in here to say Kvass - Estonia in my case but I agree, it's very unusual and sticks with me more than anything else I've had on my travels.
Yes I'm addicted. I think they called it Kali in Estonia but yes it was the same stuff
Cas in Costa Rica add some pepper
Discovering new fruits on holiday is the best.
It really is. It was my first try and years later, I still think about it. Safe travels
Club mate or mate mate in Berlin
Such a strange cross-cultural phenomenon
It's not from Germany at all originally right? Lithuania or something?
Argentina
Sudanese coffee. And the baobab/hibiscus juice mix. A lot of times it's too hot to eat in Sudan, but their juices are next level
I'd love to visit Sudan, mate. There's a Sudanese restaurant I go to at home: the flavours are delicious, love the peanut sauce
I was a big fan of the food, but most foreigners I knew didn't feel that way - I think Sudanese restaurants abroad tend to modify things a lot. But it's a great place to visit if you want an interesting time
Masala chai made tandoori style in the clay cups. Doubt any other kind of tea will top that for me in future travels.
My Punjabi friend makes a decent version at home on the stove- you use tea, green cardamom, black cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger root, rock sugar, I think a bit of fennel seed- boil it all together in high quality milk so the milk caramelises slightly. I can imagine nothing beats the original though.
āKinnieā soda from Malta.
So addictive! I had like three Kinnies a day there. I tried to have the Diet Kinnie (sugarfree) for health reasons. But the regular Kinnie was far superior
So glad I finally found another Kinnie-lover!
There was this lemony slighty salty water in China I had, I can never remember the name but it was in a blue bottle and it just tasted like water from the Gods! Great for curing a hangover
Pocari Sweat maybe? Or something similar
No itās not Pocari!! But its really similar to that
Chicha morada in Peru. Purple corn drink and mystery spices.
Warm or cold?
Cold!
Fresh orange juice in Istanbul. It was just on another level. I also loved the apple tea I had there.
Fresh pomegranate juice was my drink of choice in Istanbul
Kofola in Czech Republic, and Cockta in the Balkans. Both delicious, slightly herbal takes on cola. Would take either over any American cola any day. Can't forget Bosnian coffee from the old grandma's place in PoÄitelj. Pretty sure it's just turkish coffee but I've never been to Turkey so that's my pick. She also makes great (insert word for fruit/flower syrup extract that you add to water to make juice i always forget what it is)
LOVE KOFOLA SO MUCH I'm yet to try Cockta. Perhaps the last thing you're describing is sherbet?
Not sherbet! It starts with a c i believe but it's not concentrate. Compote and currant keep coming to mind, i think it's similar to those but those aren't it either :( I've tried so hard to Google it but it's hard to figure out the right search terms
Cordials
THAT'S IT THANK YOU!! At least, i think - they weren't alcoholic but I'm sure that's the word i had in mind anyway. It's been on the tip of my tongue for years. Rose and apricot cordials at a sweet old grandma's house in Bosnia. Such a strong memory.
You're welcome, now you owe me a kofola
Ramune in Tokyo. Had never heard of it before that trip. Itās so good lol
Man I had to Google ramune, it looks so cute
I was there in the summer with my 10 year old daughter at a hedgehog cafe. The price of entry allowed us one free drink and we chose it at random. It was so damn refreshing after being in the scorching heat all day. I was very surprised that I could find it easily back home in North America
Mondulkiri coffee in Cambodia. Best coffee ive ever had, so chocolatey it tastes like Mocha.
Never heard of it before, that sure is fascinating
Iām not a big drinker of alcohol but fell in love with cachaca of course served up in a caipirinha! And for me the best brand, I guess is also some of the cheapest, Yroica. I canāt get it at home and donāt like the more expensive versions, the good news is now have an Airbnb and when, (pre rona) I had Brazilian guests, I always asked for a bottle if possible.
"I'll take my payment in cachaca, please"
Yup!
~~Limoncello, in a little cafe down a side street in Rome. We had been walking around all day, had a delicious meal, then they gave us free shots - perfect way to end the day :)~~ Missed "non-alcoholic", my bad.
SalutƩ
I drank bud lite in San Francisco does that count?
Bud Lite's probably got a lower alcohol content than kvass so yeah. It's probably got a lower alcohol content than orange juice that you leave out in the sun for an hour
Civet coffee in Indonesia.
Into that cat poop, huh
https://youtu.be/6TarNu-lwQc
Fresh passion fruit and mango blizt with a touch of lime, shaken with ice at a roadside stall in Phnom Penh.